Yoga Teacher Training Forum

Namaskar,

Yogis generally come into the category of a person who thinks that the most appropriate method to attain optimum health is the system and science of yoga. Yoga is not only a series of physical postures or meditative practices. It is a lifestyle which can be lived by everyone, not necessarily those who are sannyasins, sadhus or renunciates.

It is a form of understanding, of realizing our interactions in life, trying to improve them, trying to understand the needs of the body, the needs of the mind and also the needs of the spirit. This is the concept of a yogic lifestyle: living according to the laws of the body and the laws of nature.

There are two paths in life: one is pravritti and the other is nivritti. Pravritti is generally defined as involvement with the world. Nivritti is defined as not being influenced or affected by the world, making an effort to understand, to realize the universal, the spiritual, the cosmic consciousness.

Pravritti and nivritti are different sides of the same coin. Just as the spider's web is sticky on one side and normal on the other, in the same way, pravritti is the sticky side of the spider's web and nivritti is the free side. No matter whom we are when we become involved with the world we undergo the same stresses and tensions.

We experience the world of object in its full glory in the form of pain and pleasure, satisfaction and dissatisfaction and it is the natural tendency of the mind to think about those things which it has experienced. Once this thinking pattern is established, it depends on the attitude and also on the intensity of self-awareness as to how one can extricate oneself from the cycle of continuous thoughts.

Peace,

Koyo