Description
Throughout the ages humans have looked for ways to find peace within. To make sense of the turmoil and distress that we, as individuals suffer. The major religions of today and the history of philosophy attest to this search.
Yoga came out of the rich soil of Indian philosophical thought and enquiry. Indian society directed it efforts towards studying the world within each individual. It did not engage itself with material progress as a means to improve our wellbeing and there are many examples of deliberately shunning material wealth because it was seen to be a pool that could never be filled. To fulfill the desires was an endless quest.
Most of the schools of Indian thought of which there are six, (Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta) advocate a path of balance. Shunning the extremes of excess.
In the Yoga Sutras Patanjali gives the two general means of practice. In the opening chapter he indicates Abhyasa/Vairagya, (action and dispassion) for those who are supremely intense in their efforts and, in the second chapter he provides a second set of practices called Kriyayoga, (Tapas/Svadhyaya/Ishvara pranidhana), for those of more moderate means.
