What is Yoga?

 

 

Unfortunately most people, when hearing the word “yoga”, conjure for themselves imagery and concepts which, for the most part, do not reflect the actual meaning of Yoga.  Because of these ideas, it is said that the worst thing about Yoga is its name.

 

In short, Yoga at its core – what I’d like to call “real Yoga” - is simply the science of the self.

 

When hearing this, people are mostly at a loss, because immediately, there is a reference to their selves, and a strange little turn is made with the mind to try and grasp what this “thing” is that they call themselves.  But most of us don’t want to say it publicly.

 

Most people quickly dismiss any further investigation, and revert to the more established definitions they have of who they are.  I am so-and-so, I work here or there, I do this or that, and so on.  This is the “public you”.  This “public you definition" or concept, indeed a self-concept, is then settled upon as a reasonable and acceptable definition of who they are, and so most people are at rest with their self-concept for their entire lives. 

 

Those individuals who dig a little deeper and enter onto a path of questioning their self-definition quickly find themselves in a bit of deep water.  First, there seems a certain logical absurdity in you asking yourself “who am I?”, because the questioner and the question is seemingly the same thing – the seeker and the sought are one - and besides, who would not know who they are?  So much of this investigation is done a little more privately at first.  Secondly, if you still persist and start getting more serious about it all, you seem to find that the usual tools of investigation do not really help you much in this search, and so you are quickly a little stuck, and at some loss to find a way to get yourself unstuck, and it’s difficult to admit, to others, but even more so to yourself.  At this point some abandon the search completely lest they may doubt who they are, which seems totally absurd.

 

But life can be difficult, you know this for yourself, and even if not, one look at others will clearly show this.  And so you and many others get a trapped feeling from time to time, and look for a way out.  One way to do this is to dig a little deeper into life and life concepts, and perhaps even their definitions of ‘self’. 

 

That is what we will be doing here on this site.  A little bit of digging.  But how do you dig?  And where do you start?  What are the tools available to you?  And what are their natures and uses?  And which tool is good for doing what?  We will take a look at some of these things, because it can be confusing otherwise, as you know.

 

Even given the confusion, some people do make attempts to get to know themselves a little better - with whatever they have at hand, but it still does not seem to be a very successful process, because the troubles in life seem to continue unabatedly.  Also, it seems the intricacy of the dilemma of the self investigating the self, and simply life itself in its windings and its lack of meaning and its perceived quality deficiencies drive them further, or deeper, so to speak.  Besides, ultimately, who would not want to know what this thing is that you call ‘you’? 

 

So eventually, these persistent seekers of self come to, or are led to the domain of Yoga, or the “Science of the Self”, and this Science immediately makes a few very interesting suggestions to you.  Foremost of these is that you may not really be who you think you are.  Why am I saying such a thing?  Just to confuse you? Not at all.  Here, we will take a look and see.  Who are you?  What is this entity you call "I" or "me"?