Yoga Meditation

Meditation-State Functional Connectivity (msFC): Strengthening of the Dorsal Attention Network and Beyond

by Jeffrey Greeson

published in 'Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine'

Presentacion_Medida_Actividad_Neuronal_en_la_meditacion_Sahaja_Madrid_Marzo_2012

by Sergio Elías Hernández

Perché guardare a Oriente? Termini Imerese 5-6 Maggio 2012

by Seminario Popolare sul Pensiero dell’Estremo Oriente. Perchè guardare a Oriente?

Seminario Popolare sul Pensiero dell'Estremo Oriente (4 Ed.). Perché guardare a Oriente?

by Pietro Piro

Programma delle giornate di studi: Perché guardare a Oriente? Termini Imerese 5-6 Maggio 2012.

Nella giornata di studi Perchè guardare a Oriente?  I ricercatori coinvolti,  a partire dalle proprie... more Nella giornata di studi Perchè guardare a Oriente?  I ricercatori coinvolti,  a partire dalle proprie competenze e dai propri interessi, cercheranno di chiarire, in modo semplice e “popolare” perché è necessario conoscere e approfondire un tema legato ad un aspetto del pensiero Orientale (musica, arte, filosofia, religione, cinema..etc). In questo modo, si cercherà di trovare ragioni vitali, e non esclusivamente accademiche o commerciali, per accostarsi all’Oriente. Il tentativo è quello di avvicinare quante più persone possibili ad una cultura che rimane, nonostante l’accelerazione dei ritmi globalizzanti, relegata in secondo piano e ristretta o al cerchio ristretto degli specialisti o esposta alla banalizzazione del pensiero unico. Si cercherà dunque, di offrire delle risposte che possano essere un vero punto d’inizio per chi, spesso carico di pregiudizi, si accosta per la prima volta ad un mondo così complesso e affascinante. La sfida non è semplice. Si cercherà di non esporre una teoria preconfezionata, quanto di cercare di aprirsi al dialogo interrogante e stabilire insieme ragioni superiori e condivise.

Americanasana (review essay on history of yoga in America)

by Jared Farmer

Special attention given to Mark Singleton's YOGA BODY, Stefanie Syman's THE SUBTLE BODY, and Robert Love's THE GREAT OOM.

The Impact of a Short-Term Iyengar Yoga Program on the Health and Well-Being of Physically Inactive Older Adults

by Lily O'Hara

Published in International Journal of Yoga Therapy

Background: With the current challenge of rapidly aging populations, practices such as yoga may help older adults stay... more Background: With the current challenge of rapidly aging populations, practices such as yoga may help older adults stay physically active, healthy, and fulfilled.

Methods: The impact of an 8-week Iyengar yoga program on the holistic health and well-being of physically inactive people aged 55 years and over was assessed. Thirty-eight older adults (mean age 73.21 ± 8.38 years; 19 intervention, 19 control) engaged in either twice-weekly yoga classes or continued their usual daily routines. Physical health measures were muscle strength, active range of motion, respiratory function (FEV1), resting blood pressure, and immune function (salivary IgA and lysozyme). Self-perceived general, physical, mental, spiritual, and social health and well-being were assessed with the Life’s Odyssey Questionnaire and the SF12v2™ Health Survey.

Results: Muscle strength, active range of motion, physical well-being, and aspects of mental well-being (emotional well-being and self-care) improved significantly in the yoga group (p < .05). Median changes in most of these variables were also significantly different from those in the control group.

Conclusions: Participation in Iyengar yoga programs by older people is beneficial for health and well-being, and greater availability of such programs could improve quality of life.

Mindfulness and Levels of Stress: A Comparison of Beginner and Advanced Hatha Yoga Practitioners

by Nicholas Brisbon

Meditation Jewish Style

by Dina Ripsman Eylon

Published in the Iranian Jewish Chronicle / Chashm Andaaz
March, 2005.

This short article gives some suggestions for meditation from a Jewish point of view. This short article gives some suggestions for meditation from a Jewish point of view.

"A 'Hermeneutic Objection': Language and the Inner View"

by Gregory Nixon

@ *Journal of Consciousness Studies* 6 (2-3), Feb/March 1999. 257-267. (Republished in SciRePrints: Science and Religion Dialogue Prints of University of Latvia, Sept/2010)

They said, 'You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are.'

The man replied, 'Things as... more They said, 'You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are.'

The man replied, 'Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar.'

[Wallace Stevens (1954), "The Man with the Blue Guitar"]

I: The View from 'Without' & 'Within'

In the worlds of philosophy, linguistics, and communications theory, a view has developed which understands conscious experience as experience which is 'reflected' back upon itself through language. This indicates that the consciousness we experience is possible only because we have culturally invented language and subsequently evolved to accommodate it. This accords with the conclusions of Daniel Dennett (1991), but the 'hermeneutic objection' would go further and deny that the objective sciences themselves have escaped the hermeneutic circle.

The consciousness we humans experience is developed only within the context of crossing the 'symbolic threshold' (Percy 1975; Deacon 1997) and one of the earliest and most important symbols we acquire is that of the self, or 'the subject of experience'. It is only when we achieve self-awareness that the world, as such, comes to exist for us as an object (which contains categories and sub-categories of objects). Any consciousness imputed to prelinguistic stages of development is based on projection and guesswork, since we can know nothing directly of it. It can be said that any experience which does not separate an inner subject from an outer world is probably a continuum of sensation in which environmental stimulus and instinctive response are experienced as a unity; it may be 'lived experience' but it is experience 'lived' non-consciously.