The word yoga itself is said to have seventeen meanings:
from Heaven Lies Within Us by Theos Bernard.
- Union, or methods of union.
- Any outside thing uniting any other outside thing.
- To mix one thing with another, as sugar with water.
- To unite cause with effect, as sparks with fire.
- The method of properly decorating, keeping things in their proper places.
- Some symbolised word which reveals an internal meaning, as a cable code, proverb, or aphorism; these are also called Yoga.
- To hide one thing and to try to show another, signifying a thing without telling about it, as a hint, or as a magician would do.
- Different significances of words, which vary according to different minds.
- Physical exercise.
- Proper composition of language to convey description.
- Any sort of skill or dexterity.
- Methods to protect what one possesses, materially, mentally and spiritually.
- To find means for acquiring things by deep contemplation, as the solution of a problem in mathematics or in engineering, or the unveiling of a plot as in a problem story.
- Conversion of one substance into another, such as the creation of something new out of a known substance, as in chemistry.
- To unite two souls for any purpose.
- To produce a current of thought for any specific attainment, to take any specific object or concept and make the mind follow it to the exclusion of all else.
- To suspend all metal activity, to concentrate the heart upon one particular thing.
The site is called Kaohsiung Yoga after the city of the same name in Taiwan where Donny has his studio.
I particularly like the four part post on Theos Bernard, who went to India and Tibet in the 30s and 40s in search of Yoga. His phd thesis was turned into a book and is still my favourite treatment of the Hatha yoga Pradipka in that it's Theos' experience of being taught HYP as a manual, no doubt it's original intention.
 |
| My own edition stumbled upon in a UK charity shop a few years back. |
Donny's four part Theos Bernard post is based on another work of Theos Bernard, pretty much an autobiography called Heaven lies within. Donny quotes extensively from the book in his posts.
More quotes from the book HERE
http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/theos_bernard_scholar.html
The above article is by Paul G. Hackett who wrote this biography of Theos Bernard which I still haven't gotten around to buying, although I did spend all afternoon reading part of it in a bookshop in Santa Monica while on Ramaswami's TT coulrse at LMU.
"There is a broader meaning to Yoga than is commonly supposed. Indeed, it will be found that most persons are practicing Yoga in one form or another at all times; strictly speaking, Yoga is nothing more nor less than the rules of life. Such rules, however, are practiced without system, without real direction, and it is the function of Yoga to provide this system, so that life may be conducted in the light of method instead of in the shadow of confusion. People who go to worship regularly in the churches are practicing Bhakti yoga, those who derive spiritual nourishment from music are practicing Mantra Yoga, those who seek joy and solace in mental activities are following the path of Jnana Yoga, and those who train the body for their happiness are in a mild way practicing Hatha Yoga." Theos Bernard - Heaven lies within us.