Yoga, tantra and other forms of Asian meditation are practised in modernized forms throughout the world today, but most introductions to Hinduism or Buddhism tell only part of the story of how they developed. This book is an interpretation of the history of Indic religions up to around 1200 CE, with particular focus on the development of yogic and tantric traditions. It assesses how much we really know about this period, and asks what sense we can make of the evolution of yogic and tantric practices, which were to become such central and important features of the Indic religious scene. Its originality lies in seeking to understand these traditions in terms of the total social and religious context of South Asian society during this period, including the religious practices of the general population with their close engagement with family, gender, economic life and other pragmatic concerns.

The stories about how old yoga is as a practice, where it originated from and who it belongs to are as many as they are conflicting. Yoga practitioners often have to navigate through a jungle of information in order to seek answers to their questions. What exactly is the goal of yoga? Is it relevant for contemporary yoga practitioners to study the Yoga Sutra? What do the various Indian gods and goddesses really symbolise? And what do yogic and tantric traditions have in common? This book offers its readers a clear overview of the origin and historical development of yoga and tantra and an in-depth understanding of the various philosophical systems and concepts used under the name "yoga philosophy". The book also provides insight into how the classical literature often referenced in yoga can be understood contextually, i.e., how it relates to and reflects the time and place it originated in. As well as how yogic mythology and its many deities can be used to put words on an inner experience or shed light on aspects of ourselves. The book is a must-read for yoga teachers, curious practitioners, as well as knowledge seekers. About The Author: TOVA OLSSON is a yoga teacher, religious scholar and writer. She has been published in scientific journals and lectures internationally on the history, philosophy and mythology of yoga and tantra. She holds an MA in history of religions from Gothenburg University and is currently working on her PhD at Umeà University.

Millions of people practice some form of yoga, but they often do so without a clear understanding of its history, traditions, and purposes. This comprehensive bibliography, designed to assist researchers, practitioners, and general readers in navigating the extensive yoga literature, lists and comments upon English-language yoga texts published since 1981. It includes entries for more than 2,400 scholarly as well as popular works, manuals, original Sanskrit source text translations, conference proceedings, doctoral dissertations, and master's theses. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author for easy access, while thorough author, title, and subject indexes will help readers find books of interest.

The practice of Tantra Yoga is considered to be the highest and most rapid path to enlightenment. Master teacher Mukunda Stiles offers 18 lessons in Tantra Yoga, a practice of transformational self-healing in which we can deepen awareness of our bodies, their energy forces, and the connections to the natural world around you and those you love. While many movements today describe tantra as a sexual practice promising longer and better orgasms, increased stamina, and ecstasy, the real Tantra aims to awaken Kundalini, the dormant potential force in the human personality. The Tantra tradition includes a vast range of practical teachings leading to the expansion of human consciousness and the liberation of primal energy. By heightening their awareness to this connective energy, readers will learn to embrace and develop a higher level of intimacy, the heart of tantra. Stiles explains this intimate and life-changing practice with grace, structure, and clarity--an easy-to-follow Tantra Yoga workshop in book form. Tantra Yoga Secrets will empower readers to overcome emotions, gain new knowledge, and live a more fulfilling spiritual lifestyle.

The ever-increasing popularity of Yoga and related practices makes a desktop reference like this indispensible. With over twenty-five hundred entries and extensive illustrations, it combines comprehensiveness with accessibility. The book is arranged and written in a manner that will inform rather than overwhelm the lay reader, while at the same time offering valuable references for the professional researcher and the historian of religion. This new edition includes information about contemporary Yoga teachers. It also provides fuller descriptions and illustrations of Yoga poses, and features additional cross references.

This extraordinary book clearly outlines and discusses the methods for transforming both body and mind through the highest forms of tantric practice. Highest Yoga Tantra is the pinnacle of tantric systems found in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Part One discusses the practices common to sutra and tantra. Part Two presents the generation stage of Highest Yoga Tantra. Part Three covers the entirety of the completion stage yogas (i.e., physical isolation, verbal isolation, mental isolation, illusory body, clear light, and union). Part Four compares the Kalachakra and Guhyasamaja stages of completion. Remarkable for its definitive clarity, this exposition of the stages of Highest Yoga Tantra is the first of its kind in the English language and a must for anyone interested in these highest tantras.

Tantric Revisionings presents stimulating new perspectives on Hindu and Buddhist religion, particularly their Tantric versions, in India, Tibet or in modern Western societies. Geoffrey Samuel adopts an historically and textually informed anthropological approach, seeking to locate and understand religion in its social and cultural context. The question of the relation between 'popular' (folk, domestic, village, 'shamanic') religion and elite (literary, textual, monastic) religion forms a recurring theme through these studies. Six chapters have not been previously published; the previously published studies included are in publications which are difficult to locate outside major specialist libraries.

Clear, accessible, and meticulously annotated, Tracing the Path of Yoga offers a comprehensive survey of the history and philosophy of yoga that will be invaluable to both specialists and to nonspecialists seeking a deeper understanding of this fascinating subject. Stuart Ray Sarbacker argues that yoga can be understood first and foremost as a discipline of mind and body that is represented in its narrative and philosophical literature as resulting in both numinous and cessative accomplishments that correspond, respectively, to the attainment of this-worldly power and otherworldly liberation. Sarbacker demonstrates how the yogic quest for perfection as such is situated within the concrete realities of human life, intersecting with issues of politics, economics, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as reflecting larger Indic religious and philosophical ideals.

Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. Yoga gurus from India later introduced yoga to the west, following the success of Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world. Yoga in Indian traditions, however, is more than physical exercise; it has a meditative and spiritual core. 'Yoga Therapy' is wonderful book, indispensable for those who wish to know about 'Yoga Therapy' to help the humanity and to get dynamic health for one-self. Yoga helps to purify and control one's mind and body. Through Yoga Therapy, one can achieve good health, happiness and peace of mind without any side effects.

What would it be like to know that you are indeed immortal, that your physical body is but the outward form taken by your own eternal inner form or soul body? What would it be like to dissolve the bodily boundaries that seem to separate you from the souls of others, learning to feel your soul in their body and their soul in yours? What would it be like to see and feel your partner as the embodiment of a god or goddess, and to experience the bliss of 'soul body sex' - an intensely sensual intimacy and intercourse with their divine soul body? The New Yoga is a yoga of the soul body - that body with which we can intimately sense, feel and touch others - independently of physical contact. The New Yoga is also 'Tantra Reborn', giving rebirth to the tantric tradition known as Kashmir Shaivism through a wholly new understanding of its sexual symbolism and of 'tantric sex' - seen not merely as a heightening or spiritual elevation of bodily sex, but as an expression of the sublime sensuality and divine sexuality of the soul and its body. 'Tantra Reborn' explains in detail the anatomy, nature and powers of the soul body, its relation to gender and sexuality, to tantric initiation and to the traditional tantric symbolism of 'Shiva-Shakti' and 'Kundalini'. It also offers a practical guide to experiencing the bliss of soul body intercourse through new and original forms of tantric pair and partner meditation.