{"id":110468,"date":"2024-02-01T15:08:38","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T15:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/?post_type=docs&p=110468"},"modified":"2024-11-23T13:28:38","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T13:28:38","password":"","slug":"hatha-in-the-system-of-yoga","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/ufy-books\/yoga-book\/hatha-in-the-system-of-yoga\/","title":{"rendered":"Hatha in the system of Yoga"},"content":{"rendered":"
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All the methods of Hatha Yoga are meant for gaining success in the Raja-Yoga.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00abHatha Yoga Pradipika<\/a>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\nPractically in every esoteric teaching there was a special system assigned to work with the physical body \u2014 one of the differences between esotericism and religion. Gymnastics of Hermes, wushu, styles of Qigong, whirling dervishes, Zikri, Zongshen \u2014 the gymnastics\u00b9<\/a> of Vietnamese monachs, breathing practices of Hesychasts and so on. Although the most developed and sophisticated, as well as probably the most ancient of them is Hatha yoga.<\/p>\n

What is the sense of work with the physical body within an esoteric tradition? Just to strengthen it in order to prepare for more difficult psychical exercises? Maybe, but then you don\u2019t need such refined exercises. The ordinary gymnastics, invented by Greeks (almost all nations had its analogues), perfectly strengthens our body. Healing the body? Indeed yoga has its therapeutic effect, but not as a chief aim. Already many centuries ago yoga was said to be for strong and healthy people. Not to mention that medical treatment (Tibetan medicine) gives outstanding results and demands from patient much less efforts. Maybe its objective is to attain extraordinary physical capacities: force, flexibility, stamina? Nonsense, of course, if you are not going to make a career as a circus acrobat… Then what is the sense of physical training within esoteric traditions? What is the most important for us, what is the sense of Hatha?<\/p>\n

To answer this question let\u2019s remember that yoga is a system, aimed at the conscious changing of a person, at the self-change, conscious restructuring of our psyche, of our subtle bodies. But human\u2019s psyche is difficult to study \u2014 to say nothing about our subtle bodies, even more difficult to work with, because a common person cannot see them. This is when we can use the connection between our physical body and our subtle bodies along with our psyche. Our physical body becomes a clue to all the processes that take place in our subtler bodies.<\/p>\n

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\nIndeed our physical body is the reflection of our subtle bodies. Whatever is below is similar to that which is above. But unlike subtle bodies, our physical body can be touched and seen. All processes happening in our subtle bodies are reflected in our physical body. So that all possible problems of our psyche, of our ether and astral bodies are reflected in the stature of our physical body in the form of physical constraints: contractions, curvatures of the spine \u2014 they show our state of chakral system and in the limit \u2014 our diseases\u00b2<\/a>.The contrary is also true: by influencing our body, we influence our psyche. That\u2019s what Hatha is about, that was its place and objective in the system of Yoga.Do the objectives of yoga change? I think we can definitely answer \u00abyes\u00bb. Psychologically a modern European is completely different from a Hindu. We are people \u00abliving by our head\u00bb, while Hindu were to greater extent sensitive, living mostly by their feelings and emotions. This makes our ways to the spiritual harmony different: for Hindu this way had to do with the \u00ablifting\u00bb the energy (here\u2019s where Kundalini comes from), while for us it is putting it down, developing our physical sensitivity.<\/p>\n

That is why using Indian practices automatically, without adapting them to our modern cultural and historic conditions is a false way, leading away from the harmony and turning yoga itself \u2014 an exceptionally rational and pragmatic system \u2014 into a religion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\nFootnotes:<\/p>\n

1. <\/span>I conventionally call it \u00abgymnastics\u00bb, for the lack of more appropriate term. In fact all the listed techniques are fund\u0430mentally differ (even in the way of looking) from what Greeks used to call \u00abgymnastics\u00bb. \u2191<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>2. <\/span>For more details and schemes of this correspond\u0435nce see my book \u00abPsychodiagnostics of Chakras\u00bb<\/a>\u00a0\u2191<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All the methods of Hatha Yoga are meant for gaining success in the Raja-Yoga. \u00abHatha Yoga Pradipika\u00bb Practically in every esoteric teaching there was a special system assigned to work with the physical body \u2014 one of the differences between esotericism and religion. Gymnastics of Hermes, wushu, styles of Qigong, whirling dervishes, Zikri, Zongshen \u2014… Continue reading Hatha in the system of Yoga<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[777],"doc_tag":[],"knowledge_base":[814],"class_list":["post-110468","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-preface","knowledge_base-yoga-book","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"year_month":"2026-05","word_count":628,"total_views":"46","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"name":"Kamertab","author_nicename":"kamertab","author_url":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/author\/kamertab\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Preface","term_url":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/ufy-books\/yoga-book\/preface\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"knowledge_base_info":[{"term_name":"Yoga: physiology, psychosomatics, bioenergetics","term_url":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/ufy-books\/yoga-book\/","term_slug":"yoga-book"}],"knowledge_base_slug":["yoga-book"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/110468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/110468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=110468"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=110468"},{"taxonomy":"knowledge_base","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.in.yoga\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/knowledge_base?post=110468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}