Is the Body the Temple of the Soul?

• Druk: 2015
• Autor: Krzysztof T. Konecki
• Wydawca: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego

Hatha-yoga in Western culture is often perceived as the practice of physical exercises (practice of the asana position), usually done to improve one’s health and emotional state. Even if that is the case, it is still based on the rule of “the silencing of the modifications of the mind.” It is about a containment of mind dispersion in terms of non-important, minute, everyday issues, which are not important for the basis of our existence, balance and inner harmony, the unity of body and mind. Even if we train only for our health and for improvement of our physical fitness, then the end result, in the case of many physical and sports activities, is stopping mind movement. The full concentration on one action, on one point in space, might not have any metaphysical meaning for us, but it still remains full concentration. This can be achieved by patiently practicing hatha-yoga.

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• ISBN: 978-83-7969-819-6
• ISBN druku: 978-83-7969-820-2
• Liczba stron: 226

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Foreword (Michał Szczepanik)  8
Introduction  10

Chapter 1. Philosophy and hatha-yoga practice. Para-religious aspects of hatha-yoga  22
1.1. Introduction  22
1.2. Yoga – the perspectives of religious studies scholar and the perspective of yoga practitioner  23
1.3. Yoga and society – “religion of everyday life”  30
1.4. Conclusions  36

Chapter 2. The social world of yoga practice  40
2.1. What is the social world?  40
2.2. Hatha-yoga practitioners and their social world – arenas and legitimization  41
2.3. The intersection of the worlds  49
2.3.1.	Intersection of the world of yoga practice and the world of climbing  49
2.3.2.	Intersection of the world of conventional medicine and alternative medicine  49
2.3.3.	Intersection of the world of business corporations and the world of yoga practice  51
2.3.4.	Intersection of the world of yoga and pop-culture  54
2.4. A disagreement about hatha-yoga origin. The vision of Marc Singleton  55
2.5. Conclusions  68

Chapter 3. Commonsense definitions of yoga and its meaning for practitioners  70
3.1. Introduction  70
3.2. Individual interpretations of hatha-yoga  71
3.3. Conclusions  81

Chapter 4. The process of becoming a hatha-yoga practitioner  84
4.1. Introduction  84
4.2.	Introductory phase – construction of motives and first steps  86
4.2.1.  Constructing motives  86
4.2.2.  First steps – beginning of the practice  92
4.2.3. Noticing the effects  99
4.3.	The phase of fuller recognition of psychophysical effects, and ascribing appropriate meanings to them  106
4.4.	Phase of fuller recognition of the spiritual (para-religious) aspects of hatha-yoga  118
4.5. Conclusions  137

Chapter 5. Visual transmission of knowledge and the meaning of corporality and gestures in the social world of yoga practice  142
5.1. Introduction  142
5.2.	The method of studying corporality with the usage of visual techniques  148
5.3.	What do I see and feel when I practice? Analysis of the interviews data  151
5.3.1.	What do I see when somebody else practices? The analysis of films from the Internet used for interviews  153
5.3.2.	What do I feel when I practice? Analysis of the movie-elicited interviews  160
5.3.3.	Non-passable knowledge. Difficulties with verbal interpretations and description of asanas  160
5.3.4.  Body empathy based on visualization  163
5.4.	The role of the teacher and the correctness of asana performance  174
5.5. Conclusions  175

Chapter 6. Emotions and yoga practicing. Working on emotions and achieving “emotional culture” without emotions  178
6.1. Introduction  178
6.2. Working on emotions – explanations based on practitioners’ statements  184
6.3. Conclusions  191

Chapter 7. Teacher and guru in hatha-yoga practice  196
7.1. Introduction  196
7.2. Teacher-student interactions  198
7.3. Conclusions  208
Conclusions  210
Bibliography  218