Modern yoga, usually associated with the practice of asanas, is commonly considered to be an almost universal technique which allows a practitioner to deal with painful problems of body and mind. For many, modern yoga became also a tool willingly used in self-creation as well as in creating new life styles, often including redefining values and life-goals. All the changes and desired corrections are performed on the body, through the body and by the means of the body. The manipulations, however, are not painless - on the contrary - are supposed to bring pain which is considered, at least by some of the contemporary yoga practitioners, as inherent and - what is particularly significant - very positive element of the yoga practice. Understanding and interpretation of the pain appearing during the practice of asanas reveals the attitude of the modern yogis towards their own body and allows to reconstruct their way of understanding the asana practice - how they define its functions and what are their expectations. The analysis has been based on the data collected during the participant observation carried out in various ashtanga yoga schools in Mysore, India (considered to be a “capital” of ashtanga yoga), interviews with ashtanga yoga practitioners as well as on personal experience with the ashtanga yoga method.
keywords in English:
asana, ashtanga yoga, body, pain, Jois, Glucklich
number of pulisher's sheets:
1,74
affiliation:
Wydział Filozoficzny : Katedra Porównawczych Studiów Cywilizacji