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This study is a comparative analysis of the effects of intuitive eating and correlations with quality of life and wellbeing in Yoga practitioners, physical activity practitioners and sedentary individuals. The study involved 204 participants, comprising 66 Yoga practitioners, 74 physical activity practitioners and 64 sedentary individuals, between the ages of 20 and 59, who were resident in Brazil at the time of the study. Quantitative research was conducted through Facebook and the application questionnaires via Google Forms to measure intuitive eating, food consumption, quality of life, stress level, satisfaction with body image and level of mindfulness. The study found that while intuitive eating did not differ between Yoga practitioners and physical activity practitioners, both showed greater adoption of intuitive eating as compared to inactive individuals. Still, Yoga practitioners had better confidence in their physiological signs of hunger and satiety, as well as better eating behavior, quality of life, satisfaction with body image, healthy body weight, and stress-related emotional regulation, as compared to the other groups. In addition, there was a positive correlation between intuitive eating and quality of life, body esteem, mindfulness and eating behaviors that discouraged eating in response to external or psychological influences, and a negative correlation to stress and weight gain. This study finds that physical exercise, in particular the practice of Yoga, is linked to the promotion of better intuitive eating behavior as well as better quality of life and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yoga includes many components for a healthy lifestyle such as physical exercises, abstaining from tobacco, stress management and a low-fat diet. The aim of this study was to assess the nutrition of yoga practitioners and to compare it with international guidelines for a healthy diet. This study comprised 89 female yoga practitioners from Bulgaria. The nutrient intake was assessed by using a food frequency questionnaire based on the USDA National Nutrient Database. The relative intake of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, energy contribution of each nutrient, and the total daily energy intake and relative energy intake were calculated. The BMI of the yoga practitioners was near the lower normal limit (18.5 kg/m²). Only 3 practitioners were overweight. The yoga practitioners consumed small amounts of pork and beef and ~60% did not consume any meat at all. They consumed an average of 600 g of fruits and vegetables per day, which complies with the 400 g recommended by the WHO. Practising yoga helps to maintain normal weight which is one of the prerequisites for a healthy lifestyle. The nutritional assessment of the yoga participants corresponded with the recommendations of the WHO and the American Cancer Society Guidelines for a healthy diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the missionary work of Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), promised to advance the American way of life while re-affirming the traditional and authentic nature of his message. Drawing on Yogananda's writing and the SRF's in-house publication, this cultural history contextualizes Yogananda's career within processes of decolonization, America's deepening economic and political connections to the developing world, and consumerdriven shifts in the religious marketplace. Yogananda's message provided a means for managing difference while seeking to forge greater sentimental, cultural, and commercial connections between the United States and India. His career offers insights into how American "exceptionalism" met the challenges of global cultural exchange amid geopolitical imaginaries of the nation's burgeoning empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter Five of a book by Heather Salazar and Roderick Nicholls is presented which explores the philosophy of spirituality. Topics discussed include the interpretation of spiritual experience dependent on social and cultural contexts, Yogi's spirituality and ability to connect to one's true self through breathing techniques and meditation, and the spirituality of the Lakota.

Chapter Six of a book by Heather Salazar and Roderick Nicholls is presented which explores the philosophy of spirituality. Topics discussed include enlightenment and the liberation of the mind of Yogi through contemplation and meditation, the dependance of yogic philosophy on God, atheistic yogic enlightenment, and yoga in the 20th century.

This article focuses on some representations of Aurangzeb in the Nath Yogi lore; their ambivalence appears as a signifier of the complex relationships the Nath Yogis had with Islam. Aurangzeb figures both as a powerful enemy and as a clumsy devotee, he is depicted more as a symbol than as an historical individual character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper mainly addresses the following issues: how Buddhists deal with future existence, the difference between yogic perception and the cognition of ordinary people with regard to future entities, and how Buddhists resolve the contradiction between the theory of momentariness and that of action and its fruit. According to the Sarvāstivādins, a future entity exists in reality as long as there is cognition that has this entity as its object. According to the Sautrāntikas, however, that theory does not hold true. A future entity is just what will occur hereafter, and it is never the case that such an entity exists at present. Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla do not directly negate an opponent’s argument that the distinction between past and future entities is made by yogic perception, but implicitly accept it. They state that because a future entity is situated in a causal stream (saṃtāna), yogis can cognize it through purified worldly cognition (śuddhalaukikajñāna). As for an effect that will occur in the future, Buddhists do not seem to follow the model that one and the same agent of action will necessarily receive the fruit of past action, which is often seen in other schools such as the Naiyāyikas and Mīmāṃsakas. Rather, Buddhists adopt the theory of the uninterrupted succession of cause and effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thoreau was likely the first American to entertain seriously the possibility of identifying himself as a yogi. "Depend upon it that rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully," he wrote to his friend Harrison Blake in 1849: "To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogin." But what did he mean in saying so? Thoreau's understanding of the term yoga derived entirely from ancient Indian texts. In the 1840s, he read avidly and empathetically in key Indic works such as the Laws of Manu and the Bhagavad Gita. Drawing on Ralph Waldo Emerson's notion of "one mind" as a hermeneutical principle, Thoreau sought to overcome temporal and spatial distance in his reading and to integrate ideas and practices of these Hindu texts from ancient India selectively within his own life. Listening to the voices of Indic sages reinforced Thoreau's own inclinations toward austerity and equanimity. They gave him a foundation for his life experiments in voluntary simplification and yogic contemplation at Walden Pond. This essay, which is a contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium on xenophilia, traces Thoreau's engagement with ancient Indian works during the 1840s and contrasts his way of reading with those of other scholars during the period. The hermeneutic of "one mind" was the foundation of his xenophilic reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay uses the controversies surrounding the enigmatic Ismet Ali, a yogi working in Chicago and New York in the 1920s, to illuminate the complexities of how the performativity of religion and race are interrelated. I examine several moments in which Ali's “authenticity” as Indian is brought into doubt to open up larger questions regarding the global flows of colonial knowledge, racial tropes, and groups of people between India, the United States, and the Caribbean. I explore the ways in which, in the early twentieth-century United States, East Indian “authenticity” only became legible via identificatory practices that engaged with and adapted orientalized stereotypes. The practices of the yogi persona and its sartorial stylings meant to signify “East Indianness” in the United States, particularly the donning of a turban and beard, were one mode through which both South Asian and African Americans repurposed “Hindoo” stereotypes as models for self-formation. By taking on “Hindoo” identities, peoples of color could circumvent the U.S. black/white racial binary and the violence of Jim Crow. This act of racial passing was also an act of religious passing. However, the ways in which identities had to and could be performed changed with context as individuals moved across national and colonial boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper undertakes the problem of perceiving and feeling the body in the process of acquiring the identity of a hatha-yoga practitioner. The process of becoming a "yogi" is connected with the practice of the work on the body and defining these practices, specific perception of the body, and feeling the body. Becoming a hatha-yoga practitioner is a process. I describe phases of this process in the paper: 1) The initial phase--constructing motives and first steps; 2) The phase of a fuller recognition of psychophysical effects and ascribing to them appropriate meanings; 3) The phase of a fuller recognition of spiritual aspects of hatha-yoga (quasi-religion). The relations between the mind and the body get complicated at the moment of meaningful engagement in yoga practice and defining body practice as mental practice, as well as spiritual. The work on the body can change the "Western" perspective of defining the body as a material element of human existence (the Cartesian vision) to a vision of treating the body as a spiritualized substance (the vision of Eastern philosophy). Such a change is not always possible if we hold on to the guidelines of other religions as own (e.g., the Catholic religion). Changes in the body and psyche have to be in such a situation defined differently, and also there have to be certain language descriptions of these changes (often acquiring guidelines of set languages formulas) in order to combine the statements of conventional religion with a new spiritual experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author focuses on the social aspects of yogi Ngawang Tshering's childhood and examines two versions of his biographies in the Tibetan cultural context. Topics discussed include his birthplace in Ating, his reverence with the Buddhist philosophical concept at a young age, and the impact of his mother's death. Hatred toward his stepmother is thoroughly discussed.

The benefits of physical fitness are widely acknowledged and extend across many domains of wellness and health. Aim of this study was to investigate differences in physical fitness in healthy individuals, who regularly practice yoga and non-experienced participants. This study compared hundred and ten competitive yoga children with equal number, age, gender, weight-matched healthy yoga motivated children who were naive. Sample consists of 50 boys and 60 girls in each group. Anthropometric measurements, spinal flexibility, hand grip strength and ventilatory function were recorded. Independent-samples t-tests were performed to determine whether statistically significant between groups. Yoga practitioners scored significantly higher on all domains of Physical fitness except on Left handgrip strength when compared with non practitioners. This study has shown children who practice yoga has seem to have higher physical fitness than non practitioners. Hence we recommend that yoga be introduced at school level in order to improve physical fitness and ventilatory functions of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present a case study of Tibetan Buddhism as a lived religion embodied in the greater environment of a village in eastern Amdo, Tibet. Specifically, I explore the interconnectedness of place-based Buddhist practices that, I argue, present an example of care for sacred landscapes in Tibetan Buddhism. Based on my ethnographic work, I make a threefold argument. First, Buddhism in Tibet can be viewed as 'an emplaced religion' signifying the antecedent role of place in forging the complex intertwinement of the Earth and humans. Second, the sacredness in the local landscape entails a shared, hierarchical entwinement of place, humans, and gods. Third, the way the villagers, especially the lay tantric yogis, consecrate their environment expresses their connection and care for the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: The ancient Indian science of yoga is both an experiential science as well as a set of practices which are very suitable to be evaluated using conventional research methods. Despite the rapidly growing scientific literature on the effects of yoga and its applications, there has been no survey carried out to determine whether yoga practitioners are themselves aware of this research. Aims: The current study aimed at conducting a survey to document the beliefs about yoga as a science among its practitioners. Methods: The current survey was conducted chiefly on graduate students of Mumbai University as well as some of the staff. The study surveyed 972 respondents (with an average age of 26 years and a male-female ratio of 54.8:45.2), out of which 54.7 percent practiced yoga. Results: Among the yoga practitioners, 66.1 percent were aware of scientific research on yoga and 57.6 percent associated yoga with scientific research. Interestingly, 60.4 percent of yoga users were keen to have online yoga courses. Among those who did not practice yoga (45.3 percent), 45.0 percent had no intention of starting to practice yoga. Conclusion: The current survey, which is the first documentation of its type in India, showed interesting trends in beliefs about yoga as a scientific discipline among a predominantly young, educated, and urban Indian sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yoga is a word very commonly used in the world today and carries various connotations depending on its usage. It has been defined in various manners as an art and science, as well as the process of conscious evolution. All human beings can gain a lot from the bountiful dimensions of Yoga, which enables them to manifest their inherent divinity, the universal potentiality that lies dormant unless channelized. "All souls are potentially divine," said Swami Vivekananda and, indeed, they are. This article aims to elucidate the diverse dimensions of Yoga that include the dimensions related to Indian culture as well as those associated with health, therapy, society, education, and research. Various physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits attainable through Yoga are explained in detail, highlighting the multiple sub-dimensions of these major fields. Yoga, which emphasizes the universal, is a perfect foil to those human activities which glorify the personal. In short, it may be safely said that the practice of Yoga as a unified whole helps the individual shift from an "I"-centric approach to a "we"-centric approach. The beauty of Yoga is that these abstract principles become concrete by the daily practice of the techniques available in the integrated system. Once the "seed of Yoga" finds fertile soil, these concepts grow naturally, slowly but surely taking root in all aspects of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the story of Krishna’s doom as told in the little-studied Sufi work Kanhāvat ‘The story of Krishna’ (1540), which is attributed to the Avadhi Sufi author Malik Muhammad Jāyasī. The work itself is interesting to study how the Krishna story is retold, supposedly for Sufi purposes. The two final sections, two interrelated stories, give an intriguing take on the end of the Krishna. The first presents a contest of power between the Krishna and the legendary founder of the Nātha yogis, Gorakhnāth, the second a burlesque confrontation of Krishna with a false yogi, which leads to the apocalyptic ending where Krishna’s whole tribe is wiped out and he dies by the hand of a low-caste hunter. Commonplace scholarly understanding rates this work as ‘syncretistic’. I seek to question whether that is warranted. I analyse how the author reworks these stories. Is he using what we now understand to be ‘Hindu’ elements (Nātha yogic and Krishna devotional) for Sufi propaganda purposes? I will argue that his telling of both stories is intended to be satirical and will question in how far this can be a seen as a Sufi’s sympathetic understanding of the ‘Hindu’ material. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines how Catholic yoga practitioners in Buenos Aires, Argentina view yoga practice. The relationship between Catholism and yoga is explained. The concepts of impurity and purity in yoga philosophy and its association with the Catholic concepts of sin, charity and human completion, among others, is also explained. An overview of the literature of bodily research on the social sciences is provided. Also tackled is how yoga allows practitioners to experience their own embodiment.

The article focuses on experiments which involved Shri Ramanand Yogi of Andhra, India staying in an air-tight sealed box aimed at determining his metabolic pattern. The researchers calculated his oxygen consumption under basal conditions. The results were compared to studies of two normal persons subjected to similar conditions.

The longest-lived people seem to be yogis and sages. No census of the group exists, but anecdotal evidence indicates it is so, and it points to their extended lifespan with good health as resulting from a lifestyle drawn from their sacred traditions. Anecdotes from various traditions are given to illustrate the thesis; some of the people are said to be hundreds of years old. The term "transpersonal physiol-ogy" is proposed for the formal study of this aspect of gerontology. INSET: Spirits' Limited Knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the late nineteenth century, a text alleged to be the translation of an ancient Buddhist manuscript referring to an “unknown life of Jesus” in India created a heated controversy that continues to this day. This legend is generally ignored by biblical scholars, yet the socio-cultural circumstances that led to the developments of the legend and the rhetorical strategies employed by its proponents provide us with an opportunity to analyze the intersections of various interests and problematics in the field of religion and to re-examine fundamental tenets and presuppositions in the study of Christian origins. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Yoginirnayaprakarana of Jñānaśrīmitra (ca. 970-1040) is considered unique among Buddhist śāstras in dealing exclusively with yogipratyaksa, the cognition of yogis. This paper examines the section of this text, which explains this cognition in the light of the Buddhist doctrine of momentariness (ksanikatva). It consists of a Sanskrit critical edition and English translation, as well as a detailed annotation added to the translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the missionaries of the Society of Jesus in the 16th century and their interaction with Indian mendicants and the phenomenon of asceticism and renunciation in India.Topics discussed include relationships between the ancient traditions of India and the Jesuit missionary teachings, which resulted to ambivalent and contradictory attitudes, the relationship between Indian forms of asceticism and withdrawal from the world and those of the Jesuit tradition, and the role of yogis in Indian tradition.

Biofeedback has its beginnings in research conducted on yogis and Zen masters decades ago. Research shows the pervasive positive impact that meditative and mindfulness practices have on individuals. Mindfulness-based practices have been taken out of their broader contexts--extracted from deeper systems of yogic and Buddhist disciplines. Clinicians need to be aware of the unintended consequences of divorcing these practices from their original systems. Biofeedback, meditation, and mindfulness training share important techniques for effecting positive changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]