It is a cold, rainy morning in Cape Town and I am preparing to teach a Yoga class at the Melomed Tokai Hospital's Lifeskills Centre - and pondering this question at the Art of Living Claremont Centre where I enjoyed last night's Yoga class taught by Ayurvedic & Yoga Therapist Pramilla Vassen.
For me, Vitality means 'Prana' the Vedic word for 'vital life-force' which has has 5 sources:
[Sun]-Light
Sleep
Nutrition
Breathing
Meditative Knowledge | Contemplation of Reflective Truth
I understand Vitality as an outward expression of our lifeforce energy. For me, that state refers to a novel, inner directive energy known as creative intelligence or for some, consciousness. So off the top of my head ... I find myself asking:
How might Yoga be a form of innovation in modern healthcare, lifescience, wellness?
How might it be true that Yoga is an innovation? And for who is it not true?
If it is true for me that Yoga is an innovation, how do I absolutely know it to be true?
How do I react and what happens when I believe my own thoughts as the truth?
Who would I be without that thought ... without the knowledge of Yoga?
What do I know as a Yoga teacher about innovation and what dont I know?
How do I understand the construct of Vitality?
Why does the Roman Catholic Church not advocate Yoga?
Can an Ai Robot be a Yogi? Or an instructor of Yoga?
Can Yoga be practiced in space e.g. on the Moon?
These questions fuel my curiosity enough to switch over to the Google search engine for a cursory look at who else might be asking or interested in this line of questioning. There are some 3-million resulting connections [skewed by SEO capability] as we explore a C8 journey for yoga as a lifeskills innovation in modern psychiatry, psychology and occupational therapy.
The construct of Yoga was codified 2000 years ago by the Vedic scholar Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras - and is still used as the handbook for Yoga Teacher Training in the 21st Century.
Below, my Guru H.H. Sri Sri Ravishankar provides a short discourse on the Purpose of Yoga and some images of yoga postures as it relates to centredness, wisdom and the blossoming of human potential.
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