Suchergebnisse

This article draws connections between the complexities of modern postural yoga practices and global peacebuilding efforts, exploring both tensions and possibilities. First, the article engages key yogic texts--such as Patanjali's Yogasastra, which demonstrates how yoga is historically rooted in social justice work and peacebuilding--in order to link yoga philosophy and peacebuilding theories. This is followed by an analysis of contemporary practice-based examples, which consider the theoretical tools of elicitive peacework and transrational peace research. Through an exploration of yoga as elicitive peacebuilding and conflict transformation, this article considers if yoga has the potential to shift societal notions of peacebuilding and questions the implications of this for peace theory and practice.

Seit Ende der 60er Jahre läßt sich in Deutschland ein regelrechter Yoga-Boom beobachten, welcher bis heute anhält. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt, daß die deutsche Yoga-Rezeption nicht neueren Ursprungs ist, sondern daß Yoga bereits seit mehr als einhundert Jahren systematisch praktiziert wird. Dabei untersucht der Autor vor allem die Frage, wie der indische Yoga bei seiner Rezeption im Westen modifiziert wurde. Er kommt zu dem Ergebnis, daß sich besonders die Vermittlung des Yoga heute deutlich von den Anfängen der deutschen Yoga-Rezeption und von den indischen Ursprüngen unterscheidet. "Moderne deutsche Yogalehrer und -lehrerinnen sind nur selten religiöse Praktiker auf der Suche nach der letzten Wahrheit. Und heutige Yoga-Schüler wollen sich vor allem als emanzipierte 'Teilnehmer' verstanden wissen." Außerdem unterscheidet die signifikante Mehrheit der weiblichen Yoga-Rezipienten die deutsche Yoga-Szene sehr von der indischen. (psz)

In this article, we draw upon the work of leading new materialist Karen Barad to explore the possibilities for knowing women's yoga bodies differently. Engaging insights gathered from an embodied ethnography on contemporary Yoga in dialogue with Barad's concept of entanglement, we contemplate the complexity of a lived experience in a Yoga body. Engaging the voices and movement experiences of 19 committed women yoga practitioners, we explain 'Yogic union' as states of absorption facilitating an awareness of an existence that is complex, interconnected and involving both human and non-human materiality. Specifically, we work within and between the embodied experiences of the researcher and her participants, feminist new materialist theory, and creative writing to present Yoga bodies as phenomena that are always entangled.

Evidence is presented to highlight two aspects of blindness; namely, physical inactivity leading to poor physical fitness and the state of anxiety which accompanies unguided blind mobility. Evidence is further presented to show that physical fitness may be achieved painlessly by means of Hatha Yoga and that anxiety may be reduced and the lasting effects of anxiety moderated by the practice of meditation. It is the author's suggestion that, given these two findings, it would be appropriate to encourage blind people in Yogic practices. An attempt is made, on behalf of the blind population, to extract from the vast storehouse of Yogic knowledge those aspects which are likely to be beneficial; an unashamed application of pragmatic eclecticism.