Yoga as Holistic Therapy

It has been seven weeks since I have joined a therapy program in South India at Atmavikasa yoga centre. This program is designed as an eight-weeks intensive yoga’s practice based on a therapeutic approach.

I have started to study and practice yoga almost five years ago, and since that time I have learnt a lot about self-practice, food, ayurvedic science, physical and mental health and so on. The practice of yoga has actually led me to a beautiful journey of self-healing.  

Nevertheless, during the last year and half I have changed drastically my daily practice, and I have also started to be less disciplined about my habits and lifestyle. Naturally my health (mainly mental) got worse, lack of concentration, lack of self-discipline, and as a consequences I have faced also some physical illnesses. Meanwhile I also have been asked to teach some yoga classes, and what I have found mainly was that people around me don’t have a very healthy body (and mind), and mainly they are also not really aware about how to heal this condition.

So, moved by these reasons, I have decided to join this therapeutic program, that actually it happened in a perfect time, exactly when I was facing lot of difficulties in controlling my mind and physical health till the point that I almost couldn’t even fullfill my daily responsabilities and work.

Then, what I have actually found here, is a very pure yoga’s practice, taught with the main aim to control directly the mind’s energy.

At this point I would like to quote few lines of the introduction of the book “Yantra Yoga”[1] written by Chogyal  Namkhai Norbu,  a Tibetan master living in Italy, because I think that here it is clearly explained the main subtle aim of yoga’s practice.

“The visualizations are always done in specific points because the prana or vital energy concentrates where we concentrate our mind. In the diverse cakras we concentrate on colored spheres that represent the energy of the five elements. At times the shapes and colors are visualized in different cakras, at other times only in the main cakra of the navel.

Meditation or contemplation means knowledge of the nature of the mind beyond dualism. This condition is symbolized by the central channel, while the right and left channels represent dualism and karmic breathing. We always live in time conditioned by dualistic vision, judgments,

thoughts and concepts. As the central channel symbolizes the nature of mind, the definitive aim of Yantra Yoga is to capture the karmic prana within the central channel. What does this mean? Breathing in a distracted manner through the solar and lunar channels is the way

we transmigrate. Through distraction all actions arise and karma is produced. That is why normal breathing is called karmic. When a living being is born, it already has its own character produced by a specific karma tied to the prana and the breath. If we want to become masters of ourselves and our minds without further distraction, first of all we should be able to control the karmic breath. The main method to do this is called “capturing the karmic prana in the central channel” through the practice of kumbhaka, which consists of inhaling the air through the two channels and forcing the prana energy into the central channel. In this way the air flowing in the two karmic channels is exhausted and integrated within the central channel.

The five kinds of prana practices explained in this book serve to enable one to realize and stabilize knowledge of the nature of mind by bringing the karmic breath into the central channel. A practitioner who abides continually in the state of contemplation no longer has problems

of unbalanced energy. Many people are unaware of the reason why such coordination is necessary because they believe that breathing is something natural. They say, “Why coordinate the breath when we have been breathing naturally since we were children?” However, in reality there is

no breathing that could be called natural. Our ordinary breathing tied to the prana energy is traditionally compared to a blind horse, while the mind is said to be like a lame horseman. Just as a blind horse cannot be independent but needs someone to lead it, energy needs to be guided by

the mind. There is no such thing as a breathing that is independent and unrelated to the mind and emotions. In conclusion, control of the prana is very important in order to approach knowledge of the nature of mind, our real potentiality. If we succeed in accessing this potentiality and mastering it, we are on the path and realization is possible. On the other hand, if we are ignorant of this

condition we remain slaves of our mind and cannot abide in our true nature. Thus it is important to coordinate body and energy, and it is for this reason that Vairocana transmitted the Yantra Yoga teaching in relation the characteristic principle of Dzogchen.”

Even though I am not practicing the yoga of the Tibetan tradition, I believe that it can be easily considered the equivalent of Hatha Yoga within the Buddhist tradition. I do believe that the approach and the way of practicing that I have been taught during these few weeks, would led a serious practitioner to higher level of consciousness (or realizations).

Nevertheless, in the beginning, it is obvious that the main level on which it is required to work on is the physical one.

This is the main reason why during this program, so much attention and restrictions were put on food and life-style’s pattern. Anyway, when we are still totally bounded in this relative (samsaric) conditions, we are totally dependent to food habits and physical health. So, it is very essential to improve these basic conditions, in order to be able to go further in any kind of spiritual practice.

During these past few weeks I have learnt and gained a lot. I actually found exactly what I needed. On my mental level I could say that I have gained a good amount of self-discipline and concentration, that probably has led me also to a better physical healthy condition. Without any or very very less distractions (I actually didn’t allow myself to go out for lunch or dinner even one time, neither to spend my free time in socializing or any other kind of distractions), I have been able to work properly on my mind's unbalances.

Moreover, what I have learned here, was not only related to a personal level, but I have also received many informations about how to use yoga as an holistic therapy, that in the future it would be wonderful to share with whoever would like to go through the path of self-healing.

Yes, because I do believe that the real healing is coming from inside, and not other healing would be possible other then a self-healing therapy. So, I think, that whatever conditions we might face in this life, whatever hard or painful it might be, it actually has to be taken as a wonderful opportunity to start a journey of self-discovering, that eventually it might leads to a pure state of freedom and ultimate bliss, not anymore dependent from deluded and bounded mental perceptions. Till then, in my opinion, a continuous aimless pure effort, would be very helpful in order to conduct a fruitful and satisfying human life.

As a conclusion, I would like to thank my both teachers during these past few weeks, for their efforts and work. If I should recommend a proper Hatha Yoga teachers and practioners that I have met till now after few years of research around India, I will for sure go for them, Acharya Venkatesh and Acharya Hema. 🙏

This paper embodies the research done by me as a part of Yoga Therapist training 2016 held by Atmavikasa center of yogic sciences, Mysore, India www.atmavikasayoga.in

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[1] Yantra Yoga is  a system practice that includes physical movements,

breathing exercises and methods of concentration. It can be considered

the equivalent of Hathayoga within the Buddhist tradition. While there

are numerous systems of Yantra or Trulkhor belonging to various

tantric cycles, the only system that is currently diffused in the West is the

Yantra presented in this book, which has been taught since the early

1970s by the master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu