What is yoga?

Is it really a basic stretching techinque or is it a system of thought?
What is this system of thought? Is it then eastern thoughts are to be abandon, and the western philosophy should rule and dominate the east?

Buddhism has kung fu
Japan zen buddhism has samurai
Christian has knights
Capitalist have guns and missles
What do philosophers have?
What do the kingdom of heaven have to defend itself?

I hope this question is not too hard.

to answer the first i think it is both.

the system of streching which provokes/encourages/ feeds the system of thoguh involved with yoga/transcendental meditation.

then again…

i cant touch my toes

Philosophers have wisom. And if that fails they can use wit and sarcasm.

I was expecting a dhalism picture. Now how can this yoga man spit out fire balls? and teleports himself?

Yoga, is a practice of achieving liberation, and breathing techniques. There is more to say, but I will keep silent for now.

There is a Dhalsim in all of us.

For example Yoga is a fairly pure method for what we could sum up as ‘meditation’ in a word.

The breathing techniques are meant as a focus point. You don’t have to be breathing ‘yoga-y’ to meditate. Some stare a flame… others just drop LSD and try and hold on.

The whole point is that if you can transcend the thought/action barrier into pure thought, then you get ‘pure’ action. That is, action of the spirit self, rather than a type of stimulus which you fool yourself into thinking is profound when really it’s just another menial… arm twitch, sneeze, typing of some random post.

Pure action, honed enough, can result in nearly any manifest as the pure spirit self extends throughout everything.

Yoga is primarily a Buddhist practice. It has been secularized (largely because in the areas where it is practiced, it is so assumed that everyone is Buddhist that there is no reason to make a fuss about it), but if you do a lot of Yoga, you’ll start getting into the ideology of it.

“Japan zen buddhism has samurai”

Incorrect. Aizu clan was first of the Samurai. Yoshimitsu no Minamoto was a physician and general scientist who developed the earliest form of Aikijujutsu from within that clan, using cadavers from battlefields as “test subjects”. The Aizu are also noteworthy for their system of kenjutsu, Ono ha Ito ryu, one of the few complete systems of swordsmanship.

P.S. Samurai were primarily Buddhist or Demaguchi kyu. Zen being a later development.

P.P.S. Taoism has used Kung Fu and Chi Gong for as long as Buddhism.

Yoga, to the outsider, will likely seem as just postures, stretches and breathing. This is the lowest level of yoga. Yoga, like many eastern forms, realises that for success, the entirety of the entity must be involved, and strenuous exercises are cleansing for the system. Liberating the internal system from toxins through exercise, corrected breathing, and proper diet, it is believed the thought processes of the entity can begin a fundamental corrective change.

You will be hard pressed to put enough information into an internets thread to show more than a waning glimpse of the yoga system. It is involved to say the least.

Dhalsim would be like the Mystics of the Northern Indian sects of Yoga (also shown as his paler skin which I could be reading far to much into LOL).

But much like some sects of Buddhism beings could perform great feats like slowing ones heart down to survive underwater and some others. (haven’t read far too greatly into these schools) But I know Zen has an act of zazen where one can meditate while walking or driving even etc. And I think that Zen took what the Yogi practiced and renamed it aka synchrinization (sp) that the Japanese and others are famous for.

mastrani

you are right. I was waiting for someone to correct me.