Download or read book Decolonizing Yoga from Critical to Cosmic Consciousness Feminist Informed Yoga and a Jain Way of Life written by Punam Mehta and published by Archway Publishing. This book was released on 2022-04-21 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written for diasporic South Asian women who have experienced microaggression or discrimination in modern yoga spaces in Canada or abroad. Punam Mehta, Ph.D. reveals how the yoga movement in Canada has been harmful to yoga's grounding in Jain history, to South Asian social and cultural development, and to Jain diasporic women born and raised in Canada. She argues that marginalized women could recenter themselves by practicing yoga to overcome discrimination based on their race, gender, sexuality, class, and/or abilities within the context of today's culture. The author seeks to answer questions such as: - What is the theoretical foundation of feminist-informed yoga in contemporary culture? - How can a feminist-informed yoga be applied as a healing approach to marginalized women? - How can contemporary yoga offer simple ways for marginalized women to feel good about themselves? The author highlights the removal of Canadian-born Jain mothers and more generally, South Asian mothers who face systemic racism in yoga studios. She also reveals how yoga, practiced in the Jain way of life, offers a holistic approach to well-being and spiritual health.
Download or read book Decolonizing Yoga from Critical to Cosmic Consciousness written by Punam Mehta Ph.D. and published by Archway Publishing. This book was released on 2022-04-21 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written for diasporic South Asian women who have experienced microaggression or discrimination in modern yoga spaces in Canada or abroad. Punam Mehta, Ph.D. reveals how the yoga movement in Canada has been harmful to yoga’s grounding in Jain history, to South Asian social and cultural development, and to Jain diasporic women born and raised in Canada. She argues that marginalized women could recenter themselves by practicing yoga to overcome discrimination based on their race, gender, sexuality, class, and/or abilities within the context of today’s culture. The author seeks to answer questions such as: • What is the theoretical foundation of feminist-informed yoga in contemporary culture? • How can a feminist-informed yoga be applied as a healing approach to marginalized women? • How can contemporary yoga offer simple ways for marginalized women to feel good about themselves? The author highlights the removal of Canadian-born Jain mothers and more generally, South Asian mothers who face systemic racism in yoga studios. She also reveals how yoga, practiced in the Jain way of life, offers a holistic approach to well-being and spiritual health.
Download or read book From Critical to Cosmic Consciousness written by Punam Mehta and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract Statement of the Problem: Yoga is a 27-billion-dollar industry in North American which is deeply rooted in capitalism, racism, and colonialism. The removal of spirituality from yoga in the Western world with the ascendency of the modern postural yoga movement in particular in Canada has been and continues to be harmful to yoga's grounding in Jain history, and more generally to South Asian social and cultural development, and in particular to Jain diasporic women born and raised in Canada, such as myself. I argue that marginalized mothers are a group of people that could be re-centered through a practice of yoga as they are broadly impacted negatively because of race, gender, sexuality, class, and/or abilities within a present-day culture. Theoretical Framework and Research Questions: Decolonization is presented as the theoretical framework used to examine yoga through the lenses of both feminism and culture. The research questions were: (1) What is the theoretical foundation of feminist-informed yoga in contemporary culture? (2) What are some of the ways in which a feminist-informed yoga can be applied as a healing approach to various populations of marginalized mothers in a mid-sized Canadian city? Methods: I use a research method known as autoethnography that recognizes the reciprocal relationship between theory and story. Data collection includes a lay summary, journaling, yoga and meditation, text spinning, and collaging. Data analysis focuses on making sense of the story, my writing, and included thematizing, daily writing, theorizing the story, considerations of the story and editing. Findings: For research question one; I developed a theoretical foundation of feminist-informed yoga as practiced by me in contemporary culture, which included the yoga traditions, cultural appropriation, spiritual materialism, and commodification as central to its theoretical foundation along with trauma and addictions For research question two, feminist-informed yoga as a healing tool includes centring marginalized mothers experience in their racial-ethnic struggles and recognizes the lack of cultural representations of South Asian women from yoga spaces in Canada. In addition, the yoga traditions, centering feminism, addressing cultural appropriation, the impact of trauma and addictions in healing for marginalized mothers offers healing. Discussion and conclusions: I provided an argument of the forces that have cut yoga from its roots in Canada. In particular, the removal of Canadian-born Jain mothers and more generally, South Asian mothers who face systemic racism in yoga studios. It is difficult to access this kind of yoga in a meaningful way in Canada given the last 100 years of colonial appropriation and commodification of the practice. Yoga, as practiced in the Jain way of life, offers a holistic approach to well-being and spiritual health, including connection to cosmic consciousness and intuitive knowing that can be traced back to the ancient Harappa Valley Civilization. Reconnection to the yoga traditions through ahimsa (nonviolence) along with the bringing together of nature including the souls of animals, plants, and rocks is central. Feminist-informed yoga benefits as practical measures can be implemented in community spaces to assist women in decolonizing their lives and encouraging more profound respect for a Jain way of life and for the South Asian women who follow it in Canada.
Download or read book Integrating Mindfulness into Anti Oppression Pedagogy written by Beth Berila and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-01 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing from mindfulness education and social justice teaching, this book explores an effective Anti-Oppression pedagogy for university and college classrooms. Authentic classroom discussions about oppression and diversity can be difficult; a mindful approach allows students to explore their experiences with compassion and to engage in critical inquiry to confront their deeply held beliefs and value systems. This engaging book is full of practical tips for deepening learning, addressing challenging situations, and providing mindfulness practices in anti-oppression classrooms. In this fully revised edition, Dr. Berila positions discussion in the current context and expands exploration of power and implicit bias, transformative learning, and trauma. Integrating Mindfulness into Anti-Oppression Pedagogy is for all higher education professionals interested in and teaching Social Justice pedagogy that empowers and engages students in the complex unlearning of oppression.
Download or read book Yoga Consciousness in Ancient Mystery Religions written by Tony Butcher and published by Janus Publishing Company Lim. This book was released on 2006 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yoga Consciousness in Ancient Mystery Religions provides a fascinating new perspective on some traditional fairy tales that we all thought we knew. We are taught from an early age that these stories can give us useful guidance for life, even if they seem obscure. Tony Butcher shows us how to unravel the meanings, drawing on the ancient teachings of the mystery schools and, in particular, the teaching of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The first section of the book takes us through the philosophy behind it all, originating in the writings of Thoth (also known as Hermes), upon which ancient Egyptian teaching was based. Transcendence, various states of consciousness and the Yoga Sutras all pave the way towards enlightenment and freedom from the bonds of the material, earthly world.
Download or read book Decolonizing Yoga in Academia written by Ragini Singh Sharma and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This inquiry explores the experiences of thirteen Canadian yoga-exemplars, ages 25-40, who use traditional Yoga knowledge and practices to handle lifes stresses and strains. The young adults describe Yoga as a holistic and spiritual practice as a way of life, a philosophy, and not merely a physical exercise. Their stories about how they cope with the challenges of life such as school, relationships or existential angst, demonstrate how Yoga has helped them effectively cope with stress. Their discussion of Yoga is important because of concerns that unmanaged stress leads to negative impacts, such as anxiety, depression and drug and alcohol abuse. Researchers have concluded that, due to the heterogeneity of Yoga, it is difficult to compare Yoga programs to know their quality or content. Also, these programs are usually limited to practice of asanas, or physical postures, along with some mindfulness. Yet, as the Patanjali Yoga Sutras explain, Yoga teaches the complete psychology of the mind and provides a holistic, spirituality-based, embodied and experiential approach to wellness and increased-self-awareness. Using the Art of Living programs as a case study, this inquiry provides an example of a program that teaches all eight limbs of Yoga which is a Yoga-based theoretical framework researchers can use to study programs that are based on Yoga. Purva paksh, or critical review, of western scholarship on Yoga has led Indigenous scholar-practitioners to conclude that Yoga has been, and continues to be, studied through colonial lenses. This study proposes and demonstrates how Yoga may be better understood and analysed using Yogas own theories and Sanskrit terminology. This study uses decolonizing methodologies to theorize Yoga as indigenous knowledge, similar to other indigenous knowledges of the world which are based on the oral tradition. Indigenous scholars have asserted that the authority to speak for or teach the knowledge belongs to its own knowledge keepers and scholars, and not to outsiders. The study further decolonizes western studies on Yoga to show that the significant contributions made by Yoga to western psychology, mind sciences, and philosophy remain mostly unacknowledged. A review of the many threats faced by Yoga from western Indology provides the backdrop to the yoga-exemplars' narratives.
Download or read book Yoga the Body and Embodied Social Change written by Beth Berila and published by . This book was released on 2018-09-15 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines yoga as a cultural phenomenon in the United States. The essays offer an intersectional feminist analysis of the ways in which racial, gender, sexual, economic, and dis/ability power dynamics impact access to the U.S. yoga sphere and consider both the limitations and possibilities of yoga for feminist social justice.
Download or read book An Exploration Of Jaina Sramana Yoga Sadhana written by Rashmi Kumari Jain and published by . This book was released on 2022-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces Yoga, its impact on Indian culture, the major Yogic systems and their distinct methods, origin and history of Yogic tradition of Jaina Śramaṇas along with the literary references. Evolution of life Life is a process constantly aspiring for evolution. The journey from the subtlest the form of an organism to a full-grown human being happens in an unconscious way. But, further evolution of a human being to the highest transcendental state can be transpired only consciously. It is because the structure of a human being, the utmost craft of biological efficiency is sculptured in such a way, where life bounces incessantly to grow towards a limitless possibility. This journey of boundless longing can be carried forward intentionally only. It is the profound instinct of human beings to go beyond that which restricts their ability, suspects their will power and restrains their liberty.
Download or read book The Synthesis of Yoga written by Aurobindo Ghose and published by . This book was released on 1950 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Peace Love Yoga written by Andrea Jain and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engaging with the growing popular and academic interest in the "spiritual but not religious," Andrea R. Jain explores the connections between the practices of global spirituality and aspects of neoliberal capitalism in Peace Love Yoga. "Personal growth," "self-care," and "transformation" areall tropes in the narrative of the spiritual identity Jain is concerned with. This "spirituality" is usually depicted as firmly countercultural: the term "alternative" (alternative health, alternative medicine, alternative spiritualities) is omnipresent. To the contrary, Jain argues, spiritualcommodities, entrepreneurs, and consumers are quite mainstream and sometimes even conservative and nationalistic. Ranging from the transnational to the economic to the activist, Jain refuses the single narrative focus of most works on the SBNR; human phenomena that can be analyzed through a singlelens or narrative are few and far between, and existing research in this area too often yields a suspiciously tidy story.The heart of the book includes sophisticated analyses of: two politically divergent but equally entrepreneurial and global-capitalist yoga gurus; "athleisure apparel" corporations, such as lululemon, that successfully market consumer goods as a purchased commitment to social justice; andtherapeutically-focused applications of spirituality that concentrate on healing the broken person rather than undermining the system that broke that person in the first place.Many spiritual commodities, corporations, and entrepreneurs, Jain suggests, do actually acknowledge the problems of neoliberal capitalism and in fact subvert them; but they subvert them through mere gestures. From provocative taglines printed across t-shirts or packaging to calls for "consciouscapitalism," commodification serves as a strategy through which subversion itself is colonized.
Download or read book T rtha kar sana written by Shantilal Dinesh Parakh and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jaina Yoga written by Robert Hamilton Blair Williams and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Womanist Idea written by Layli Maparyan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-03-22 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on the heels of The Womanist Reader, The Womanist Idea offers a comprehensive, systematic analysis of womanism, including a detailed discussion of the womanist worldview (cosmology, ontology, epistemology, logic, axiology, and methodology) and its implications for activism. From a womanist perspective, social and ecological change is necessarily undergirded by spirituality – as distinct from religion per se – which invokes a metaphysically informed approach to activism.
Download or read book Prophets Facing Backward written by Meera Nanda and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The leading voices in science studies have argued that modern science reflects dominant social interests of Western society. Following this logic, postmodern scholars have urged postcolonial societies to develop their own "alternative sciences" as a step towards "mental decolonization". These ideas have found a warm welcome among Hindu nationalists who came to power in India in the early 1990s. In this passionate and highly original study, Indian-born author Meera Nanda reveals how these well-meaning but ultimately misguided ideas are enabling Hindu ideologues to propagate religious myths in the guise of science and secularism. At the heart of Hindu supremacist ideology, Nanda argues, lies a postmodernist assumption: that each society has its own norms of reasonableness, logic, rules of evidence, and conception of truth, and that there is no non-arbitrary, culture-independent way to choose among these alternatives. What is being celebrated as "difference" by postmodernists, however, has more often than not been the source of mental bondage and authoritarianism in non-Western cultures. The "Vedic sciences" currently endorsed in Indian schools, colleges, and the mass media promotes the same elements of orthodox Hinduism that have for centuries deprived the vast majority of Indian people of their full humanity. By denouncing science and secularization, the left was unwittingly contributing to what Nanda calls "reactionary modernism." In contrast, Nanda points to the Dalit, or untouchable, movement as a true example of an "alternative science" that has embraced reason and modern science to challenge traditional notions of hierarchy.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion L Z written by David Adams Leeming and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-10-26 with total page 1023 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Integrating psychology and religion, this unique encyclopedia offers a rich contribution to the development of human self-understanding. It provides an intellectually rigorous collection of psychological interpretations of the stories, rituals, motifs, symbols, doctrines, dogmas, and experiences of the world’s religious traditions. Easy-to-read, the encyclopedia draws from forty different religions, including modern world religions and older religious movements. It is of particular interest to researchers and professionals in psychology and religion.
Download or read book A River Sutra written by Gita Mehta and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-02-23 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With imaginative lushness and narrative elan, Mehta provides a novel that combines Indian storytelling with thoroughly modern perceptions into the nature of love--love both carnal and sublime, treacherous and redeeming. "Conveys a world that is spiritual, foreign, and entirely accessible."--Vanity Fair. Reading tour.
Download or read book Introducing Intercultural Communication written by Shuang Liu and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2010-11-09 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Books on intercultural communication are rarely written with an intercultural readership in mind. In contrast, this multinational team of authors has put together an introduction to communicating across cultures that uses examples and case studies from around the world. The book further covers essential new topics, including international conflict, social networking, migration, and the effects technology and mass media play in the globalization of communication. Written to be accessible for international students too, this text situates communication theory in a truly global perspective. Each chapter brings to life the links between theory and practice and between the global and the local, introducing key theories and their practical applications. Along the way, you will be supported with first-rate learning resources, including: • theory corners with concise, boxed-out digests of key theoretical concepts • case illustrations putting the main points of each chapter into context • learning objectives, discussion questions, key terms and further reading framing each chapter and stimulating further discussion • a companion website containing resources for instructors, including multiple choice questions, presentation slides, exercises and activities, and teaching notes. This book will not merely guide you to success in your studies, but will teach you to become a more critical consumer of information and understand the influence of your own culture on how you view yourself and others.
