Purpose of Yoga Postures

Meditationtime Forum Post

Date:  Posted 5 years before Jun 02, 2017

MiBeloved 5 years ago

Asana postures, and even the dos and don’ts in yoga practice are altered and used in various ways as one advances.

A certain posture for instance which gives a certain benefit at a certain stage, would be used for another purpose at a more advanced level of practice. What one yogi gets from a posture may be completely different to what a student gets from the very same pose.

The motive for doing certain kriya also change as one advances. This is the liveliness of the kriya practice. I am doing poses which I began with some 40 years ago but getting completely different benefits from the said poses, and these benefits are not physical benefits like better digestion and better circulation. I am speaking of benefits in the subtle body.

In advanced yoga practice, health benefits in the material body become very insignificant considering that the physical body will only last for 115 years for the most. If you really are the physical body, then you may as well eat what you want and drink what you want and enjoy the body even if that enjoyment will accelerate its death. Really? What is 50 years in a body as compared to 100? We make a big deal out of physical health as if it means we will be here physically as this present body forever.

Better to focus on the subtle body, to get that in order. And if there is no subtle body? Well then why bother with any spiritual practice at all, may as well be a hedonist, eating, drinking, enjoying to the max, because it won’t make any difference after the material body comes to its end.