peace.

According to Scotta, there are two different important perspectives on yoga.

Yoga was first practiced in the second century, as a long series of memorized poses.  Classical yogis saw their body and spirit as two separate and conflicting entities (platonism).  By punishing the body with difficult poses and harsh repetition, they were able to tame their physical matter and free the infinitely bigger reality of their spirit.  To do this, they also focused on meditation and concentration.

Classical yoga would still be the only kind of yoga practiced today, if the accepted philosophy of platonism had not been challenged*.  Some began to embrace both the body and the soul as two necessary parts of a whole.  Some took a pendulum swing from platonism into the extremity of calling everything in the universe one substance.  This view is often associated with hatha yoga; the tree, the rock, the dog, the human body, the human soul, all are made from one universal substance, with different densities.

In hatha yoga, by disciplining the body with physical poses, we are able to also discipline and free the spirit.  There is less focus on intense meditation, and more focus on the yoga poses, because the body is considered part of the whole, rather than a necessary evil.  For the first time, the mind is toned and freed in part through physically exercising the body.

I think of the Biblical verse that God made man in His Image (Gen. 1:27).  According to my understanding, the spirits of the animals aren't immortal, but mine is.  The earth will be destroyed and made new, but my soul will live forever.  This has me thinking that while I certainly have a body made from dust, I have a spirit made of something entirely different.  

What is most real?  My beautifully God-like, dusty, fallen human body?  My immortal, invisible soul?  C.S. Lewis said, "We must stop thinking of ourselves as a body that has a soul.  You are a soul that has a body."  What do you think?

*to go into platonism too much would be a huge tangent.  look it up on wikipedia.  not only does it heavily influence American cultural foundations, but it has been mixed with and confused for a doctrine of Christianity.  the more you learn about it, the more you may realize that you had accidentally believed parts of it, even though you disagree with the reasons.  just another victim of cultural brainwashing.