The word YOGA comes from the root YUJ, which means to join together.
It can be said that yoga is the joining together of the individual lower self with the universal higher self, the invisible and indivisible spark of God that resides within every one.
Yoga is not a belief system and not a religion.
It is a practical method which allows you to tune into the higher wisdom of your inner self.
By realizing that our waking state of consciousness keeps us focused on the external world, we consciously employ yoga, the science of breath, and other consciousness training tools which are offered here in the Masterclasses by Ilona Selke, to move into the greater states of consciousness that are way beyond the logical mind.
Instead of trapping our attention in the world of opposites, the world only perceivable by the senses, we learn to raise our vibration and calm our mind in order to access the sublime divine states of consciousness that are available to every person.
By slowing down your breath, by slowing down your body movements, you will increasingly get in touch with your inner wisdom, and your intuition.
Typically we think of Yoga as YOGA POSES, called Asanas.
But exercising and stretching the body is just but one aspect of the path of yoga, the path of union of consciousness with the divine.
However, it is important to know that the Asanas, the YOGA POSTURES are only one of the eight limbs that make up the path of yoga.
Breath control is another aspect of the path of yoga, also called PRANAYAMA.
Yoga as a path has as its goal to withdraw the mind from the external world and place the attention fully onto the internal world.
In my expanded course called YOGA, BREATH and CHAKRAS, we practice some more techniques of utilizing breath in order to deepen your focus and to access higher states of consciousness.
Mindfulness for example is one of the tools to develop your ability to see beyond the curtain of matter.
The goal of yoga is Samadhi, which is that spiritual state when one's mind is so absorbed in whatever it is contemplating on, that the mind loses the sense of its own identity.
The thinker, the thought process and the thought fuse with the subject of thought. There is only oneness, samadhi.
When the essence is bonded into the physical form without the ability to distinguish itself from matter, it finds itself in bondage.
The path of yoga and the science of yoga is seeking to rise into the reality beyond that and realize the pure essence of consciousness, which exists as the primary cause of all.
Whatever your world view, you can do yoga for many reasons.
You may seek physical fitness, flexibility, and inner sense of calmness and nothing more.
You can practice Yoga just for that purpose.
For others it might be that you intuitively know that there is something operating within yourself that is the driver for all your feelings, thoughts.
You may intuitively feel that the ultimate secret of life can be found in the discovery of what consciousness is.
You may be sensing that consciousness, is the primary source and driver of all that is, and it needs to be discovered ever more.
It is my hope to offer you various tools in this Online Masterclass School by Ilona Selke to discover your true essence and become fully awakened in the seat of your soul.
Yours, Ilona Selke