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The most popular form of yoga, Hatha emphasizes health and well-being through breathing exercises, special postures (called asanas), and concentration. Gorakhnath, a Hindu master yogi who lived about 1000 AD, created many of its primary breathing exercises and postures, including the famous lotus position. What most people simply refer to as "yoga" is, in fact, Hatha yoga. Yoga has proven a very effective way to blend exercise with relaxation techniques. Its popularity in the West
exploded during the late Sixties. Exercises and class techniques vary widely -- for some it's just a workout, and for others, well: "Normally the Hatha yogi with the calm mind focuses awareness at the ajna center half an inch above where the eyebrows join and directs awareness to move through that center into a super-conscious state. The individual life, the finite life, meets and fuses temporarily, at first, with the infinite life." So whether you're in the market for a healthy new exercise regimen or a temporarily fused infinite consciousness, Hatha yoga may be worth investigating.
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