Rishi Yoga: Movement Meditation Practices of the Himalayan Sages

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In this detailed guide, yoga and meditation teacher Pierre Bonnasse reveals the In this quers of the Rishi Yoga tradition, passed down through generations of yogis in the Himalayas. He shows how to integrate Rishi Yoga into daily life for discovering and recognizing the Universal Self, or Pure Awareness, and unveiling the peace and joy inherent in each of us.

The author begins by detailing the foundational practices of Rishi Yoga: easy physical movements, done slowly and with full awareness, combined with breathing exercises, sensory perception, and concentration. These moving-meditation exercises are physically simple and many can be performed seated, standing, or lying down, yet they work progressively to allow you to tune in to your energetic body centers and cultivate a natural and effortless sense of self-awareness in every situation and at every moment the hallmark of Rishi Yoga. The author explores how Rishi Yoga trains us to become receptive to all levels of being the physical body. emotional body, and subtle body-and enables access to tissue-level awareness and cellular memory. He also looks at this dynamic meditation's rapport with traditional forms of yoga, such as Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Hatha Yoga, and Yoga Nidra, and with the philosophy of nonduality, Advaita Vedanta, and modern methods of mindfulness.

Once the practice of Rishi Yoga has permeated all facets of your waking life, it brings the realization that true happiness or Enlightenment is neither a state nor an experience to attain or acquire, it is an ever-present reality to be recognized behind every thought, emotion, speech, and action-the "ultimate Bliss" described by the ancient Indian scriptures.

The Rishi Yoga Meditation is a practice comprised of easy physical poses and movements, aided by an appropriate inner attitude, and logically combined with breathing exercises, sensory listening, and concentration, allowing for the very nature of meditation and contemplation to reveal itself in a simple and natural way, at the heart of ordinary movements and actions of daily life.

Based on simple principles that are applicable by everyone, this ancestral practice, transmitted by Himalayan yogis, draws its strength from its simplicity and a variety of exercises, as well as from its inventiveness, and numerous possibilities of adaptation to a wide field of application. This is how, after having spent some time in the Himalayas, Alfonso Caycedo created "sophrology" and its twelve "dynamic relaxation techniques in the sixties. Even though sophrology has its own jargon, approach, and methodology, in its essence it is clearly and considerably inspired by ancient yoga practices, and most probably by this little-known practice that summarizes everything by refocusing on its main aim.

In Indian philosophy, regardless of the points of view, this aim has always been the recognition of the Divine, whose nature is described as "Being-Consciousness-Bliss." Being omnipresent, this nature is neither external nor internal, neither material nor spiritual, but it is present as the common essence of all phenomena and all beings. Multiple forms appear in the Oneness and dissolve in the Oneness itself.

In the same manner, if the essence of all phenomena is always Consciousness or Awareness, which this process invites us to probe so that it reveals itself, the practices attempting to access it are numerous, and can be adapted in an infinite number of ways. This is why the form and its adaptations proposed in this book, although transmitted in a traditional context, are just a suggestion among others, far from any kind of dogmatism or sectarianism; one can assimilate and adapt them according to one's understanding, needs, and objectives.

Here, conceiving and retaining a rigid method in an intellectual way for developing a new kind of therapy is not important. The main aim is to offer simple tools that promote the well-being of the body and the mind, and to especially allow one to open up to the essential dimension of one's being, beyond name and form, from which one can subsequently discern the numerous possibilities that can be freely explored.