The arms reach out but simultaneously stay connected into the shoulder sockets Yoga music balancing Muscular and Organic Energies. Lift your elbows up to shoulder height and keep a firm Yoga music hold on the belt as you widen your chest from inside. Repeat with the other arm on top. PARACHUTE PULL Purpose: To pull the trapezius muscles back and down, and to improve posture and reduce tension on the brachial plexus at the thoracic outlet. This pose creates a good Shoulder Loop. Contraindications: Voluntary shoulder subluxation, severe wrist arthritis, suprascapular nerve entrapment. Prop: A long belt. Avoiding pitfalls: Follow the directions carefully.
The disagreement within the Sramanic discourse – the various liberation schools
In summary, the three combined defining discourses of proto-yoga – (1) ascetic lifestyle, (2) meditation, (3) liberation of immovable self – can be found among the proto-Sramanas and the Kshatriyas. Here, especially among the proto-Sramanas, the three discourses interacted and mutually defined each other. Two of the discourses – asceticism and meditation – were in various degrees and shades also found among the Brahmins, but there it was initially related to the sacrifice. What was lacking among the Brahmins was the third and significant new discourse of liberation, expressed in the Axial Age doctrine of karma – the release (moksha) of the immoveable self’ (jiva, atman) from rebirth (samsara) through one’s own disciplinary efforts (yoga). The Brahmins – embodying the old – did not develop this kind of discourse. Their Archaic Vedic worldview was not easy to amalgamate with the new Axial Age signs and episteme . Accordingly the ascending Kshatriya sage delivered the karma doctrine to the Brahmins.
Among the Sramanas and Kshatriyas, there was no agreement on metaphysical issues, associated with ascetic-meditative practices. The Jains – guided by Archaic asceticism -maintained that by mortifying all external activity – the activities of body and mind – through austerities or ritual suicide, the immovable self would be liberated. Others, closely reflecting the new Axial Age wisdom discourse and episteme, claimed that by pondering and contemplating – that is, meditating – on the nature of the immovable self, the adept obtained insight into the soul and would become liberated.
