The Encyclopedia of World Religions

482 S yoga

the careful observance of the rules of propriety within the bounds of social relationship. Taoism is a softer, more passive tradition—yin. It empha sizes lack of deliberate intention and harmony with natural processes. Thus, the central Taoist text, the Tao te ching, advises: “Know the male, but keep to the way of the female” (1.28). yoga Literally, Sanskrit for yoke; by extension, any of a number of spiritual disciplines and reli gious paths in India, especially the “royal yoga” of Patanjali. In its broadest usage, the term “yoga” becomes virtually synonymous with religion. For example, the B HAGAVAD -G ITA uses yoga for several spiritual paths that are often said to define the options available to Hindus. It identifies jñana yoga, the yoga or path of insight, KARMA -yoga, the yoga or path of RITUAL and ethical action, and BHAKTI -yoga, the yoga or path of devoting oneself and one’s actions to a god. Usually, however, yoga refers to any number of different psychophysical exercises designed to achieve some ultimate end, such as liberation from continuous rebirth. Hatha-yoga is the yoga most commonly practiced outside of India. Its focus is on maintaining various physical postures, combined with breath control. Its goal is physical health and mental relaxation. Tantric yoga is a set of meditative practices characterized by a distinct set of ideas ( see T AN TRISM ). Practitioners of Tantric yoga conceive of the energy of the universe as a serpent resting at the base of the spine ( KUNDALINI ). Through their practices, the adept practitioners seek to awaken this energy and steer it through the six CAKRAS or regions through which the spine passes. Ultimately the aroused energy enters the cakra of the skull, and a blissful enlightenment ensues. Yoga was systematized as a philosophical school in the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali (probably second century C . E .). The practices with which Patanjali worked may be age-old. Engravings on seals found at sites of the Indus Valley civilization (fl. 2500–1500 B . C . E .) seem to show a figure sitting in a meditative posture ( see I NDUS V ALLEY RELIGION ).

yang referred to the weather. Yin was a cloud-cov ered sky; yang was a clear, sunlit sky. According to the developed yin/yang theory, the world results from the harmonious interaction of opposites. Neither opposite can exist by itself; for example, the word “black” would be meaning less without “white.” Moreover, neither opposite is ever encountered in pure form; and the oppo sites are constantly intermingling. A well-ordered world, as opposed to chaos, results when yin and yang intermingle harmoniously. An example would be the relationship between black and white in the words on this page. It is possible to see the opposition between yin and yang in a wide variety of contrasts: black and white, blue and orange, cold and hot, moist and dry, valley and mountain, earth and sky, female and male, even and odd, passive and active, recep tive and aggressive, soft and rigid. It would be wrong, however, to view good and EVIL as a simi lar opposition; both yin and yang are good. Evil results from a disruption in their harmony. As a way of ordering the world, the yin/yang theory is supplemented by the theory of the five elements ( wu hsing ): wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. For example, in classifying the cardinal directions east is associated with wood, south with fire, west with metal, north with water, and the center with earth. The five elements relate to each other in several ways. For example, they give rise to each other (for example, wood produces fire); they also overcome each other (for example, water overcomes fire). A common way to represent the yin/yang the ory is as a circle divided in half by an S-shaped line, one side dark, the other light, but with a disk of the opposite color in the thickest part of each half. The diagram represents the continuous inter penetration of yin and yang and their perpetual admixture. Yin and yang can also be seen underly ing many Chinese cultural products, such as paint ings and drawings, gardens, and literary works. China’s two major, indigenous religious tra ditions, C ONFUCIANISM and T AOISM , also reflect the interaction of yin and yang. Confucianism is a “rigid” and active tradition—yang. It emphasizes