yoga

yoga (Skt., yoking, joining). Any form of spiritual discipline aimed at gaining control over the mind with the ultimate aim of attaining liberation from rebirth. Yogic practices such as bodily postures and breath control are common to many Indian religions, although such practices were only termed ‘yoga’ a little before the time of the Buddha. The Buddha used such techniques primarily as aids to meditation, whereas other teachers emphasized the physical exercises and bodily postures that became known as Haṭha yoga. The process of systematization of these techniques was carried out by the Yoga school, one of the six systems (darśana) of Indian philosophy, and its teachings are codified in the Yoga Sūtra (2nd–3rd century ce) of Patañjali. According to this text, the goal of yoga is ‘the cessation of mental fluctuation’ (cittavṛtti nirodha), and the practical methods it uses to attain this are very similar to early Buddhist techniques of meditation based on breath control.