Jainism

Main article: Jain meditation

Mahavira, 24th Tirthankara
Jain meditation has been the central practice of spirituality in Jainism along w
ith the Three Jewels.[51] Meditation in Jainism aims at realizing the self, atta
in salvation, take the soul to complete freedom.[52] It aims to reach and to rem
ain in the pure state of soul which is believed to be pure conscious, beyond any
attachment or aversion. The practitioner strives to be just a knower-seer (Gyat
a-Drashta). Jain meditation can be broadly categorized to the auspicious Dharmya
Dhyana and Shukla Dhyana and inauspicious Artta and Raudra Dhyana.
Modern wellness
Apart from the spiritual goals, the physical postures of yoga are used to allevi
ate health problems, reduce stress and make the spine supple in contemporary tim
es. Yoga is also used as a complete exercise program and physical therapy routin
e.[53]
While the practice of yoga continues to rise in contemporary American culture, s
ufficient and adequate knowledge of the practice s origins does not. According to
Andrea R. Jain, Yoga is undoubtedly a Hindu movement for spiritual meditation, y
et is now being marketed as a supplement to a cardio routine. This scope dilutes
its Hindu identity. Contemporaries of the Hindu faith argue that the more popular
yoga gets, the less concerned people become about its origins in history. These
same contemporaries do state that while anyone can practice yoga, only those wh
o give Hinduism due credit for the practice will achieve the full benefit of the
custom.[54]
History
The origins of yoga are a matter of debate.[55] Suggested origins are the Indus
Valley Civilisation (2600-1900 BCE)[56] and pre-Vedic north-eastern India,[57] t
he Vedic civilisation (1500-500 BCE), and the sramana-movement (starting ca. 500
BCE).[58] According to Gavin Flood, continuities may exist between those variou
s traditions:[59]
[T]his dichotomization is too simplistic, for continuities can undoubtedly b
e found between renunciation and vedic Brahmanism, while elements from non-Brahm
anical, Sramana traditions also played an important part in the formation of the
renunciate ideal.[59][note 5]
Pre-philosophical speculations of yoga begin to emerge in the texts of c. 500 200
BCE. Between 200 BCE 500 CE philosophical schools of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainis
m were taking form and a coherent philosophical system of yoga began to emerge.[
61] The Middle Ages saw the development of many satellite traditions of yoga. Yo
ga came to the attention of an educated western public in the mid 19th century a
long with other topics of Indian philosophy.
Origins (before 500 BCE)
Pre-Vedic India
Yoga may have pre-Vedic elements.[56][57]
Indus Valley Civilisation (before 1900 BCE)
Some argue that yoga originates in the Indus Valley Civilization.[62] Marshall a
rgued in the 1920s that Several seals discovered at Indus Valley Civilization si
tes depict figures in positions resembling a common yoga or meditation pose.[63]
This interpretation is rejected by more recent interpretations.[64]
North-eastern India (before 500 BCE)
According to Zimmer, Yoga is part of the pre-Vedic heritage, which also includes
Jainism, Samkhya and Buddhism:[57]

[Jainism] does not derive from Brahman-Aryan sources, but reflects the cosmo
logy and anthropology of a much older pre-Aryan upper class of northeastern Indi
a - being rooted in the same subsoil of archaic metaphysical speculation as Yoga
, Sankhya, and Buddhism, the other non-Vedic Indian systems."[65][note 6]
Vedic civilisation (1500-500 BCE)
According to Crangle, Indian researchers have
, which attempts "to interpret the origin and
plative practices as a sequential growth from
t like traditional Hinduism regards the Vedas
knowledge.[69][note 8]

generally favoured a linear theory

early development of Indian contem
an Aryan genesis",[68][note 7] jus
to be the source of all spiritual

Ascetic practices, concentration and bodily postures used by Vedas priests to co

nduct Vedic ritual of fire sacrifice may have been precursors to yoga.[72][73]
Sramana movement (from 500 BCE)
According to Geoffrey Samuel
Our best evidence to date suggests that [yogic practice] developed in the sa
me ascetic circles as the early sramana movements (Buddhists, Jainas and Ajivika
s), probably in around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE.[8]
Vedic period (1500-500 BCE)
Textual references
According to White, the first use of the word "yoga" is in the Rig Veda, where i
t denotes a yoke, but also a war chariot.[74] Yoga is discussed quite frequently
in the Upanishads, many of which predate Patanjali's Sutras.[75] The actual ter
m "yoga" first occurs in the Katha Upanishad[76] and later in the Shvetasvatara
Upanishad.[77] White states:
The earliest extant systematic account of yoga and a bridge from the earlier
Vedic uses of the term is found in the Hindu Kathaka Upanisad(Ku), a scripture
dating from about the third century BCE[...] [I]t describes the hierarchy of min
d-body constituents the senses, mind, intellect, etc. that comprise the foundational
categories of Samkhya philosophy, whose metaphysical system grounds the yoga of
the YS, Bhg, and other texts and schools (Ku3.10 11; 6.7 8).[78]
According to David Frawley[unreliable source?], verses such as Rig Veda 5.81.1 w
hich reads,
Seers of the vast illumined seer yogically [yunjante] control their minds an
d their intelligence[79]
show that "at least the seed of the entire Yoga teaching is contained in this mo
st ancient Aryan text".[80]
An early reference to meditation is made in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the earlie
st Upanishad (c. 900 BCE).[note 9] In the Mahabharata yoga comes to mean "a divi
ne chariot, that carried him upward in a burst of light to and through the sun,
and on to the heaven of gods and heroes."[78]
Vedic ascetic practices
Ascetic practices (tapas),
ts to conduct yajna (Vedic
to yoga.[note 10] Vratya,
hasized on bodily postures
edic Samhitas also contain

concentration and bodily postures used by Vedic pries

ritual of fire sacrifice), might have been precursors
a group of ascetics mentioned in the Atharvaveda, emp
which probably evolved into yogic asanas.[72] Early V
references to other group ascetics such as, Munis, th

e Kesin, and
re mentioned
BCE) and the
esence of an

Vratyas.[83] Techniques for controlling breath and vital energies a

in the Brahmanas (ritualistic texts of the Vedic corpus, c. 1000 800
Atharvaveda.[72][84] Nasadiya Sukta of the Rig Veda suggests the pr
early contemplative tradition.[note 11]

The Vedic Samhitas contain references to ascetics, and ascetic practices known a
s (tapas) are referenced in the Brahma?as (900 BCE and 500 BCE), early commentar
ies on the Vedas.[87] The Rigveda, the earliest of the Hindu texts mentions the
practice.[88] Robert Schneider and Jeremy Fields write,
Yoga asanas were first prescribed by the ancient Vedic texts thousands of ye
ars ago and are said to directly enliven the body's inner intelligence.[89][unre
liable source?]
According to Feuerstein, breath control and curbing the mind was practiced since
the Vedic times.,[90] and yoga was fundamental to Vedic ritual, especially to c
hanting the sacred hymns[91]
Preclassical era (500-200 BCE)
Diffused pre-philosophical speculations of yoga begin to emerge in the texts of
c. 500 200 BCE such as the Buddhist Nikayas, the middle Upanishads, the Bhagavad G
ita and Mokshadharma of the Mahabharata. The terms samkhya and yoga in these tex
ts refer to spiritual methodologies rather than the philosophical systems which
developed centuries later.[92]
Early Buddhist texts
Werner notes that "only with Buddhism itself as expounded in the Pali Canon" do
we have the oldest preserved comprehensive yoga practice:
"But it is only with Buddhism itself as expounded in the Pali Canon that we
can speak about a systematic and comprehensive or even integral school of Yoga p
ractice, which is thus the first and oldest to have been preserved for us in its
entirety."[9]
Another yoga system that predated the Buddhist school is Jain yoga. But since Ja
in sources postdate Buddhist ones, it is difficult to distinguish between the na
ture of the early Jain school and elements derived from other schools.[9]
Most of the other contemporary yoga systems alluded in the Upanishads and some P
ali canons are lost to time.[93][94][note 12]
The early Buddhist texts describe meditative practices and states, some of which
the Buddha borrowed from the sramana tradition.[96][97] One key innovative teac
hing of the Buddha was that meditative absorption must be combined with liberati
ng cognition.[98] Meditative states alone are not an end, for according to the B
uddha, even the highest meditative state is not liberating. Instead of attaining
a complete cessation of thought, some sort of mental activity must take place:
a liberating cognition, based on the practice of mindful awareness.[99] The Budd
ha also departed from earlier yogic thought in discarding the early Brahminic no
tion of liberation at death.[100] While the Upanishads thought liberation to be
a realization at death of a nondual meditative state where the ontological duali
ty between subject and object was abolished, Buddha's theory of liberation depen
ded upon this duality because liberation to him was an insight into the subject'
s experience.[100]
The Pali canon contains three passages in which
e tongue against the palate for the purposes of
depending on the passage.[101] However there is
nserted into the nasopharynx as in true khecari
where pressure is put on the perineum with the

the Buddha describes pressing th

controlling hunger or the mind,
no mention of the tongue being i
mudra. The Buddha used a posture
heel, similar to even modern pos

tures used to stimulate Kundalini.[102]

Upanishads
Alexander Wynne, author of The Origin of Buddhist Meditation, observes that form
less meditation and elemental meditation might have originated in the Upanishadi
c tradition.[103] The earliest reference to meditation is in the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad, one of the oldest Upanishads.[83] Chandogya Upanishad describes the f
ive kinds of vital energies (prana). Concepts used later in many yoga traditions
such as internal sound and veins (nadis) are also described in the Upanishad.[7
2] Taittiriya Upanishad defines yoga as the mastery of body and senses.[104]
The term "yoga" first appears in the Hindu scripture Katha Upanishad (a primary
Upanishad c. 400 BCE) where it is defined as the steady control of the senses, w
hich along with cessation of mental activity, leads to the supreme state.[83][no
te 13] Katha Upanishad integrates the monism of early Upanishads with concepts o
f samkhya and yoga. It defines various levels of existence according to their pr
oximity to the innermost being Atman. Yoga is therefore seen as a process of int
eriorization or ascent of consciousness.[106][107] It is the earliest literary w
ork that highlights the fundamentals of yoga. Shvetashvatara Upanishad (c. 400-2
00 BCE) elaborates on the relationship between thought and breath, control of mi
nd, and the benefits of yoga.[107] Like the Katha Upanishad the transcendent Sel
f is seen as the goal of yoga. This text also recommends meditation on Om as a p
ath to liberation.[108] Maitrayaniya Upanishad (c. 300 BCE) formalizes the sixfo
ld form of yoga.[107] Physiological theories of later yoga make an appearance in
this text.[109][110]
While breath channels (na?is) of yogic practices had already been discussed in t
he classical Upanishads, it was not until the eighth-century Buddhist Hevajra Ta
ntra and Caryagiti, that hierarchies of chakras were introduced.[111][112] Furth
er systematization of yoga is continued in the Yoga Upanishads of the Atharvaved
a (viz., Sa??ilya, Pasupata, Mahavakya)