23 - Polarity Yoga for Health - Simple Stretches for All Ages
"The Infinite within is ever becoming."
The principle of Yoga is to join and balance the tattwas [tattvas], or elemental functions of the five elements, with the prana energy, the breath of life, which animates them. The "Ha" of the sun's vital radiation principle and the "Tha" of the moon substance are blended in the body functions for health of the body as is the case in all of Nature. (The Ha and Tha combine to form the word Hatha, so familiar to Westerners from Hatha Yoga postures.)
Any posture or stretch in a Yoga designed for health must meet the requirements of the constitution of man by balancing "the above" (the subtle causal patterns of mind and sound current energy) with "the below" (the gross elements of solids and liquids in the structural frame). "As above, so below" is also mentioned in the ancient Tablet of Hermes.[1] Tension fields in the five subtle elements of the body must be balanced in action and function, and united to the inner conscious center of "being". This is the object of Polarity Yoga for Health postures and practice.*
* The term "Polarity Yoga" and its principles and practices were published by Dr. Stone in 1970 in a small pamphlet titled Energy Tracing Notes, from which much of this chapter is excerpted. However, these ideas and the postures and exercises derived from these principles were simply a natural addition to and further development of Dr. Stone's Easy Stretching Postures. Dr. Stone personally explained and demonstrated Polarity Yoga with great enthusiasm in workshops in the early 1970s. And, although photos of Dr. Stone himself doing the exercises are available only for a few of the many variations he demonstrated in person, all of the exercises illustrated in this chapter are part of Polarity Yoga and/or the Easy Stretching Postures.
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1 The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus
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