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Willer & ennis western mindfulness, meditation and yoga
The majority of the West has the notion that
        Buddhism is not a traditional religion. From media
         analysis, this can be seen in the way Westerners
          incorporate mindfulness, meditation, and yoga
practices into their lives and how they are talked about. In
  the West, the focus of these practices are their health
           benefits while in the East they are an
            important part of religious tradition.
            The reasons behind the practices are
        very different and the West has detached
         itself from the practices’ historical roots.
The West
People in the west are obsessed with health. In
           Western society the focus of
 mindfulness, meditation and yoga practices is
   fitness and well-being. These practices are
  only important for the physical and mental
            advantages they provide.
The West: Physical Benefits
    “Yoga has been practiced for more than 5,000 years, and
   currently, close to 11 million Americans are enjoying its health
                               benefits.”

• This statistic was found on a popular health website, WebMD. Several of
  the health benefits that this article argues that one will receive are:
  decreasing stiffness, tension, pain, and fatigue in the muscles; increasing
  range of motion in the joints; stretching the soft tissues of the body;
  building strength and endurance of the muscles; and improving posture.

• This article really wants to persuade their readers how much physical
  benefit can come from yoga. It says, “In one study, participants had up to
  35% improvement in flexibility after only eight weeks of yoga.”



                      http://www.webmd.com/balance/the-health-benefits-of-yoga
The West: Physical Benefits
Another article, from YogaMax, claims, “Yoga teaches us to
    take slower and deeper breaths to improve the function
    of our lungs by increasing the amount of
oxygen to the body. It helps in bringing mobility,
 flexibility and reduces aches and pains. All our
muscles, ligaments, tendons are strengthened.
It can also help in controlling the weight of our
body. Yoga improves the circulation of our body. It aids in
    lowering heart rate.”

                http://www.yogamax.net/what-is-true-indian-yoga.html
The West: Physical Benefits
•     Furthermore, in a blog from the Huffington Post, a woman provides for her
      readers nine yoga poses that will “enhance your immune system, strengthen
      and awaken your muscles, and pave the path for your most refined listening in
      any moment of your day.”
•     The point of this women’s blog is to promote the great health benefits one can
      obtain from doing yoga. She shows her readers how to do the specific poses to
      gain the immense benefits.

    In all three of the articles mentioned, the focus is on the various ways a person
                                can physically benefit from yoga.




    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elena-brower/yoga-wellness_b_1092453.html?ref=healthy-living-spirit#undefined
The West: Physical Benefits
• This trend has become embedded into our
  culture. Across YMCA’s in the United States many
  yoga classes are being offered. Such classes
  demonstrate poses like:




  Hundreds of different yoga poses are being taught
        for physical strength and flexibility
The West: Physical Benefits
       Yoga is now even taking flight.
In this clip, ABC’s Good Morning America discusses the
                     new fad of cocooning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB9YFlOVe2E (right
             click on URL, click “open Hyperlink”)


  Even Western news shows are motivated to
       promote the health aspects of yoga
The West: Mental Benefits
            The mental aspects of
      meditation, mindfulness, and yoga are
       also very important to Westerners.
•   First, yoga is deemed important
    because it connects body and mind.
    In one article, “9 Yoga Poses to
    Connect the Body and Mind,” the
    author defines the quest for
    fitness, “The ideal is to feel fit both in
    our bodies and in our emotional                      •   Meditation is also seen as connecting
    lives.” She believes that yoga, while                    the mind and body. In Leslie
    aligning the physical body also raises                   Davenport’s blog she says that ten
    the ability to store and transfer                        minute meditation nourishes “body,
    energy between different storage                         heart and soul.” She also says, “ Each
    modes. After practicing yoga she                         entry will address the physical,
    believes that you become more                            psychological and spiritual facets of a
    relaxed and open in uncomfortable                        unique life challenge.”
    situations or transitions.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elena-brower/yoga-     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-davenport/meditation-tips-
                                                                                 _b_1097870.html
           wellness_b_1092453.html?ref=healthy-living-
                        spirit#undefined
The West: Mental Benefits
• In addition, Eddie Stern argues that just talking about the
  physical benefits of yoga do not do it justice. He believes
  that it takes a lot of mental effort and dedication to receive
  all of the possible benefits that yoga offers. He says, “There
  is no physical aspect of yoga that can be excised from the
  rest of the practice, because yoga, by definition, addresses
  the mind, and when the mind is addressed, the rest of our
  organism is altered as well--physical as well as non-
  physical.”
     Even though he argues that yoga practices today are
       flawed, he still sees them as being important in the
    concept of health. Yoga is about the mind and the body.
     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eddie-stern/flawed-yoga-studies-_b_1078981.html?ref=healthy-living-spirit
The West: Mental Benefits
 The mental benefits are widely
         acknowledged.

• A well being Ph.D.
  expert, Robert Puff, declares
  that “Whether it’s breath
  meditation, mantra meditation
  or walking meditation, the
  mental rhythms we create give
  us a break from the constant
  agitation of the ‘monkey
  mind.’” He also says that
  meditation overtime will
  decrease stress and increase
  relaxation.                                     Meditation creates rhythm.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/meditation-
     modern-life/201111/meditation-the-move
The West: Mental Benefits
 Another article reviews studies that show that mindfulness-based
                therapy has very positive mental effects.
• Toho University School of Medicine in Japan found that after 20
  minutes of mindful breathing participants “had fewer negative
  feelings, more of the mood-boosting neurotransmitter serotonin in
  their blood, and more oxygenated hemoglobin in their prefrontal
  cortex, an area associated with attention and high-level processing.
• A similar study at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany found that
  participants were able to “sustain mindful contact with their
  breathing, reported less negative thinking, less rumination and
  fewer of other symptoms of depression.”
  Many people believe that mindfulness could be a useful tool to
                          prevent depression.

             http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=therapy-in-the-air
The West: Mental Benefits
  We also found an article
  talking about meditation
     in the context of the
   stressful holiday season.

• This article points to
  meditation as one way to
  prevent the characteristic
  stress people feel around
  the holidays.
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-
     davenport/meditation-tips-_b_1097870.html
What’s Left Out?
• These sources illustrate a very clear picture that what
  makes yoga, meditation and mindfulness so appealing
  to Westerners is the physical and mental related
  benefits.
• None of these sources present the historical and
  religious aspects of these practices. There is no
  mention that these practices came out of the Buddhist
  tradition or that they have been modified from their
  original purpose. The majority of popular media
  presents meditation, mindfulness and yoga in a way
  that leaves all of this out. The purpose of these practice
  for Buddhists is very different from how the West uses
  them.
Buddhism
Traditionally, Buddhists meditate in order to escape
 from suffering through reaching enlightenment. The
 Buddha was the first one to use meditation to reach
 enlightenment. He saw old age, sickness, death and
    a renunciate. Because of these things that he
 witnessed he was motivated to find a way out of the
cycle of life, death and rebirth. The goal of Buddhism
                  is to escape samsara.
Buddhism
• One practice of mediation is to visualize a mandala, death, the
  body, colors, or Buddha virtue. In these practices one focuses solely
  on this visualization.
• Another practice, called Zen Buddhism, is mind-to-mind
  transmission of knowledge. Zazen is the most prominent form.
  This is where you focus on a nonsensical statement (koan) to help
  you see the emptiness of the world. You’re supposed to destroy
  your preconceived notions of the world.

     Buddhists recognize that nothing is permanent in this life.
     Meditation and yoga help you realize this. These practices are
      part of the Buddhist religious tradition. They are spiritual
              practices, not forms of exercise or therapy.
Separation from roots

          These Buddhist ideas are no longer
     part of the practices in the West. Even
   though mindfulness, yoga and meditation
 have developed from these Buddhist ideas
   most Westerners have taken them and
separated them from the spirit in which they
were intended. In popular Western media the
  traditional concepts are not mentioned.
Purposeful Separation
 Westerners sometimes even make a point not to mention the
                  practices’ Buddhist roots.

• In this article, a school has taken specific steps to avoid uproar
    over teaching yoga in gym class. The development director
      says “No namaste…No om. No prayer position with the
    hands. Nothing that anyone could look in and think, this is
                               religious.”




      http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/nyregion/in-yoga-classes-at-schools-teachers-avoid-the-
                               spiritual.html?_r=2&ref=religionandbelief
Purposeful Separation
      Even when words like “om” and “nomaste” are
     used, they are specifically taught in a non-spiritual
                             way.
• At a place called Karma Kids, an instructor says, “I don’t
   look at it as spiritual.”
 Furthermore, if a student knows a Buddhist ritual many
     instructors firmly deny that they taught it to them.
• The Little Flower Yoga director says, “I have no idea
   where she learned a mudra…We never teach mudras.
   Kids come with ideas from TV.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/nyregion/in-yoga-classes-at-schools-teachers-avoid-the-
                             spiritual.html?_r=2&ref=religionandbelief
The Separation
Not all Westerners are ignorant of              • In the article, “How Yoga Won the
    the original purpose of yoga                  West,” Ann Louise Bardach is very
          and meditation.                         cynical of the West’s take on
                                                  yoga. She writes, “If you’re
• In his blog, Swami Jnaneshvara                  annoyed that your local gas
  Bharati declares, “The mere fact                station is now a yoga studio, you
  that one might do a few stretches               might blame Vivekananda for
  with the physical body does not                 having introduced ‘yoga’ into the
  in itself mean that one is headed               national conversation-though an
  towards that high union referred                exercise cult with expensive
  to as Yoga.” (The high union                    accessories was hardly what he
  refers to recognizing preexisting               had in mind.”
  union between Atman and
  Brahman).
                                                http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/opinion/sunday/h
   http://www.swamij.com/traditional-yoga.htm               ow-yoga-won-the-west.html?_r=2
A Plea to Return
          In the media, Westerners do not see
   mindfulness, meditation and yoga as coming from a
   long religious tradition. Meditation and yoga have a
 spiritual purpose in Buddhism. Many Westerners have
 ignored this and manipulated meditation and yoga into
   totally new practices. Today, mindfulness, yoga and
 meditation are now being used for health benefits and
                  even in clinical settings.
We don’t see this trend stopping unless the media makes
  a great effort to educate the population on the origin
               of these well-loved practices.
Citations
•   “The Health Benefits of Yoga,” WebMD, no date available, (http://www.webmd.com/balance/the-health-benefits-of-
    yoga).
•   “What is True Indian Yoga,” YogaMax, no date available, (Inhttp://www.yogamax.net/what-is-true-indian-yoga.html).
•   Elena Brower, “9 Yoga Poses to Connect the Body and Mind,” Huffington
    Post, 11/15/2011, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elena-brower/yoga-wellness_b_1092453.html?ref=healthy-living-
    spirit#undefined).
•   “Anti-Gravity Yoga ‘Cocooning’ is Featured on Good Morning America-August
    2011”, YouTube, 08/18/2011, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB9YFlOVe2E).
•   Leslie Davenport, “10-Minute Meditation For a More Peaceful Holiday Season,” Huffington
    Post, 11/19/2011, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-davenport/meditation-tips-_b_1097870.html ).
•   Eddie Stern, “Why Yoga Studies Need to Smarten Up,” Huffington
    Post, 11/9/2011, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eddie-stern/flawed-yoga-studies-_b_1078981.html?ref=healthy-
    living-spirit).
•   Robert Puff, “Meditation for Modern Life,” Psychology
    Today, 11/4/2011, (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/meditation-modern-life/201111/meditation-the-move).
•   Toni Rodriguez, “Therapy in the Air,” Scientific
    American, 11/29/2011, (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=therapy-in-the-air).
•   Lopez, Donald S. Jr. “The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to its History & Teachings.” Harper Collins
    Publishers, 2001.
•   “Little Buddha,” Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1993.
•   Mary Billard, “In Schools, Yoga Without the Spiritual,” New York
    Times, 10/7/2011, (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/nyregion/in-yoga-classes-at-schools-teachers-avoid-the-
    spiritual.html?_r=2&ref=religionandbelief).
•     Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati, “Modern Yoga versus Traditional Yoga,” swamiJ.com, no date
    available, (http://www.swamij.com/traditional-yoga.htm).
•   Ann Louise Bardach, “How Yoga Won the West,” New York
    Times, 10/1/2011, (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/opinion/sunday/how-yoga-won-the-west.html?_r=2).

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Willer & ennis western mindfulness, meditation and yoga

  • 2. The majority of the West has the notion that Buddhism is not a traditional religion. From media analysis, this can be seen in the way Westerners incorporate mindfulness, meditation, and yoga practices into their lives and how they are talked about. In the West, the focus of these practices are their health benefits while in the East they are an important part of religious tradition. The reasons behind the practices are very different and the West has detached itself from the practices’ historical roots.
  • 3. The West People in the west are obsessed with health. In Western society the focus of mindfulness, meditation and yoga practices is fitness and well-being. These practices are only important for the physical and mental advantages they provide.
  • 4. The West: Physical Benefits “Yoga has been practiced for more than 5,000 years, and currently, close to 11 million Americans are enjoying its health benefits.” • This statistic was found on a popular health website, WebMD. Several of the health benefits that this article argues that one will receive are: decreasing stiffness, tension, pain, and fatigue in the muscles; increasing range of motion in the joints; stretching the soft tissues of the body; building strength and endurance of the muscles; and improving posture. • This article really wants to persuade their readers how much physical benefit can come from yoga. It says, “In one study, participants had up to 35% improvement in flexibility after only eight weeks of yoga.” http://www.webmd.com/balance/the-health-benefits-of-yoga
  • 5. The West: Physical Benefits Another article, from YogaMax, claims, “Yoga teaches us to take slower and deeper breaths to improve the function of our lungs by increasing the amount of oxygen to the body. It helps in bringing mobility, flexibility and reduces aches and pains. All our muscles, ligaments, tendons are strengthened. It can also help in controlling the weight of our body. Yoga improves the circulation of our body. It aids in lowering heart rate.” http://www.yogamax.net/what-is-true-indian-yoga.html
  • 6. The West: Physical Benefits • Furthermore, in a blog from the Huffington Post, a woman provides for her readers nine yoga poses that will “enhance your immune system, strengthen and awaken your muscles, and pave the path for your most refined listening in any moment of your day.” • The point of this women’s blog is to promote the great health benefits one can obtain from doing yoga. She shows her readers how to do the specific poses to gain the immense benefits. In all three of the articles mentioned, the focus is on the various ways a person can physically benefit from yoga. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elena-brower/yoga-wellness_b_1092453.html?ref=healthy-living-spirit#undefined
  • 7. The West: Physical Benefits • This trend has become embedded into our culture. Across YMCA’s in the United States many yoga classes are being offered. Such classes demonstrate poses like: Hundreds of different yoga poses are being taught for physical strength and flexibility
  • 8. The West: Physical Benefits Yoga is now even taking flight. In this clip, ABC’s Good Morning America discusses the new fad of cocooning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB9YFlOVe2E (right click on URL, click “open Hyperlink”) Even Western news shows are motivated to promote the health aspects of yoga
  • 9. The West: Mental Benefits The mental aspects of meditation, mindfulness, and yoga are also very important to Westerners. • First, yoga is deemed important because it connects body and mind. In one article, “9 Yoga Poses to Connect the Body and Mind,” the author defines the quest for fitness, “The ideal is to feel fit both in our bodies and in our emotional • Meditation is also seen as connecting lives.” She believes that yoga, while the mind and body. In Leslie aligning the physical body also raises Davenport’s blog she says that ten the ability to store and transfer minute meditation nourishes “body, energy between different storage heart and soul.” She also says, “ Each modes. After practicing yoga she entry will address the physical, believes that you become more psychological and spiritual facets of a relaxed and open in uncomfortable unique life challenge.” situations or transitions. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elena-brower/yoga- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-davenport/meditation-tips- _b_1097870.html wellness_b_1092453.html?ref=healthy-living- spirit#undefined
  • 10. The West: Mental Benefits • In addition, Eddie Stern argues that just talking about the physical benefits of yoga do not do it justice. He believes that it takes a lot of mental effort and dedication to receive all of the possible benefits that yoga offers. He says, “There is no physical aspect of yoga that can be excised from the rest of the practice, because yoga, by definition, addresses the mind, and when the mind is addressed, the rest of our organism is altered as well--physical as well as non- physical.” Even though he argues that yoga practices today are flawed, he still sees them as being important in the concept of health. Yoga is about the mind and the body. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eddie-stern/flawed-yoga-studies-_b_1078981.html?ref=healthy-living-spirit
  • 11. The West: Mental Benefits The mental benefits are widely acknowledged. • A well being Ph.D. expert, Robert Puff, declares that “Whether it’s breath meditation, mantra meditation or walking meditation, the mental rhythms we create give us a break from the constant agitation of the ‘monkey mind.’” He also says that meditation overtime will decrease stress and increase relaxation. Meditation creates rhythm. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/meditation- modern-life/201111/meditation-the-move
  • 12. The West: Mental Benefits Another article reviews studies that show that mindfulness-based therapy has very positive mental effects. • Toho University School of Medicine in Japan found that after 20 minutes of mindful breathing participants “had fewer negative feelings, more of the mood-boosting neurotransmitter serotonin in their blood, and more oxygenated hemoglobin in their prefrontal cortex, an area associated with attention and high-level processing. • A similar study at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany found that participants were able to “sustain mindful contact with their breathing, reported less negative thinking, less rumination and fewer of other symptoms of depression.” Many people believe that mindfulness could be a useful tool to prevent depression. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=therapy-in-the-air
  • 13. The West: Mental Benefits We also found an article talking about meditation in the context of the stressful holiday season. • This article points to meditation as one way to prevent the characteristic stress people feel around the holidays. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie- davenport/meditation-tips-_b_1097870.html
  • 14. What’s Left Out? • These sources illustrate a very clear picture that what makes yoga, meditation and mindfulness so appealing to Westerners is the physical and mental related benefits. • None of these sources present the historical and religious aspects of these practices. There is no mention that these practices came out of the Buddhist tradition or that they have been modified from their original purpose. The majority of popular media presents meditation, mindfulness and yoga in a way that leaves all of this out. The purpose of these practice for Buddhists is very different from how the West uses them.
  • 15. Buddhism Traditionally, Buddhists meditate in order to escape from suffering through reaching enlightenment. The Buddha was the first one to use meditation to reach enlightenment. He saw old age, sickness, death and a renunciate. Because of these things that he witnessed he was motivated to find a way out of the cycle of life, death and rebirth. The goal of Buddhism is to escape samsara.
  • 16. Buddhism • One practice of mediation is to visualize a mandala, death, the body, colors, or Buddha virtue. In these practices one focuses solely on this visualization. • Another practice, called Zen Buddhism, is mind-to-mind transmission of knowledge. Zazen is the most prominent form. This is where you focus on a nonsensical statement (koan) to help you see the emptiness of the world. You’re supposed to destroy your preconceived notions of the world. Buddhists recognize that nothing is permanent in this life. Meditation and yoga help you realize this. These practices are part of the Buddhist religious tradition. They are spiritual practices, not forms of exercise or therapy.
  • 17. Separation from roots These Buddhist ideas are no longer part of the practices in the West. Even though mindfulness, yoga and meditation have developed from these Buddhist ideas most Westerners have taken them and separated them from the spirit in which they were intended. In popular Western media the traditional concepts are not mentioned.
  • 18. Purposeful Separation Westerners sometimes even make a point not to mention the practices’ Buddhist roots. • In this article, a school has taken specific steps to avoid uproar over teaching yoga in gym class. The development director says “No namaste…No om. No prayer position with the hands. Nothing that anyone could look in and think, this is religious.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/nyregion/in-yoga-classes-at-schools-teachers-avoid-the- spiritual.html?_r=2&ref=religionandbelief
  • 19. Purposeful Separation Even when words like “om” and “nomaste” are used, they are specifically taught in a non-spiritual way. • At a place called Karma Kids, an instructor says, “I don’t look at it as spiritual.” Furthermore, if a student knows a Buddhist ritual many instructors firmly deny that they taught it to them. • The Little Flower Yoga director says, “I have no idea where she learned a mudra…We never teach mudras. Kids come with ideas from TV.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/nyregion/in-yoga-classes-at-schools-teachers-avoid-the- spiritual.html?_r=2&ref=religionandbelief
  • 20. The Separation Not all Westerners are ignorant of • In the article, “How Yoga Won the the original purpose of yoga West,” Ann Louise Bardach is very and meditation. cynical of the West’s take on yoga. She writes, “If you’re • In his blog, Swami Jnaneshvara annoyed that your local gas Bharati declares, “The mere fact station is now a yoga studio, you that one might do a few stretches might blame Vivekananda for with the physical body does not having introduced ‘yoga’ into the in itself mean that one is headed national conversation-though an towards that high union referred exercise cult with expensive to as Yoga.” (The high union accessories was hardly what he refers to recognizing preexisting had in mind.” union between Atman and Brahman). http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/opinion/sunday/h http://www.swamij.com/traditional-yoga.htm ow-yoga-won-the-west.html?_r=2
  • 21. A Plea to Return In the media, Westerners do not see mindfulness, meditation and yoga as coming from a long religious tradition. Meditation and yoga have a spiritual purpose in Buddhism. Many Westerners have ignored this and manipulated meditation and yoga into totally new practices. Today, mindfulness, yoga and meditation are now being used for health benefits and even in clinical settings. We don’t see this trend stopping unless the media makes a great effort to educate the population on the origin of these well-loved practices.
  • 22. Citations • “The Health Benefits of Yoga,” WebMD, no date available, (http://www.webmd.com/balance/the-health-benefits-of- yoga). • “What is True Indian Yoga,” YogaMax, no date available, (Inhttp://www.yogamax.net/what-is-true-indian-yoga.html). • Elena Brower, “9 Yoga Poses to Connect the Body and Mind,” Huffington Post, 11/15/2011, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elena-brower/yoga-wellness_b_1092453.html?ref=healthy-living- spirit#undefined). • “Anti-Gravity Yoga ‘Cocooning’ is Featured on Good Morning America-August 2011”, YouTube, 08/18/2011, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB9YFlOVe2E). • Leslie Davenport, “10-Minute Meditation For a More Peaceful Holiday Season,” Huffington Post, 11/19/2011, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-davenport/meditation-tips-_b_1097870.html ). • Eddie Stern, “Why Yoga Studies Need to Smarten Up,” Huffington Post, 11/9/2011, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eddie-stern/flawed-yoga-studies-_b_1078981.html?ref=healthy- living-spirit). • Robert Puff, “Meditation for Modern Life,” Psychology Today, 11/4/2011, (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/meditation-modern-life/201111/meditation-the-move). • Toni Rodriguez, “Therapy in the Air,” Scientific American, 11/29/2011, (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=therapy-in-the-air). • Lopez, Donald S. Jr. “The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to its History & Teachings.” Harper Collins Publishers, 2001. • “Little Buddha,” Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1993. • Mary Billard, “In Schools, Yoga Without the Spiritual,” New York Times, 10/7/2011, (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/nyregion/in-yoga-classes-at-schools-teachers-avoid-the- spiritual.html?_r=2&ref=religionandbelief). • Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati, “Modern Yoga versus Traditional Yoga,” swamiJ.com, no date available, (http://www.swamij.com/traditional-yoga.htm). • Ann Louise Bardach, “How Yoga Won the West,” New York Times, 10/1/2011, (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/opinion/sunday/how-yoga-won-the-west.html?_r=2).