28. What are Āsanas?
Yoga Studies in Five Minutes - Theodora Wildcroft
Matylda Ciołkosz [+]
Jagiellonian University, Kraków
Matylda Ciołkosz is an assistant professor at the Institute of Religious Studies, Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She earned her PhD in culture and religion studies in 2019 for her research on the meaning- making role of kinesthetic experience in the practice of modern postural yoga. In her research, she draws from cognitive approaches to the study of religions to explore the influence of sensory, motor, and social contexts on the formation and application of religious concepts.
Description
In the context of yoga, āsana means yogic posture. While nowadays hundreds of yogic postures are known – standing, seated, inverted, supine, or prone – originally āsana was a way of sitting adopted for the purpose of other practices, such as breath control or meditation.