4664

People seeking a deeper spiritual meaning in their lives have found Kriya yoga. Yogananda brought Kriya yoga to the West in the 1920's. He established the Self-Realization Fellowship as a total yoga experience that addressed the spiritual as well as the physical, all most other western yoga disciplines concentrate on.

A Kriya yogi, as described by Yogananda, mentally moves his life energy around the six spinal centers - the medullar, dorsal, lumbar, coccygeal, cervical, and sacral plexuses. These each relate to the twelve zodiac signs. This subtle energy revolution progresses his evolution, and it is said that this 30 seconds of Kriya is equivalent to a year of natural spiritual growth.

Kriya yoga is based on Kundalina yoga and includes similar asana and meditation methods. Kriya adds some spiritual and esoteric guidelines. It does have its detractors that point out Kriya does not maintain your power comes from within, but that you need a teacher, or guru, to release your spirituality. Although it sounds like an admirable goal, Kriya's attempt to eliminate obstacles begs the question, are the obstacles there for a reason? Is the guru the right person to decide how and when to remove them? It is very important to go into Kriya yoga with a strong sense of self. Never allow another to hijack your self-determination!

Advocates of Kriya yoga believe they can achieve self-realization faster by combining three other yoga methods:

1. Karma yoga is concentrated on the movement of the soul, both out in the world and the inner actions of the mind.

2. Bhakti yoga aims to achieve peace with all the elements of your life through the power of love. It is often stated as "oneness with all creation and cosmic consciousness."

3. Jnana yoga is concerned with intellectual discipline leading to wisdom gained from spiritual knowledge giving freedom of the mind.

Thus, Kriya joins the three into a single discipline. It highlights the relationship between breath and mind. Breath control is self control. Breath mastery is self mastery.

Preparation is the first step in Kriya yoga. The body is prepared with a hatha yoga exercise routine. For beginners or the less flexible, other alternative preparation routines are provided.

Mind preparation comes next. Here you focus your mind by studying general conduct, analyzing your overall health, cleanliness and purity. You may even study your relationship to certain metaphysical principles. These reflective studies help to prepare the mind for later techniques intended to refine and improve the nervous system.

Mantras are taught in Kriya meditation in order to tune the mind and body to a single frequency. Again, the detractors point out, one must be careful that YOU are the chooser of the destination and your mind isn't being controlled by another, even a trusted other.

Although one of a handful of more controversial yoga paths, Kriya yoga has helped many attain spiritual levels they couldn't quite reach with other methods. It may be right for you, but go into it with your eyes open and your protection activated.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Yoga

# posted by 78867 @ 6:25 PM 0 comments

The xbox 360 was released in 2005 and according to CNET the Xbox360 rates: an 8 for design; 9 for features; and 8 for performance. Users rate PS3 as 7.4 of 10 based on available information.

There are techies who root for the Xbox360 and those who firmly believe in the magic of the PS3. Here are reasons why the Xbox360 may win the game war.

1.The base line advantage is in the pricing. The xbox is more affordable than the projected sale price of the two versions of the PS3.

2.The Xbox360 has a faithful following among gamers in the US. On the other hand the PS series are popular internationally. Ultimately it is the gamers and developers who will decide which way the vote will swing.

3.The games are user-friendly and the facilities for online gaming are great.

4.The Xbox360 is a high resolution media hub and windows media extender.

5.The Xbox360 makes the fine line between PC and console gaming hairline thin. The Xbox is according to CNet a high end PC gaming rig fitted into a small box.

6.The 20GB hard drive is compact and emulates the laptop design slim and compact. So in the case of Xbox 360 the keywords are compact and powerful.

7.The interface is user friendly and state-of art and has color tabs indicating important features like gaming, media, system settings, and xbox live. The options can be accessed by just moving the directional keypad left to right.

8.The Xbox360 Gamer card is futuristic it has a personal avatar, a 21 character motto, settings for predetermined goals, Achievements, which fosters healthy competition.

9.The xbox 360 has Dolby Digital audio with surround sound creating a live gaming experience.

10.Fitted with abilities to work wireless, the Xbox360 is a veritable media hub and works with a digital camera, flash card, thumbdrive, and music player. The xbox 360 can stream music and photos from a remote PC. The integration is most efficient if the PC runs a Windows media Center edition.

The Xbox live silver membership is integral to the Xbox360 and this means gaming has no boundaries real or imaginary. One can play, communicate, chat, and text as well as voice message using a headset. Games are a click away and with the xbox 360 there are unlimited options for gamers who can play games old as well as new.

According to serious gamers the Xbox360 and PS3 are neck to neck in terms of useable power. The Xbox is less powerful but offers greater flexibility and is easy to program. The PS3 is a dream machine and extremely powerful. Its complexity makes it harder to use and program, however this will not be a hurdle for avid a gamers.

microsoft and Sony are all set to race for the no 1 position and both giants are pulling out all plugs to achieve their aim to be king of every home. There is nothing like a dose of healthy competition to keep designers, game developers and internet visionaries on their toes. The ultimate winner will be decided on by the end users, the consumers.

# posted by 78867 @ 1:45 AM 0 comments