A Dahn yoga ad caught my eye several years ago in a local newspaper, and I've been carrying around a ragged-torn copy ever since. Somehow the lotus position — calm, open, balanced, meditative, almost-but-not-quite symmetric — captivates my mind. (Or maybe it's just the exaggerated feminine shape of the artwork?!) Likewise mudras, symbolic hand-gestures, enchant me. A Parvati as Boga Shakti statue that my wife brought home some time ago, for instance, has fingers held in a mudra, representing I know not what. Fascinating! (Or maybe it's just the exaggerated feminine shape of the artwork?!)

So do certain postures have an ability to modify mental states, intrinsically or via association? Can moving or posing a certain way produce profound health benefits, physical or spiritual? Or is this all mere mysticism, the common fantasy of something-for-nothing? Sit this way, hold your hands that way, and take a shortcut to wisdom, peace, happiness? One wonders ...

_{^z - 2010-08-08}