Abhyanga
abhyaṅga
Self-massage with warm oil, one of the durable pieces of the daily routine. Whatever else it is, it is touch and unhurried time.
Definitions follow the usage on this site. External links go to reference editions such as Wisdomlib for Sanskrit and Ayurvedic terms and Kenhub for the muscles; the second chip on each card opens the page where the term is taught. A term missing from this list is a correction waiting to happen: the form at the bottom of the page welcomes it.
A
Agni
agni
The digestive fire, and the hinge of the whole Ayurvedic system. Strong agni turns ordinary food into ojas; weak agni leaves ama behind. Ayurveda asks what a person can digest before it asks what they eat.
Ahara
āhāra
Food, and the system’s primary medicine. The classical logic is like increases like, and opposites balance, applied through the qualities of what is eaten.
Ahimsa
ahimsa
Non-harming: the first yama in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Arjuna's refusal to fight is framed initially as ahimsa. The Bhagavad Gita reframes it: the deepest harm can be the refusal of one's own dharma. The soul cannot be killed; grief at action is not the same as grief at harm.
Akasha
akasha
Space or ether: the subtlest of the five great elements and the medium of sound. In later esoteric traditions, the "akashic" field of subtle impression. The element through which the metaphysical reaches open.
Ama
āma
The undigested residue left when digestion is weak. The word means raw or uncooked, and the classical texts blame ama for a long list of illnesses.
Anatta
anatta / anatman
In Buddhism, not-self: the teaching that no permanent, unchanging Self can be found. Where the Vedic tradition finds atman, the Buddha found a flowing process with no fixed owner. The great divergence between the two streams.
Anga bhanga sadhana
aṅga bhaṅga sādhanā
A “limb-harming practice”: Krishnamacharya’s phrase, as Gary Kraftsow reports it, for any practice that helps one part of us while harming another. His example was running, good for the heart and lungs and hard on many knees and hips. Any practice, yoga included, can become one when it is wrongly applied.
Apana Vayu
apāna vāyu
The downward and outward current, seated in the pelvis. Charaka places it in the rectum and gives it the downward movement of urine, faeces, menstrual flow, and birth. It governs elimination and letting go, and long exhales, retention after the exhale, Mula Bandha, squats, and forward folds are the practices addressed to it.
Aparigraha
aparigraha
Non-grasping, the fifth yama. Holding possessions, people, and outcomes with an open hand.
Asana
asana
The third limb: posture, originally the steady and comfortable seat that makes long meditation possible, later the whole physical practice of yoga.
Asteya
asteya
Non-stealing, the third yama. Taking nothing that is unoffered: objects, time, credit, energy, or attention.
Atman
atman
In the Vedic tradition, the true Self: eternal, unchanging, pure awareness, ultimately one with Brahman, the ground of all being. What meditation uncovers beneath the sheaths.
Avatar
avatar
A direct descent of the divine into the material world. The sequence mirrors evolutionary biology: fish, tortoise, boar, half-lion, dwarf, warrior-sage, ideal king, divine human.
Ayurveda
ayus + veda
The knowledge of life: a complete medical system with its own canon, institutions, and history, older as a written tradition than Patanjali’s eight limbs. It is often called yoga’s sister science, which holds as long as sister means a separate person.
B
Bandha
bandha
A “lock,” a muscular contraction held to contain and redirect the breath and its energy. The Bihar School glosses the word as to “hold,” “tighten” or “lock,” and explains that “the bandhas aim to lock the pranas in particular areas and redirect their flow into sushumna nadi for the purpose of spiritual awakening.” The three classic locks are mula bandha at the root, jalandhara bandha at the throat, and uddiyana bandha at the abdomen.
Bhagavad Gita
bhagavad gita
The divine song: 700 verses spoken by Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, embedded within the Mahabharata. The central teaching is nishkama karma, act fully, without attachment to outcomes. It is the most-cited scripture in the yoga tradition.
Bhakti
bhakti
Devotional service: the yoga of love. Understood in the Bhagavatam as the highest form of practice because it operates through the heart. Prahlada's story is its primary teaching text. Alongside the familiar sense of loving devotion, the word carries an older, more concrete range inherited from its Sanskrit verbal root bhaj-, which the lexicons gloss as "distribution, partition, separation" as well as attachment, so that a share, a portion, and a belonging are all folded into the idea of devotion.
Bhuta-shuddhi
bhuta-śuddhi
The “purification of the elements,” a preparatory practice in the tantric traditions. The scholar Georg Feuerstein describes it as “an important Tantric practice and a precondition for the safe and complete arousal of the serpent power (kundalini-shakti).”
Bodhicitta
bodhicitta
The awakened heart-mind of Mahayana Buddhism: the aspiration to awaken for the sake of all beings, and the felt kinship beneath the separate self. As Jack Kornfield glosses it, “This sense of deep connection, of belonging to the same family, is bodhichitta.”
Bodhisattva
bodhisattva
One who vows to attain full awakening for the sake of all beings, and to keep returning across lifetimes until every being is free. The bodhisattva vow extends into future lives.
Brahma Muhurta
brahma muhūrta
The last dark hour before dawn. The Ashtanga Hridaya opens its daily routine by telling the healthy person to rise in this window for the sake of long life.
Brahmacharya
brahmacharya
Right use of vital energy, the fourth yama. Often rendered as moderation or continence: desire directed rather than scattered.
Brahmana
bṛṃhaṇa
A practice that nourishes and energizes: it favors the inhale and the pause after it, backbends and lunges, and a quicker pace. The yoga tradition pairs it with langhana, its calming counterpart. In Gary Kraftsow’s Yoga for Wellness, brahmana (tonification) serves weakness, low energy, lack of confidence, and recovery after illness, through the inhale, holding after the inhale, backbends, and shoulderstand. I treat the pair as a traditional map for choosing a direction.
Buddha-nature
tathagatagarbha
The Mahayana teaching that the potential for full awakening is possessed equally by all beings, covered over like the sun behind clouds. Everyone, without exception, can become a Buddha.
Buddhi
buddhi
The discerning intellect; the faculty of judgment and discrimination within the inner instrument. The clear light of buddhi distinguishes the real from the unreal.
C
Chakra
cakra
The subtle energy centers along the spine, from root to crown, used on this site to organize pose families and their qualities.
D
Dana
dana
Generosity, the practice of giving freely without expectation of return. In the yogic tradition, teaching was offered and the gift kept it alive for the next person.
Deltoid
anterior, medial, posterior
The cap of the shoulder, in three parts that lift the arm forward, out to the side, and back. The front portion shortens with a rounded posture and lengthens in backbends and supported chest openers.
Dharana
dharana
Concentration; one-pointed focus of the mind on a single object such as the breath, a point of light, or a mantra. The sixth limb.
Dharma
dharma
From a root meaning "to uphold." Simultaneously cosmic order, sacred duty, righteousness, and the natural law that holds everything together. Always contextual: the dharma of a king differs from that of a sage.
Dhatu
dhātu
The seven bodily tissues that nourish and maintain the body, each formed from the one before it, from plasma through blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and reproductive tissue.
Dhyana
dhyana
Meditation proper: when concentration becomes effortless and the flow of awareness toward its object is unbroken. The seventh limb. The Pali form, jhana, became the Chinese Chan and the Japanese Zen.
Diaphragm
diaphragma
The dome of muscle between the chest and the abdomen, and the primary muscle of breathing. It contracts downward on the inhale, which is what a slow, low breath trains.
Dinacharya
dinacarya
The Ayurvedic daily rhythm: rising, cleansing, eating, moving, and resting in time with the day.
Dosha
dosha
The three constitutional energies of Ayurveda, vata, pitta, and kapha, read as patterns of movement, heat, and stability in body and mind.
Drishti
drishti
The yogic gaze: fixed focal points used inside the asanas, turning a physical pose into a moving concentration practice.
E
Ekagrata
ekagrata
One-pointedness. The gathered quality of a mind resting on a single object, the fruit of dharana.
Erector Spinae
iliocostalis, longissimus, spinalis
The long columns running either side of the spine from the pelvis to the skull. They extend the spine and hold it upright, and they are the muscles working in a flat-back half lift, Locust, and Cobra.
G
Gastrocnemius and Soleus
triceps surae
The calf muscles. The gastrocnemius crosses the knee and the soleus sits beneath it, and together they point the foot and carry every step of a run. Both lengthen in Downward Dog, the soleus more when the knee is bent.
Gheranda Samhita
gheranda-samhita
A classical Sanskrit manual of Hatha Yoga, framed as a dialogue in which the sage Gheranda answers the pupil Chanda Kapali. It organizes practice into seven exercises rather than Patanjali’s eight limbs: the “purificatory, strengthening, steadying, calming, and those leading to lightness, perception, and isolation” (I.2), and it teaches that of the many asanas “thirty-two have been found useful for mankind in this world” (II). Scholars count it, with the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Shiva Samhita, among the three seminal texts of hatha yoga.
Gluteus Maximus
gluteus maximus
The largest muscle in the body, extending the hip and turning it outward. It lifts the hips in Bridge and the legs in Locust.
Gluteus Medius and Minimus
gluteus medius, gluteus minimus
The outer hip muscles that carry the pelvis level when we stand on one leg. Running and heavy squatting leave them tight and guarded, which shows up as outer hip restriction and sometimes as knee pain. Pigeon and a stacked supine twist reach them.
Guna
guna
The three qualities of manifest existence: tamas (inertia), rajas (activity, passion), and sattva (clarity, harmony). Spiritual practice generally cultivates sattva and uses rajas purposefully.
H
Hamstrings
biceps femoris, semitendinosus, semimembranosus
The three muscles at the back of the thigh that bend the knee and extend the hip. When they are tight they pull the pelvis under in a forward fold, which rounds the low back, so we bend the knees.
Hip Adductors
adductor magnus, longus, brevis, gracilis, pectineus
The inner thigh muscles that draw the legs toward the midline and help steady the pelvis. Squeezing a block between the thighs is the simplest way to wake them.
I
Iliopsoas
psoas major and iliacus
The deep hip flexors running from the lumbar spine and the inner pelvis to the thigh bone. Sitting and running keep them short, and a short psoas tips the pelvis forward and pulls on the low back. Low lunges lengthen them.
Interbeing
Thich Nhat Hanh’s term
The teaching that nothing has a separate self and everything inter-is with everything else, so that looking deeply into one thing reveals all the rest. Thich Nhat Hanh coined the English word for a very old idea: “When you touch one, you touch all.”
Intercostals
external and internal intercostals
The muscles between the ribs that move the chest wall in breathing. They shorten with a rounded upper back, and side bends and supported chest openers give them back their range.
Interoception
The perception of the body from within: heartbeat, breath, gut, the felt sense of being a body. Contemporary science’s nearest measurable neighbor to pratyahara.
Ishvara pranidhana
Ishvara pranidhana
Surrender to the divine: the fifth niyama in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Requires relinquishing both actions and their outcomes. Bali's gift to Vamana is its defining story.
J
Japa
japa
Repetition of a mantra or sacred name, silently or aloud, so a single sound becomes the point the mind holds.
Jhana
jhana
The Buddhist ladder of meditative absorption, climbing rungs nearly identical to the yogic samadhi.
Jnana Yoga
jñāna · knowledge
The path of self-knowledge, one of the four classical yogas alongside bhakti, karma, and raja. It works by viveka (discrimination) and inquiry, the steady negation neti, neti (not this, not this), until every false identification falls away and only the witnessing Self remains. Its classic texts are the Upanishads and the Yoga Vasistha. The eight limbs are raja yoga’s method; the four paths are interwoven and may be practiced together or apart.
K
Kaivalya
kaivalya
In Classical (Patanjali) Yoga, the word for liberation. It means literally “aloneness”: the standing-alone of purusha (the transcendental Self) once it is no longer entangled with prakriti (nature). Patanjali’s fourth and final book is the Kaivalya Pada.
Kapha
kapha
The dosha of structure and cohesion, built of water and earth. It governs lubrication, immunity, stamina, and steadiness, and it goes out of balance toward heaviness, congestion, and inertia.
Karma
karma
Action, and the principle that every action creates an energy that returns to its source. The quality of intention and the direction of attention both matter.
Klesha
klesha
The five afflictions that keep the mind bound and drive suffering (Yoga Sutra 2.3–9). The root of them is avidya, spiritual ignorance; as Georg Feuerstein sums up Patanjali, “This is the primary klesha. From it spring the I-sense (asmita), attachment (raga), aversion (dvesha), and the will to live (abhinivesha).” Kriya-yoga aims at their gradual thinning.
Kumbhaka
kumbhaka
Breath retention, the held pause of pranayama. In the words of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, “Kumbhaka is the keeping the air confined inside” (HYP 2.45, trans. Pancham Sinh). It is the phase in which the bandhas (locks) are engaged, and the classical texts distinguish retention after the in-breath from retention after the out-breath.
Kundalini
kundalini
In tantric and hatha yoga, a dormant spiritual energy pictured as coiled at the base of the spine, at muladhara, and awakened to rise through the central channel. The common derivation, as Swami Satyananda notes, is from kundal, a coil, so kundalini is “that which is coiled.” This is a subtle-body concept of yogic experience, not a claim about physical anatomy.
L
Langhana
laṅghana
A practice that calms and reduces: it lengthens the exhale and favors forward folds, twists, and a slower pace, suited to someone carrying stress or agitation. It is the counterpart of brahmana, the nourishing direction, and like it belongs to the tradition’s map of how a practice can be steered. Kraftsow lists its techniques as the exhale, a short hold after the exhale, forward bends, some twists, and headstand.
Latissimus Dorsi
latissimus dorsi
The largest muscle of the upper body, running from the low back and pelvis to the upper arm. It pulls the arm down, back, and inward. When it is short, the arms cannot reach overhead without the low back arching, which is why Puppy Pose and side bends come before overhead work.
Leela
leela
Divine play. The stories of Vishnu's avatars are acts of Leela: play that reveals the nature of spiritual reality. Seeing life as Leela is itself a practice.
Loka
loka
A world or plane of existence. The cosmology describes many lokas, from the dense material world to subtle and celestial realms, the worlds a meditator may discover within.
M
Madhurya
madhurya
Sweetness; the intimate quality of Krishna's divine aesthetic. Distinguished from aishwarya (majestic reverence), madhurya is the quality of love that meets God as a beloved friend, child, or lover. The Rasalila is its highest expression. The tradition considers it the most direct path to intimacy with the divine.
Manas
manas
The sensory, processing mind that receives impressions and chatters. One faculty of the inner instrument (antahkarana), distinct from the awareness that witnesses it.
Mantra
mantra
Sacred sound. A syllable or phrase repeated (japa) to gather the mind and carry it toward meditation. The tradition holds the sound itself to be a doorway, with Om as the seed-vibration of the absolute.
Marma
marman
The vital points of the classical body described in the Sushruta Samhita, mapped alongside the muscles on the muscle diagram.
Mindfulness
sati / smrti
The receptive, non-reactive attention at the heart of Buddhist practice, named in the Satipatthana Sutta as the four foundations of mindfulness and counted the first of the seven factors of awakening. The contemporary teacher Jack Kornfield puts it simply: “Mindfulness is attention. It is a non-judging and respectful awareness.” It runs close to Patanjali’s smrti (Yoga Sutra 1.20), though it rests on the Buddhist reading of no fixed self rather than the witness of classical yoga.
Moksha
moksha
Liberation; release from the cycle of suffering and rebirth into the realization of one’s true nature. The fourth and final aim of human life.
Mudra
mudra
A gesture, seal, or attitude of the body used to direct energy and awareness. The Bihar School notes that “the Sanskrit word mudra is translated as ‘gesture’ or ‘attitude’,” and is also defined as a “seal,” “short-cut” or “circuit bypass.” Mudras range from simple hand gestures such as chin mudra to the whole-body seals of the hatha tradition.
Multifidus
multifidus
The deep layer that spans a few vertebrae at a time, steadying each segment and assisting rotation. It works quietly in every twist and every held backbend.
N
Nada
nada
The inner sound; the subtle vibration heard in deep stillness. Nada yoga is the path of meditation through sound.
Nadi
nāḍī
A channel of the subtle body through which prana, the life-force, flows. Georg Feuerstein locates this “network of channels along which flows the life force” in the body’s subtle counterpart rather than the physical body, traditionally numbered at 72,000, of which three are chief: ida, pingala, and sushumna. The tantric writer Shyam Sundar Goswami stresses that the nadis “do not exist as tubules or wires, but are subtle lines of direction” along which the vital airs move, so they are energy pathways rather than nerves or vessels. Ida is read as the lunar channel on the left of the spine and pingala as the solar channel on the right; the Shiva Samhita, in Goswami’s rendering, names fourteen chief nadis in all.
Nama-japa
nama-japa
Repetition of the divine name. The tradition holds that the name carries the actual presence of the divine. Prahlada's continuous chanting under persecution is its primary teaching text.
Nirvana
nirvana / nibbana
In Buddhism, the “blowing out” of the fires of craving, aversion, and delusion, and the liberation and peace that follow. As one translator of the Dhammapada notes, the word, “in ancient Indian languages (e.g., Sanskrit nirvāṇa; Pali nibbāna) suggests an extinguishing,” as of a flame starved of fuel. It is the Buddhist counterpart to moksha (release), sought in the Vedic traditions.
Nishkama karma
nishkama karma
Action without attachment to its fruits: the central teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, taught directly by Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Rama's dharmic action across the Ramayana and Bali's gift to Vamana are its living demonstrations.
Niyama
niyama
The second limb: five inner observances, including purity, contentment, self-discipline, self-study, and surrender to the divine. What we mean by the divine →
O
Obliques
internal and external oblique
The diagonal abdominal muscles that produce rotation and side bending and help hold the trunk steady. They do the turning in every twist.
Ojas
ojas
Vitality: the refined essence the texts place at the end of digestion, associated with immunity, strength, and steadiness of mind.
P
Pancha Kosha
pancha kosha
The five sheaths that cover the Self, set out in the Taittiriya Upanishad (Brahmananda Valli): the physical (annamaya), the energetic or breath (pranamaya), the mental (manomaya), the wisdom (vijnanamaya), and the bliss (anandamaya) bodies. Meditation peels them back, layer by layer, toward the center. The Upanishad pictures even that innermost bliss-body in the shape of a person: “joy is the right wing, delight is the left wing, Bliss is the self, Brahman is the tail, the support.” The peeling does not end at bliss; beneath it lies Brahman, the ground on which the sheaths rest. In yoga therapy, Gary Kraftsow uses the same five dimensions as a map of the whole person, since a condition in one layer reaches all the others.
Panchakarma
pañcakarma
The five purificatory treatments of classical Ayurveda, given under clinical supervision. The modern spa version shares the name and little else.
Patanjali
patañjali
The sage credited with compiling the Yoga Sutras, the roughly two-thousand-year-old aphorisms that organize yoga into eight limbs. Temple iconography shows him as half-human, half-serpent, and scholars still debate whether the grammarian and the yoga compiler were the same person.
Pectoralis Major and Minor
pectoralis major, pectoralis minor
The chest muscles. The major draws the arm across the body and turns it inward; the smaller minor tips the shoulder blade forward and down. Both shorten with desk work and bench pressing, and both are what a supported chest opener lengthens.
Piriformis
piriformis
One of the deep hip rotators, running from the sacrum to the top of the thigh bone and turning the hip outward. The sciatic nerve passes beneath it, and in some people through it, which is why a tight piriformis can refer sensation down the leg.
Pitta
pitta
The dosha of transformation, built of fire and water. It governs digestion, metabolism, body heat, and the sharpness of perception, and it goes out of balance toward heat, acidity, and irritability.
Prabhava
prabhāva
The specific action a substance carries regardless of its taste, potency, and post-digestive effect. It is the exception clause of classical pharmacology, and it is what lets two sweet foods act on the body in different ways.
Prakriti
prakriti
In Ayurveda, an individual constitution: the personal balance of the doshas a person is born with.
Prana Vayu
prāṇa vāyu
The inward and upward current, seated in the chest and head. It governs everything we take in: breath, food, sensation, and impression. The breath practices that work with it expand the inhale.
Pranayama
prana + ayama
The regulation and expansion of prana (life-force) through the breath. The fourth limb of yoga, the bridge between the body and the mind.
Prasthanatrayi
prasthana-trayi
The three foundational texts of Vedanta, read together: the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras. Every school of Vedanta interprets this canonical trio through its own lens.
Pratikriya
pratikriyā
“Counteracting”: the steps that return body, breath, and mind to neutral after a practice or a demanding pose, moving from the complex to the simple. In the Viniyoga tradition it pairs with vinyasa, the steps that prepare. The counterpose chosen depends on the person and the day.
Pratipaksha bhavana
pratipaksha bhavana
The cultivation of the opposite: a teaching from Patanjali. Transformation of a negative state so complete that what remains is capable of its opposite, reaching past suppression into genuine change.
Pratyahara
pratyahara
Withdrawal of the senses from the outer world, drawing inward as a tortoise draws in its limbs. The fifth limb, and the true threshold of meditation.
Purusharthas
purusharthas
The four goals of human life: dharma (duty), artha (material welfare), kama (desire and love), moksha (liberation). Bali holds dharma first and receives all four.
Q
Quadratus Lumborum
quadratus lumborum
The deep muscle of the waist, running from the last rib and the spine to the pelvis. It side bends the trunk and steadies the pelvis, and it lengthens on the top side of every side bend.
Quadriceps
rectus femoris and the three vasti
The four muscles at the front of the thigh that straighten the knee. The rectus femoris also crosses the hip, so it lengthens in a low lunge and in Camel.
R
Rasa
rasa
Taste or flavor: the specific emotional-spiritual quality of a devotional experience. Receiving a story's rasa is itself a spiritual practice.
Rasalila
rasalila
The circle dance of Krishna with the gopis under the autumn full moon: the highest symbol of devotional yoga in the Bhakti tradition. Krishna stands at the center; the gopis move on the circumference, holding hands. Their longing toward the center is the structure of all devotional practice.
Rasayana
rasāyana
Rejuvenation: one of the eight branches of Ayurvedic medicine, ranked so high that Charaka opens his section on treatment with it. Classically it was a staged regimen of cleansing, recovery, diet, and tonic over time.
Rectus Abdominis
rectus abdominis
The front abdominal sheet running from the ribs to the pubic bone. It flexes the trunk forward, and it lengthens across the front of every backbend.
Rhomboids
rhomboid major and minor
The muscles between the spine and each shoulder blade. They draw the shoulder blades together, which is the action behind cactus arms, Locust, and the squeeze in Bridge.
Ritucharya
ṛtucaryā
The seasonal routine: the practices, foods, and rhythms suited to each season. Ayurveda keeps six seasons rather than four, and Vagbhata devotes a chapter of the Ashtanga Hridaya to them.
Rotator Cuff
supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, subscapularis
The four muscles that hold the head of the upper arm centred in the shoulder socket and turn the arm in and out. Cow face arms work both directions at once, which is why that pose shows so plainly which shoulder is more restricted.
S
Samadhi
samadhi
Absorption; the eighth limb, in which the meditator and the object of meditation merge and the separate sense of self dissolves into the absolute.
Samana Vayu
samāna vāyu
The assimilating current, seated at the navel between prana and apana. This is the digestive one. Shankara describes it as distributing food and drink equally, and the Ayurvedic texts have it stimulating agni, the digestive fire. Agnisar Kriya, Nauli, Uddiyana Bandha, and Bhastrika are aimed here.
Samatva
samatva
Evenness of mind; equanimity. The Gita's working definition of yoga: samatvam yoga uchyate, evenness is yoga (2.48). The same steadiness in success and failure, gain and loss.
Samsara
samsara
The round of birth, death, and rebirth, turned by karma and the mind's clinging. It is the condition that moksha releases, and most of the older texts assume it as the backdrop against which liberation makes sense. The contemporary Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh reads it moment to moment rather than lifetime to lifetime: "Karma is our continuation, and continuation is rebirth. Every moment is a moment of rebirth."
Samyama
samyama
Dharana, dhyana, and samadhi flowing together on a single object (Yoga Sutra 3.4). The complete gathering of the inner practice.
Santosha
samtosha
Contentment, the second niyama. The practiced ability to rest satisfied with what is, before anything changes.
Sat-Chit-Ananda
sat-cit-ananda
Being, consciousness, bliss: the threefold nature of the absolute in Vedanta. Sat is eternal existence beyond time; chit is awareness fully conscious of all; ananda is boundless joy. This is enlightenment, the world beyond.
Satya
satya
Truthfulness: the second yama. Speaking truthfully, and refusing to live inside a lie even when the lie would be more comfortable. Sita's final act is its deepest expression.
Saucha
shauca
Purity, the first niyama. Cleanliness of body, surroundings, food, and thought, so the practice has a clear vessel to work in.
Scalenes
anterior, middle, posterior
Three pairs of muscles along the side of the neck that side bend and turn the head and lift the upper ribs in breathing. Turning the head against the shoulders in a twist is the clearest way to lengthen them.
Serratus Anterior
serratus anterior
The muscle running from the ribs at the side of the chest to the inner edge of the shoulder blade. It holds the shoulder blade against the ribs and turns it upward as the arm rises, so it is what keeps an overhead reach stable.
Shad Rasa
ṣaḍrasa
The six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent, each built from two elements and each with a predictable action on the doshas. Vagbhata’s instruction that a full meal contain all six makes a plate of only sweet and salty structurally incomplete.
Shakti Pitha
shakti pitha
Sacred sites created where Sati's body fell as Shiva carried it in grief. Wherever a piece fell, the earth became sacred. There are 51 such sites across South Asia, honored to this day.
Shatkarma
ṣaṭkarma
The six cleansing techniques of hatha yoga, literally the "six actions," used to purify the body before the deeper work of breath and meditation. The Gheranda Samhita, which makes purification the first of its seven limbs, names them in one line: “Dhauti, Basti, Neti, Nauli, Trataka, and Kapalabhati; one should practice these six cleansing techniques” (GhS 1.12, trans. Mallinson).
Srotas
srotas
The channels of the body: the tracts, vessels, and passages through which substances move. Ayurvedic diagnosis asks which channel is blocked, overflowing, or flowing the wrong way.
Sternocleidomastoid
sternocleidomastoid
The long muscle running from behind the ear to the collarbone and breastbone. It turns the head to the opposite side and bends the neck forward, and it tightens when the head carries forward toward a screen.
Svadhyaya
svadhyaya
Self-study: the fourth niyama. Includes examination of what we are most intensely drawn to, most afraid of, most in conflict with.
Swadharma
swadharma
One's own specific path of duty, distinct from dharma in general. The Bhagavad Gita holds that it is better to fulfill one's own swadharma imperfectly than another's perfectly. The Mahabharata tests this principle in every character: the question is never only what the right action is, but who we are while doing it.
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Tapas
tapas
Literally heat or fire. The disciplined effort that burns away what is extraneous, refining the practitioner toward clarity. Parvati's tapas to win Shiva back is its defining story.
Tensor Fasciae Latae
tensor fasciae latae
The small muscle at the front of the outer hip that flexes and abducts the hip and tensions the iliotibial band. Runners often feel it as tightness down the outer thigh toward the knee.
Teres Major
teres major
A small muscle from the lower edge of the shoulder blade to the upper arm, working with the latissimus dorsi to draw the arm down and turn it inward. It limits overhead reach alongside the lat.
Tibialis Anterior
tibialis anterior
The muscle along the front of the shin that lifts the foot and controls its landing. It works in every standing balance and tires in runners.
Transversus Abdominis
transversus abdominis
The deepest abdominal layer, wrapping the trunk like a belt. It firms on the exhale, which is the action that steadies the pelvis and low back before movement.
Trapezius
upper, middle, and lower
The broad back muscle running from the skull and neck to the mid spine and out to the shoulder blade. The upper part lifts the shoulder blade, the middle draws it toward the spine, and the lower draws it down. A desk posture overworks the upper part and leaves the middle and lower underused, which is what Locust and the half lift train.
Trataka
trataka
Steady gazing, classically on a candle flame, until the eyes and mind grow still. A cleansing practice and a doorway into dharana.
Triceps Brachii
triceps brachii
The three-headed muscle at the back of the upper arm. It straightens the elbow, and its long head crosses the shoulder, which is why it stretches in the top arm of cow face arms.
Turiya
turīya · the fourth
The fourth state of consciousness named in the Mandukya Upanishad, beyond waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep and beyond the senses and the intellect. Not a further experience set beside the other three but the awareness in which they arise and pass, in the Upanishad’s phrase “neither inward nor outward.” It is the ground the syllable OM points to.
U
Udana Vayu
udāna vāyu
The ascending current, seated in the throat. It governs speech, song, effort, and upward movement, and the Prashna Upanishad gives it the ascent through sushumna. The sounding practices belong to it: Om chanting, Bhramari, Simhasana, and the throat work of Ujjayi.
Ujjayi
ujjayi
The victorious or ocean breath. A gentle narrowing of the throat turns the breath to a soft oceanic sound, the inhale gathering like a wave and the exhale crashing like surf. The carrier-breath of meditation.
Upekkha
upekkha
Equanimity, the fourth of the Buddhist brahma-viharas (divine abodes) and a near-cousin of the yogic vairagya. Not indifference but a steady, spacious balance that holds all of experience without grasping or pushing away: “Equanimity is not empty; equanimity is full of everything.”
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Vaikuntha
vaikuntha
The eternal spiritual realm: the residence of Vishnu. The gate where Jaya and Vijaya stand is the boundary between the eternal and the manifest.
Vasana
vasana
A deep-seated behavioral trait, the accumulated residue of past impressions. Where a single samskara is one subconscious imprint left by an act of will, a vasana is the whole chain of them. Georg Feuerstein glosses it as “the concatenation of subliminal activators” (the samskaras) “deposited in the depth of the mind where they exert a binding effect” (Yoga Sutra 4.8, 4.24).
Vata
vāta
The dosha of movement, built of air and space. It governs breath, circulation, nerve impulse, and elimination, and it goes out of balance toward dryness, cold, and restlessness.
Vayu
vāyu
Wind or current. In yoga and Ayurveda the one life force moves as five vayus, each with its own seat and direction: prana inward and up, apana down and out, samana gathering at the navel, udana ascending through the throat, vyana spreading through the whole body. The collective name is pancha prana.
Vikriti
vikṛti
The current imbalance, in contrast with prakriti, the constitution a person is born with. Prakriti is the baseline and vikriti is today’s weather, and a practice can address the weather.
Vinyasa
vinyasa
Movement linked to breath; the connecting flows placed between poses in a sequence.
Vipaka
vipāka
The post-digestive effect: what a substance becomes once it is broken down, which can differ from how it tasted going in. Starchy food, for example, turns sweet in digestion.
Virya
vīrya
The potency of a food or herb, read as heating or cooling. It is the second of the three stages by which Ayurveda reads a substance, after taste and before post-digestive effect.
Viveka
viveka
Discernment: the capacity to distinguish what is real from what is not, what is dharmic from what is not. Vibhishana's defection from Ravana to Rama is its defining story.
Vyana Vayu
vyāna vāyu
The pervading current, with no single seat. It moves from the heart through the whole body and carries circulation in the broadest sense. The even, whole-body practices belong to it: Sama Vritti, Nadi Shodhana, and coherent breathing.
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Yagya
yagya
Fire sacrifice or ceremony. Daksha's exclusion of Shiva and Sati from his yagya, and Bali's great yagya at which Vamana arrives, are both pivotal moments in these stories.
Yama
yama
The first limb: five ethical restraints toward the world, including ahimsa (non-harming) and satya (truthfulness). The roots of the practice.
Yantra
yantra
A sacred geometric form used as an object of concentration, its center drawing the attention inward.
Yoga cikitsa
yoga cikitsā
Yoga therapy: the healing application of yoga, adapting posture, breath, sound, and sequence to one person’s condition. Gary Kraftsow’s Yoga for Wellness presents it in the Viniyoga tradition of T.K.V. Desikachar, beginning with the spine and the breath.
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