This is a fascinating subject, thanks!
I am male (last time I checked 
) but also wondered many times if Yoga is for women (I know, it sounds machist but it is not meant like that at all…). I mean, women - in general of course - do not seem so interested in all the subtleties of ‘mind’ or ‘controling one’s mind’ or ‘getting to know th emeaning of life’, etc. Women, it seems to me, are less concerned with existential matters than men are. Hey, maybe I am wrong and I am going to be jumped at here but I am talking from my own perspective and experience only! No harm intended!
I once heard a beautiful explanation for this. It was from Russell Crowe, the actor (from all people 
- no zen master I know ). He said that it seemed to him that women were not so concerned with existential matters as men more commonly are. Women are more connected to the earth and practical matters. He believed it maybe had something to do with the fact that women are biologically connected with the circle of birth and death (through the ability to conceive and deliver a new life) and so are almost instinctively connected with the ‘meaning of life’. Men are kind of ‘lost’ in this (‘inferior’ in a way) and so ‘strive’ to understand and reach furtehr to the bottom of the question (“who am I” and all that stuff). Of course, some are so good at it that indeed they get very far!
I felt that, everytime I tried to explain or teach yoga to a woman, it felt almost weird. It was like pouring out all these abstract concepts about ‘truth’ etc. that they did not care about much. It was, in a way, like preaching to a priest . It was liek they already knew all those things, and did not even had to think about it or worry abotu that, so what the hell was I talking about then?..
Some more fun on differences between the male and female manifestation…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuMZ73mT5zM
It is great to hear others resonate with Osho also. What this proves is that Yogani’s no guru-bashing policy is correct. Even though I find flaws in Osho’s words, it has nothing to do with the power of his teachings for others.
And this can be applied to all people around us: Their flaws don’t invalidate other parts of them.
Once there was discrimination because of skin color. Now we have discrimination because of political and religious beliefs. None of it is valid.
Let’s not forget that Yoga is not asanas. Perhaps asanas were created by men, but supposedly they came from automatic movements, inspired into people well along the enlightenment path. So then they were taught to others to try to inspire them also. So if these automatic movements came through men, obviously they could be gender influenced.
How about some women who have had automatic movements creating new feminine asanas for the women of the world?
But let’s not get caught up in the western idea that asanas are yoga. Yogani has shown that meditation is the heart of yoga.
i haven’t watched the videos yet - later.
I’m glad that there is some female perspective on this now…Very helpful…
My only observation is this… I occasionally will go to an asana class. Usually either Bikrams, Ashtanga, or Vinyasa flow…There is ALWAYS at least 90% females in the class. Most of them are MUCH more flexible than I, and I assume most of them do postures regularly, yet I have not noticed a single girl with a moustache 
. (usually they are mostly pretty cute! 
) Just an observation. 
Love,
Carson 
I began with meditation 3 years ago reading the book of secrets and doing osho meditations like kundalini meditation from osho or nadabrahma meditation…some teachings are powerful altought i dont trust in Osho very much (strange life stile and organitation…).Thanks to osho i “tasted” the joy of no mind for the first time in my life.
He inespired my path at the begining very much.I liked his revolutionaries points of view
I know how that is. I was helped more than anything by Castaneda’s teachings, which may have very well been a hoax! I think he was quite knowledgable, but I think the stories of where the information came from, and what actually happened may have been fabricated. Christians say “The lord works in mysterious ways”. The forces of the universe in my life have worked in ways so dark that I doubt if most Christians would want to claim any part of it!
But it was always exactly what I needed.
Ditto!
BULA everybody! 
(I couldn’t find any icon with moustache, sorry!)
I’m glad that my thread found echoes in many of you.
Katrine: you should jump with both your feet in tango: as you said, you might surprise yourself (like I did with myself 
)
emc: thank you for the videos and sharing… it shows that we shouldn’t draw any conclusion… so amazing to hear that men are brought up like women in Fidji, and are given the choice to remain like “that” or not
YIL: yes, I agree that woman is more “earthly” designed! but today, in our modern societies, or at least here in my country, women are becoming more and more disconnected with Mother Earth…so they are searching - and showing - “outside” what they already have “inside”, naturally… but this is another big subject to be discussed…
Carson: watch your “girls” in asana class more carefully: maybe they removed their moustache with laser or wax… never know
No but seriously, the basic asana (like surya namaskar) are quite gentle and I don’t feel they don’t fit women’s system…that’s my experience though…
Miguel: what do you mean by “strange lifestyle and organization”? to me, Osho is the exact opposite of any chosen or established lifestyle! now what happened after he left, and how the people in his ashram are managing the whole thing is a different story…
Personally, I feel Osho. I don’t see “him” as a man, a master, a guru or whatever… I absorb him as consciousness and I am particularily receptive to the fragrance of his teaching and words…
I like his paradoxical approach… he makes me conscious of the infinite freedom I have in my hands, whatever the situation I am in.
Also, he never give a system or readymade and logical answer that satisfies the mind and ego… he leaves you in total freedom to explore… he’s only a bright light that is concerned with your inner light and your ability to grow your inner light without dependance on anybody or anything…
I love his fragrance, his dance…(without playing with the words )
Hi again Etherfish…
whatever the story, be it true or false, if it resonates in you, then there is some truth in it, don’t you feel so?
Even if Satan himself comes and tells me a joke that echoes inside of me and triggers something in me, should I disbelieve what he says just because he’s considered as evil?
And Castaneda and magical passes (tensegrity) …were inspiration here also
Its amazing those strange ways God works
Sorry for the break on this topic.You are talking about women and yoga,i know…
Hi Godess
I talking about the fact that he was a man followed by very much people,and he created and organitation.
I think osho had a great knowledge and an astonishing inteligence…i felt his presence in my life also while reading it and while not reading…
But when i see and organitation,and a man worhsiped as some kind of god,i run away because it can be dangerous game(hes a human after all)…his lifestyle was strange…he bought lots of rollroyces,and im sure he had lot of money around,and…it makes me distrust him…
I think seeds of spiritual practice should be planted in a ground of the stile of ayp for example…and the sentence the guru is in you is the best spiritual sentence i have found…its my opinion…i know osho talks about that also…but is different…
For example who is oshos spiritual path? his tools and meditation are powerfull,but i think they are agresive tools,and without a clear structure…its like a big supermarket and you take what you want…and…how can i manage it over the long term?
I experienced the bigger states beyond the mind i have had with some meditations from osho,but thats all,only scenary experiences…and i felt it could lead you to be an experiences addict…
No, that was exactly my point; that different people learn in different ways, and even satan can teach somebody something valuable.
After all, he was an angel!
“Diversity” equals different tastes.
And yes, if it resonates with someone it is good. I don’t know if you can say that is truth. But, yes, I can see true things in Osho’s writings above. But in some subjects like spirituality, truth may not be the most important attribute to look for. What is true for one may not be true for another.
Yes, if we talk about each one experiences along the path… we can never truly know what the other is experiencing BUT we are all on the same boat! We are all attracted, in a way or another, to the same source, call it God, Truth, Light, Love…
There is one and absolute Truth in which we dissolve; there’s no more question of your truth or my truth: we are no more!
(by the way, sorry for the misunderstanding concerning Satan or what resonates in you…although I read you 2 or 3 times before sending my reply )
Love
I totally agree with you about the guru business and cult… I am the last one who would get involved in such distorsion of spirituality.
That said, I won’t go into a meaningless debate concerning Osho’s Rolls Royce and Rollex! Usually, that’s the main concern of people who criticize Osho… He was simply showing that it’s all a game: you can have nothing or have a huge wealth, it’s all a game and why not enjoying the game, as long as you remain aware and free from it?
What’s the problem in enjoying and embracing those 2 opposites?
Is it necessary to be a Mother Theresa to be respectable and considered as spiritually correct?!
I don’t defend Osho… I don’t care about Osho…but I care about seeing the distinction between Truth and all the business around…
I care about the freedom one has to experience anything in life, going deeply into any manifestation of Life on this planet…
as long as one remains aware…
Anyway, whatever the path we are walking on, Truth is nowhere else but IN us…
That brought us a little far from moustaches and women in yoga, but if the flow needs to express certain things, we shouldn’t refrain it.(should we?! )
Love
Hi Goddess,
Can’t give you an expert response from point of view of physiology/biochem etc but can share bits from my experience. I am practicing AYP DM SB pranayama, mula bandha and sambhavi daily for over 3 years now. I find it very beneficial from point of view of energy levels and it enables me to reach a degree of personal effectiveness that I never experienced before. My tits and butt did not shrink and I don’t feel masculine. I also don’t have masculine look or tendency–still wear make up and high heel shoes daily and my hair is almost waist length. Having said that I do have personality traits that can be defined as masculine such as independence, ambition, drive, competitive personality but this was from before I started yoga. So I would disagree with Osho overall. I however never did asanas on a daily basis for years like I do DM and SB so less qualified to comment there. I do asanas couple of times a week or so and think they are very beneficial, but since I never had the motivation to do them daily cannot comment from experience. However the women hatha teachers I met so far were all actually quite feminine. Even those whom I haven’t seen live but I have a DVD like this one http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NRV4TKBAL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
I agree with you that belly dancing is fun and gives you beneficial flexibility in the hips and is great for your mood but don’t think this is any substitute for yoga whatsoever. No way. Good luck, Lili
Meditation is the primary tool of Yoga, not asanas. Dancing is for grounding in between meditation.
This is a fascinating discussion, and it really made me think. At first, I had the automatic reaction to label Osho’s comments as total B.S., inasmuch as I’d been a disciple of the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for many years, and took teacher training with him in 1976, with my wife! My late wife was a beautiful and delicate woman, every bit the female, very much in tune with Mother Divine. We spent over 2 years together in ashram doing meditations for hours, alternating with much asana and pranayama practices. Later, Maharishi taught us siddhis, so over the course of our 34 years together, we continuously practiced an array of yoga techniques. What makes me consider that Osho might have a point here is that, off and on during our marriage, my late wife would STOP being very feminine at all, and suddenly begin to act a lot like a man–in her sexual responses, in her needs and desires for intimacy and companionship, and in her ambitions and energies. She seemed to swing widely from very feminine to nearly masculine–I NEVER in all our years together, considered this might be due to our meditation practices, but now I have second thoughts. Very interesting indeed, I have much now to consider…
Thank you,
Michael
hi all,
i must say that i agree with Goddess on some points bcz if i come to think of it most of the yoginis i met were more masculine than your average woman and most of them were into hatha yoga.
but to be honest we can’t just say yet if there is a right or wrong here, but in general from what i’ve noticed most woman who practice hatha yoga tend to have more masculine attributes than your average woman.
as an add on for a hatha yogic routine i think that meditation and pranayama with focus on certain locations like the heart and tantric and bhakti and spiritual dancing practices like those whom Gurdijef used to teach will help a lot here.
for these practices involve an outpouring of passion and love into them and a surrender… unlike most of the yogic stands where it’s sort of pushing ahead and kind of dry but there is no black and white in this of course bcz some of my other friends are in love with asanas they give them all the thrills they need and on the other hand they are absent from most of the other sitting practices bcz of a long asana routine…
speaking for myself i am not such a fan of asanas and did hurt myself once bcz of them a few years back; now i just do a little tiny amount before my sitting practices and that’s it.
so my sisters hell yeah dance go for it , and dancing is not just dancing it can be mindfull and an act of worship and celebration to god and to the divine feminine within you and peace in every gentle and eloquent movement.
everything is sacred it depends on the way we look at it, some see wood as a piece of wood nothing more nothing less and others see GodGod’s marvel in that peace of wood.
i am a big fan of belly dancing by the way, like it when you ladies shake them hips .
light and love,
Ananda
Hi all, and thank you for each participation… much appreciated.
I should clarify one point: no, I will never substitute yoga for dance… As I said, I feel it’s a balancing activity which, until now at least, is enhancing a lot my daily practices, especially that I bring much mindfullness to it, so in itself, it becomes more than just moving my hips it becomes a meditation in the sense that “I” disappear and melt in the music and flow of Life energy.
The same merging happened to me, on a more physically quiet note, yesterday, when I spent hours in the mountain, connected to an old oak…“I” simply disappeared… the body sensations faded away for a moment, and I reached a similar state of “deep sleep” - while being still “awake” - than the state I reach in AYP DM.
Actually, I picked up - randomly, but not by mistake! - a technique from the Book of Secrets. That was the one about touching the eyes balls like a feather…Before picking this technique, I did what I often do: I asked to open on a page that would give me the best thing I need at that moment. I remained with this request for about a minute, in silence…and suddenly, my hands opened the book and I saw this technique that is concerned with stimulating the third eye and heart, by the way…
Funny because it’s been a while my eyes are feeling tired with burning sensation (I used to put it on the computer radiations, although I don’t spend much time in front of the screen)…
Then, in the evening, I joined the monthly satsang of Isha Foundation… usually, I go there to tune to the higher energies that always removes my blocks, through the presence of the guru energies…and yesterday, it happened too. YET, it was the first time I was feeling totally homeless!!! instead of leaving the place in peace and joyful inside, I was more lost than ever! I had this increasing feeling of “this is not for me… my heart doesn’t vibrate to what Saddghuru said… also it was deadly logical, as usual! But there’s no fragrance… there’s technique… there’s mastering of energies, but where’s love? where’s dance?”
At the end of the satsang, I asked the teacher about this issue of yoga and women… I won’t go into details… but we agreed that there was no absolute rule, and the best thing to do is listen to what feels good and gives stability inside…
But how to know if it’s the ego that wants to feel comfortable, or truly the heart? coz the ego can sometimes be very cunning and create many subtle excuses…
I asked the teacher whether it would be safe for my energy to drop the practices for a while and replace them with other ones that I feel “softer” and let’s say more “feminine”, yet powerful… she said I would certainly loose, but on the other hand, I should be aware of what the new practices would do to my system…
So again, I’m still facing a dilemna…
And I know fairly well the price I pay each time I skip my practices for 1 or 2 days… it takes about 1 week to recover a certain balance…
Added to this, before I left the satsang, I bought a new DVD from Saddhguru Jaggi Vasudev on Tantra! I watched it yesterday evening, and it sounded so heavy and difficult that I really freaked out! It had nothing to do with any Tantra stuff i read, even Yogani’s lessons (Hi Yogani )
I wish I could share with all of you this video… will check out if I can do so from the DVD.
But during 20 minutes, the main ideas were that it’s shameful that Tantra, which literally means ‘technology’, has been abused and misunderstood to be mere unbridled promiscuity, especially in the West.(I agree on this point at least!)
Also, he said that, originally, Tantra was about going beyond individual limitations. He talks about Goddesses that were created by humanbeings as powerful entities they could call through a certain processes. And blablabla, but not a single word on the sexual aspect of Tantra, the role of Woman, the simplicity of acceptance and total ‘yes’ to any manifestation of Life… Rather a heavy discourse that makes the audience feel that Tantra is totally unaccessible! At least, this is how I perceived it…
So, sorry if I’m including many things off the main topic of this thread, but actually, I feel they are all connected.
-the guru role
-tantra/yoga relationship (alone and with women)
-ego vs heart on the spiritual journey
I woke up this morning with such a confusion as if the balance I attained lately suddenly collapsed in just a few hours!
In itself, it’s good: at least, it prevented me from relying on my comfortable routine and beliefs! But it’s such an uncomfortable feeling now to belong to nothing, no system, no idea!
This is how it is now.
I think it would be best that I go meditate and tune again into silence. Also I feel that whatever creates frictions and put me in an instable state, with no answer that vibrates in my heart, should be thrown away…
I cannot go on practising the techniques I learned just for the sake of bringing my energies to high levels! What if the heart doesn’t follow?! It’s total nonsense!
I’m not running after enlightenment, or liberation.
I won’t let a so-called guru disturb my faith in what I feel in my heart… whatever truth he speaks.
(sorry for the long post )
This may not be the appropriate place for the whole thread now, but still I’m putting Tantra in the context of my initial question about Yoga and women…so, maybe it’s not that much out of the subject.
Ok, I will share with you what Sadghuru said quite briefly about Tantra, which disturbed me quite enough:
The human mind, initially, is designed in such a way that it can create things that can become a living reality on the condition that you don’t impose your personality on it.
But today, this great capability has been lost because of many limitations.
The whole Tantra Yoga is about breaking the individual shell so that what you do doesn’t happen as a petit individual but happens as a whole.
(…)
[he says that you can create things, piece by piece, using your mind, and infusing those things with Life forces so that they become a living reality… that’s how ancient tantric people created entities or goddesses they could call through certain processes]
It takes a great amount of sadhana to be able to create as the Creator did. The most fundamental thing is to keep your personality off your imagination.
So here, I’m asking the question: what all of this has to do with the Tantra we “know” and are practising today?
Thank you for taking the time to read and eventually reply.