Buddhist Temple Yoga
寺ヨガ — tera 寺 yoga ヨガ
In Japan, there is an interesting blend of modern postural yoga with Buddhist meditation. Apparently, the online presence of Tera 寺 Yoga ヨガ or ‘Temple Yoga’ has only occurred in the past 5 years, or so. In Kyoto, one can find yoga classes offered in several temples. Many are not advertised online. It is a matter of visiting the temple to find a local resident, who offers yoga classes at the temple. Some people might use their relative’s temple as the classroom, simply because they might be able to pay a reduced amount for renting the space. I’ve been to only one Tera 寺 Yoga ヨガ class so far, which turned out to be a Sivananda style hatha/kriya yoga class. It was patronised by 100% women in their 40s — 60s. My wife and I were walking around the grounds of the local temple, and noticed a sign, in English, that said ‘YOGA’. We asked the monk at the office, who informed us that the temple offered three yoga classes a week. They occur on Monday, Wednesday and Friday around 10–11am.
Tera 寺 Yoga ヨガ can be found in Kyoto. This is the website to one of them. I haven’t had the chance to get there, yet.
The left sentence in the picture reads: ゆつたり yuttari ヨガ yoga = relaxed yoga. Here is a free booklet if you want to know more about this style of ヨガ. The cover is below. You can actually purchase the booklet via Amazon.
