Does yoga teach ceremonies, rituals, philosophy, dogma, or religion such as Hinduism or Buddhism?
No. Although there exist some common terms used by Hindu and Buddhist Indians in the Yoga Sutras, the Yoga Sutras are entirely practice based; i.e., empirical. The only requirement is to be open minded, alert, and suspend the prisons of our belief systems. Here the practices lead to and reveal via direct experience underlying universal principles, hence the Yoga Sutras serve as a field manual where one’s own body, mind, and breath is the laboratory, in the experiment of life. The experiment is over when the yogi succeeds in embodying the yoga. Yoga is universal devoid of any limitations such as race, creed, nationality, sex, province, or even species. Yoga is all inclusive.
