ASANA

n. position or manner of sitting used in Yoga

Asana, Sanskrit for "sitting posture" (asanam is 'sitting' or 'ass' / aste is 'he sits'), is a body position, typically associated with the practice of Yoga, intended primarily to restore and maintain a practioner's well-being, improve the body's flexibility and vitality, and promote the ability to remain in seated meditation for extended periods. In the context of Yoga practice, asana refers to two things: the place where a practitioner (yogin (general usage); yogi (male); yogini (female)) sits and the manner (posture) in which s/he sits. In the Yoga sutras, Patanjali suggests that asana is "to be seated in a position that is firm, but relaxed". As the repertoire of postures has expanded and moved beyond the simple sitting posture over the centuries, modern usage has come to include variations from lying on the back and standing on the head, to a variety of other positions.In the Yoga sutras, Patanjali mentions the execution of an asana as the third of the eight limbs of Classical or Raja yoga.
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Noun
1. (Hinduism) a posture or manner of sitting (as in the practice of Yoga)
(hypernym) position, posture, attitude
(hyponym) matsyendra
(classification) Hinduism, Hindooism

n. baton, staff, stick, rod, scepter, sceptre [Brit.], wand

Asana (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root as to sit quietly] One of the postures adopted by Hindu ascetics; five are usually enumerated, although nearly ninety have been noted. However, they are not of deep spiritual value or meaning: "Providing that the position of the body be comfortable so that the mind is least distracted, genuine meditation and spiritual and actual introspection can be readily and successfully attained by any earnest student without the slightest attention being paid to these various postures. A man may be sitting quietly in his arm-chair, or lying in his bed at night, or sitting or lying on the grass in a forest, and can more readily enter the inner worlds than by adopting and following any one or more of these various Asanas, which at the best are physiological aids of relatively small value" (OG 7).