Secret Weapon-- Yoga

　　美麗的秘密武器——瑜伽

　　Feeling tired? Under too much stress? No time to exercise?

　　累了嗎?壓力太大嗎?沒空運動?

　　Well, you may want to try yoga. It’s what more and more people have been turning to ease the troubles of modern life. Practically unheard of in the West until 50 years ago, yoga has become one of the most popular health trends around.

　　那么，你也許想試試瑜伽。已經有越來越多的人求助瑜伽來舒緩現代生活的煩惱。五十年前在西方幾乎還沒有人聽說過瑜伽，可是現在它已經成為世界各地流行的健康風潮之一。

　　Yoga has become so popular in recent years; it’s easy to overlook the fact that it is actually one of humankind’s oldest activities. Scholars think that yoga grew out of the methods used by shamans of the Indus Valley, more than 5,000 years ago.

　　近年來瑜伽如此受歡迎，很容易讓人忽略一個事實：瑜伽其實是人類古老的活動之一。學者認為瑜伽發源自五千多年前印度河谷里巫師所采用的做法。

　　For thousands of years yoga was practiced mainly in India. The exercises of yoga were　incorporated into three of the Indian religions: Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Technically, yoga is not a religion; it is a method that can be used by anyone to pursue their own religious (or non-religious) goals. Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, practiced yogic meditation, and meditation is still a central part of Buddhism today.

　　幾千年來，瑜伽主要在印度盛行。瑜伽運動被整合到印度三大宗教中：印度教、耆那教以及佛教。嚴格說來瑜伽并不是宗教;它是任何人都可以使用的方法，用來追求個人的宗教(或非宗教)目標。佛教創始者悉達多(釋迦牟尼的本名)，就做過瑜伽打坐，而打坐直到現在依然是佛教的重要部分。

　　Yoga was practically unknown to the West until the 1960s, when popular culture began to show an interest in Eastern religions. Pop culture icons, such as the Beatles, helped popularize yoga by showing interest in yogic meditation. People began to look at yoga as a way to find peace of mind in a world that was anything but peaceful.

　　西方世界對瑜伽幾乎是一無所知，直到20世紀60年代才改變，當時的流行文化開始對東方宗教產生興趣。流行文化偶像例如披頭士對瑜伽打坐表現出興趣，這有助于瑜伽的推廣。人們開始將瑜伽看作一種在這個絕對不平靜的世界里尋求內心平靜的方式。

　　Since the 1960s yoga’s popularity has grown steadily. Nowadays, Westerners practice all kinds of yoga. There is Bikram, or “hot Yoga,” done in rooms heated to over 40 degrees Centigrade. There is baby yoga in which infants copy the stretching poses of their mothers. There are even yoga classes for people in their 70s!

　　20世紀60年代以來，瑜伽受歡迎的程度一直在穩定增長。現在，西方人做各種各樣的瑜伽。有彼克蘭瑜伽，又稱“熱瑜伽”，要在加熱到攝氏四十度以上的房間里做。也有嬰兒瑜伽，小寶寶模仿母親做伸展運動。甚至還有專為七十多歲銀發族開設的瑜伽課程!