Posture (Āsana)

Āsana is the yoga posture. For Patañjali it is simply the seat that is 'steady and comfortable' — a body settled enough that it no longer distracts the mind, the minimal physical basis for long meditation. Haṭha-yoga greatly expanded this, describing many specific postures to discipline and purify the body before breath-control and meditation. The familiar modern image of yoga as a wealth of postures grows from this haṭha elaboration, far beyond Patañjali's single spare definition.