134 Spirituality Studies The results suggest that, as participants described it, spirituality is not a stable or universally defined component of yoga instruction, but rather a fluid, context-dependent dimension shaped by instructors’ experiences, competencies, and interpretations of professional responsibility. In the absence of shared standards for the spiritual and ethical aspects of yoga, instructors implicitly define what yoga means to their students and the wider public through their own pedagogical choices. By examining these processes within the Czech Republic, this research offers insight into how globalized yoga traditions may be locally interpreted and adapted. Examples from the discussion illustrate how all participants agreed that instructors and sports centers frequently choose class styles to attract new clients and increase visibility. Previous studies have observed that consumer-oriented cultural dynamics also influence contemporary yoga (Puustinen and Rautaniemi 2015, 55). One participant suggested that any yoga style that can capture the public’s attention is legitimate. Scholars have noted similar trends in discussions of innovative or hybrid yoga formats that combine postural practice with other experiential elements (Shaw 2017). In many contemporary presentations, physical activity appears to be the dominant descriptor. Some participants associated the experience of body-mind connection with spirituality, which they distinguished from institutional religion. Scholars also describe spirituality as a key dimension that differentiates yoga from other physical activities (Dawson 2013, 139–140). However, if we focus on how participants in this study perceive yoga, their accounts often reflect what has been termed modern āsana-based yoga, in which physical practice occupies a central role. From their point of view, yoga is primarily a physical exercise that may, but need not, include a spiritual component. Unlike traditional yoga, it focuses mainly on the orthopraxis of “poses” (Sa. āsana) and, rather than meditation, aims to build bodily strength. In this regard, yoga is also recommended as a form of moderately intense aerobic exercise (Schubert et al. 2018, 195–199). Curiously, the way the study participants described their personal yoga practice was in stark contrast to their perception of yoga as predominantly a physical exercise. When describing how they practice yoga individually, they mentioned reciting mantras, practicing “breathwork” (Sa. prāṇāyāma), engaging with their bodies (Sa. pratyāhāra), and performing only a few low-intensity āsanas. These elements more closely align with traditional textual formulations of yoga, such as those described in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras 1:2, 2:29. The difficulty in finding common ground among individual yoga styles led participants to reflect on whether the word “yoga” is applied too broadly in certain contexts. If we lean on the most authoritative traditional texts, the mentioned Yoga Sūtras, we will find that “Yoga is a cessation in the changes of the mind “(Yoga Sūtras 1:2). In addition, the Yoga Sūtras express only minimal interest in the physical body and describe bodily poses only in a general way – in particular: “The bodily posture (āsana) should be firm and comfortable” and “is associated with relaxation and meditation on the infinity” (Yoga Sūtras 2:46–2:47). Apart from these definitions, the book does not include any depictions of yogic poses or instructions for performing them. Participants noted that contemporary teaching practices do not always reflect this textual emphasis, even though such sources remain symbolically present in training curricula. 6.1 Limitations While the findings provide insight into how Czech yoga instructors negotiate spirituality within contemporary practice, they are based on a small, context-specific sample, and several limitations of the study must be acknowledged. First, the small sample size reflects IPA’s idiographic orientation and the exploratory nature of this pilot study. While this approach enables in-depth engagement with lived experiences of participants, it necessarily limits the scope of transferability. Second, all participants were based within the Czech Republic and operated within comparable institutional and training frameworks. This contextual coherence was consistent with the study’s focus on the national development of modern yoga. However, it may have contributed to overlapping interpretative patterns shaped by shared sociocultural conditions. The findings, therefore, illustrate a specific professional environment rather than offering a cross-cultural comparison. Third, the group’s relatively homogeneous composition, including its demographic characteristics and professional
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