Lin, Kwan Ting Maggie. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 190-195). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction / Literature Review --- p.17 / "Theories of the Body, Class and Social Status" --- p.21 / Theories of Globalization --- p.28 / Why Yoga in Hong Kong --- p.32 / Defining Social Class in Hong Kong --- p.32 / Methodology --- p.39 / Personal Statement --- p.42 / Structure of the Thesis --- p.44 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Yoga in Hong Kong and its Historical Development / The 1950s Indian Wave --- p.48 / The 1980s-90s Western Wave --- p.52 / The Commercial Yoga Boom --- p.54 / Characteristics of Yoga in Hong Kong --- p.58 / My Fieldsites --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Yoga Studios: The Construction of Difference and Distinction / Features of Yoga Studios in Hong Kong --- p.65 / Studio Space for Leisure --- p.68 / Liminality and Yogic Ambience --- p.70 / "“Playing Yoga""" --- p.74 / Conspicuous Leisure --- p.75 / Discipline vs. Leisure --- p.81 / Membership as a Status Symbol --- p.87 / Conclusion --- p.90 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Practitioners and Teachers: Ethnicity and Respect / Verbs for Describing Degree of Engagement in Yoga --- p.92 / “Doing Yoga´ح --- p.93 / “Practicing Yoga´ح --- p.93 / "Ethnicity, Respect, and Relationships" --- p.95 / "Yoga, Ethnicity，and Status" --- p.103 / Ethnicity and Social Class --- p.112 / Beyond Ethnicity? Internationalism --- p.117 / Conclusion --- p.118 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Yoga and the Fetishism of the Body / Marketing and Advertising of Yoga and the Ideal Female Body --- p.122 / Yoga and the Slim Body Ideal in Hong Kong --- p.124 / Different Slimming Rhetorics --- p.125 / Mirrors and Discipline --- p.127 / Studios as Panopticon --- p.129 / The Slimming Myth --- p.131 / Yoga and the Fetishism of the Body in Hong Kong --- p.133 / Body as Capital --- p.134 / Body as Class Signifier --- p.135 / Conclusion --- p.139 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Beyond the Body? Spirituality and Distinction / Yoga and Spirituality --- p.143 / Yoga and Mysticism --- p.147 / Beyond the Body? --- p.150 / "Yoga, Spirituality and Progression" --- p.154 / Body vs. Spirituality --- p.156 / Disciplining the Body --- p.162 / Distinction and Class Analysis --- p.172 / Conclusion --- p.175 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion: The Significance of Yoga as Distinction in Hong Kong Limitation --- p.178 / Summary of Chapters --- p.179 / Leisure and Discipline in Hong Kong --- p.181 / Globalization and Yoga in Hong Kong --- p.182 / Capital Transference in the Capitalist Society --- p.183 / "Yoga, Class，and Status Evolution" --- p.184 / Reflections from the Failure of the Hong Kong Yoga Journal --- p.186 / "A New ""Yogic"" Hong Kong?" --- p.187 / Bibliographies --- p.191 / Appendix --- p.198

This thesis contains a critical edition, translation and study of the Amanaska, which is a medieval Sanskrit yoga text of one hundred and ninety-eight verses in two chapters (adhyāya). Seventy-five manuscripts have been consulted for this edition and thirty-two were selected for the full collation on the basis of stemmatic analysis on a sample collation of all the manuscripts. The critical apparatus contains references to parallel verses in other works and the notes to the translation provide further information on the content, terminology and obscure passages of the text by citing other Sanskrit works, in particular, earlier Tantras and medieval yoga texts, as well as a Nepalese commentary on the Amanaska. The first part of the Introduction contains a summary of the text and an examination of the colophons of all the available manuscripts in order to establish the proper titles of the text and each of the chapters. Unlike previous editors, I have adopted the title Amanaska because it is found in the great majority of manuscript colophons. The title of previous printed editions, Amanaskayoga, appears to derive from nineteenth-century manuscript catalogues. The authorship of the text has been discussed in light of the claim made in recent Indian scholarship that it was written by Gorakṣanātha, the pupil of Matysendranātha. I conclude that the author is unknown. Discrepancies between the chapters, in particular, various incongruities in content and differences in the limits of dating, strongly suggest that both chapters were originally composed as separate works. Unlike previous editions, this one is based on the north-Indian recension. There is evidence that the north-Indian recension has preserved a more coherent version of the first chapter. The additional verses of the south-Indian recension have been edited and included separately in appendix A. The first part of the Introduction also includes fourteen sections on the content of the Amanaska. The first six of these sections are on absorption (laya), the practice of eliminating reality levels (tattva) and Layayoga, and the following sections cover yogic powers (siddhi), Śāmbhavī Mudrā, the term amanaska and the Amanaska's known sources for verses on the no-mind state. The final section called, 'Amanaska: the Effortless Leap to Liberation' examines the salient teachings of the Amanaska in light of previous ascetic, yogic and tantric traditions, in an attempt to answer questions about whom its intended audience may have been and its place within India's history of yoga. The first part of the Introduction concludes with a discussion of yoga texts which have been either directly or indirectly influenced by the Amanaska. Seeing that many of these texts have not been critically edited or translated, I have discussed their date of composition and their content in addition to the material that derives from the Amanaska. The second part of the Introduction provides essential details on the seventy-four manuscripts consulted for this edition, brief comments on the shortcomings of the previous printed editions and an explanation of the editing methodology. The recensions of the text are discussed in this section as well as my editorial policy. The critical edition and translation of the Amanaska are presented together. Each Sanskrit verse is followed by the translation and its critical apparatus is at the bottom of the page. The endnotes to each verse are located at the end of its respective chapter. Appendices B-E include four stemmatic diagrams along with brief descriptions of each hyparchetype, a list of symbols and abbreviations and an outline of the conventions used in the critical apparatus.

The experimenter's purpose was to assess whether short-term yoga training could improve overall well-being in female college students. There were two parts to the study. The first part included 98 participants, who took three questionnaires measuring anxiety, depression, and subjective well-being. The measures used were, the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and an original Subjective Sense of Well-being questionnaire. The experimenter wanted to see if there was a difference in perceived anxiety, depression, and health-related quality of life between males and females. There were 53 females and 45 males. In an Independent ttest, the results indicated that females differed significantly in anxiety, depression, and health-related quality of life measures. When compared to males, the females had more negative perceptions of their anxiety, depression, and well-being. In the second part of the study, eight participants, who were students at University of Central Florida, volunteered to attend eight yoga sessions, each an hour long. Since four of the participants attended only one session, the experimenter compared these (Low Attendance) to the four participants who attended all of the yoga sessions (High Attendance) over a period of four weeks (2 yoga sessions per week). Results were analyzed using a 2X2 mixed ANOV A. Results failed to demonstrate significant main effects for Pre-Post for any of the 3 dependent measures. Main effects for participation (High vs. Low) were not significant for anxiety or depression, but did reveal significantly higher subjective well-being for the High participants group. No interaction effects were significant.