Secret Weapon-- Yoga
美丽的秘密武器——瑜伽
Feeling tired? Under too much stress? No time to exercise?
累了吗?压力太大吗?没空运动?
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，你也许想试试瑜伽。已经有越来越多的人求助瑜伽来舒缓现代生活的烦恼。五十年前在西方几乎还没有人听说过瑜伽，可是现在它已经成为世界各地最流行的健康风潮之一。
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.
近年来瑜伽如此受欢迎，很容易让人忽略一个事实：瑜伽其实是人类最古老的活动之一。学者认为瑜伽发源自五千多年前印度河谷里巫师所采用的做法。
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.
几千年来，瑜伽主要在印度盛行。瑜伽运动被整合到印度三大宗教中：印度教、耆那教以及佛教。严格说来瑜伽并不是宗教;它是任何人都可以使用的方法，用来追求个人的宗教(或非宗教)目标。佛教创始者悉达多(释迦牟尼的本名)，就做过瑜伽打坐，而打坐直到现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.
西方世界对瑜伽几乎是一无所知，直到20世纪60年代才改变，当时的流行文化开始对东方宗教产生兴趣。流行文化偶像例如披头士对瑜伽打坐表现出兴趣，这有助于瑜伽的推广。人们开始将瑜伽看作一种在这个绝对不平静的世界里寻求内心平静的方式。
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世纪60年代以来，瑜伽受欢迎的程度一直在稳定增长。现在，西方人做各种各样的瑜伽。有彼克兰瑜伽，又称“热瑜伽”，要在加热到摄氏四十度以上的房间里做。也有婴儿瑜伽，小宝宝模仿母亲做伸展运动。甚至还有专为七十多岁银发族开设的瑜伽课程!
