YogoLogo
Concepts
Every idea on the site, and where it lives.
One place for every key idea the traditions name. Each tradition has its own words for the same handful of truths; the cards below link to where each idea lives in full. Where a concept's home is elsewhere in the framework, a limb or the Layered Self or the Convergence, you'll see it noted.
Buddhism
- The four noble truths Buddhism's starting point: suffering exists, has a cause, can end, and there is a way.
- The middle path The road between harsh self-denial and chasing pleasure.
- The three marks of existence Three things true of all life: it changes, it can't fully satisfy, it has no fixed self.
- The three poisons The three roots of suffering: greed, hatred, and confusion.
- The five skandhas The five bundles that together make up what we call a self.
- Dependent origination Nothing stands alone: everything arises from causes and conditions.
- Indra's net / interbeing Reality as an endless net where every part reflects all the others.
- The noble eightfold path Eight areas of life to train, from how we see to how we focus.
- The five precepts Five everyday commitments, like not harming and not lying, that steady the mind.
- Samatha and Vipassana The two halves of meditation: calm settling, and clear seeing.
- The four divine abodes (Brahmaviharas) Four hearts to grow: kindness, compassion, joy for others, and calm.
- Nirvana The cool peace that remains when craving and suffering burn out. Lives in Absorption · Samadhi
Psychology
- Self-actualisation Becoming the fullest version of who you can be.
- Self-transcendence Reaching past yourself, toward others and something larger.
- Peak experience Rare moments of awe when you feel wholly alive and connected.
- Flow Being so absorbed in what you're doing that time falls away. Lives in Concentration · Dharana
- The hedonic treadmill Why new pleasures fade fast, leaving us chasing the next one.
- Logotherapy and the will to meaning Frankl's idea that what drives us most is a need for meaning.
- The attention economy How modern technology competes to capture and sell your focus.
- Maslow's hierarchy of needs Human needs as a ladder, from food and safety up to fulfilment.
Stoicism
- The dichotomy of control Sorting what is up to you from what isn't, and letting the rest go.
- The four cardinal virtues The Stoic core: wisdom, courage, justice, and self-control.
- Stoic mindfulness (Prosoche) Steady attention to how you are thinking and acting, right now.
- Equanimity (Apatheia) Freedom from being ruled by turbulent emotion, not coldness; the calm, untroubled mind (ataraxia) it brings.
- Negative visualisation (Praemeditatio malorum) Quietly picturing loss in advance, so you treasure what you have.
- Logos The rational order running through all of nature.
- Eudaimonia A life well lived: flourishing, not just feeling good. Lives in The Convergence
Yoga Philosophy
- Chitta vritti nirodhah Yoga in one line: the quieting of the mind's restless activity.
- The Layered Self You seen as nested layers: body, senses, ego, intellect, and the still awareness at the centre. Lives in The Layered Self
- The five sheaths (Koshas) Five nested coverings over the self, from the physical body inward.
- Consciousness and its fluctuations (Chitta and vrittis) The mind, and the constant ripples of thought that move across it.
- Imprints and tendencies (Samskara and vasana) The grooves past actions leave, quietly shaping what we do next.
- The five afflictions (kleshas) The five root troubles that cloud the mind and cause suffering.
- Karma Action and its consequences: every intentional act leaves a trace that shapes what follows.
- Purusha and Prakriti The still witness within, and the ever-changing nature it observes.
- Three aspects of self-realisation The one awareness seen three ways: beyond all things, as all things, and within you.
- Prana Life-force: the vital energy the breath carries through you. Lives in Breath · Pranayama
- Practice and non-attachment (Abhyasa and Vairagya) Yoga's two wings: steady practice, and letting go of the results. Lives in Absorption · Samadhi
- The three qualities (Gunas) Three threads woven through everything: clarity, activity, and inertia.
Companion traditions
Ayurveda
- The five elements Earth, water, fire, air, and space: the building blocks of body and world.
- The three doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) Three energies that shape your nature, and tip you in and out of balance.
- Constitution and imbalance (Prakruti and vikruti) Your natural makeup, and how far you have drifted from it.
- Digestive fire and residue (Agni and ama) The body's digestive fire, and the residue left when it burns low.
- The six tastes Sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, astringent: each acts on the body.
- Settled in the self (Swastha) Ayurveda's word for health: at home and at ease in yourself.
- Dinacharya A daily rhythm of small routines that keep you in balance. Lives in Withdrawal · Pratyahara
Reiki
- Ki (vital energy) The body's vital life-energy, in the Japanese tradition.
- The five principles (the Gokai) Five gentle daily intentions, each beginning 'just for today', taken one day at a time.
- The three bodies Body, mind, and spirit, the three layers Reiki tends.
- Balanced cleansing (Heikin joka) Clearing and rebalancing the body's energy.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Qi (vital energy) The vital energy that animates the body and keeps it working.
- Yin and yang Two opposite, balancing forces present in everything.
- The five phases Five stages (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) mapping how energy moves and changes.
- Meridians The pathways qi travels through the body.
- Free flow is health The core idea: energy moving freely is health; energy stuck is where illness begins.