Total Yoga

What makes one a terrorist and what makes one a good person?

It is the mind. The mind can be a saint and the mind can be a

sinner, and it is that mind which has to be dealt with. As a system

of mind management, yoga helps to change and transform the

hyper agitated mind and make it more peaceful and content. In

the beginning we come to yoga to deal with our mind, to deal with

tension, frustration and anxiety, to learn how to relax and let go.

Eventually, as our involvement with yoga increases, we come to

know the other dimensions and aspects of yoga, but originally the

effort is to understand the mind.  – Paramhamsa Niranjan Ananda

In some recent posts I may have seemed to disparage the physical practices of yoga, the yoga asanas.  In fact, I try to practice asanas daily and encourage anyone to do so.  Asanas benefit us on physical, psychological and spiritual levels in terms of health and development.  When practiced properly, i.e. mindfully, asanas are a form of meditation and help us to integrate these three aspects of our beings (physical, psychological and spiritual.)  As Alex Korb, Ph.D. writes, “Yoga can supposedly improve depressive symptoms and immune function, as well as decrease chronic pain, reduce stress, and lower blood pressure.  These claims have all been made by yogis over the years, and it sounds like a lot of new age foolishness. Surprisingly, however, everything in that list is supported by scientific research.”  (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/prefrontal-nudity/201109/yoga-changing-the-brains-stressful-habits)

What I have criticized is the tendency of our culture to adopt only the most superficial aspects of yoga, to focus exclusively on the physical asanas and to lose the deeper spiritual-philosophical basis.  You don’t have convert to a new religion to practice yoga but it helps to develop a flexibility of mind as well as body.  Soul and spirit are legitimate aspects of our beings just as are body and mind.  Yoga enables us to become more aware of these dimensions of our beings.

Asana practice is a good place for most of us to begin.  We are more or less identified with our bodies, or as Dr. Freud put it, “The ego is first and foremost a body ego.”  Our histories of attachment, stress, conflict, abuse and trauma are all held in the muscular tension of our bodies.  Yoga helps us to become aware of the energetic aspect of our beings, to release psycho-physical “knots,” and to balance the polar energies of prana (bio-energy) and chitta (mind-energy.)  I won’t go so far as to say that it is a complete substitute for psychotherapy.  The therapeutic relationship is sometimes necessary for us to heal.  However it is a powerful adjunct to “talk-therapy.” 

When I first began to learn yoga under the tutelage of Swami Niranjan, he asked me what I wanted to learn about yoga.  I told him I was interested in meditation.  Coming from a background which I now identify as a “domestic violence family,” I was struggling with moodswings and anxiety and hoped to transcend them through meditation.  He simply told me, “You need to learn asana and pranayama before you will be able to experience meditation.”  However, even my first yoga class included asana (postures,) pranayama (breath work,) and introductory meditation practices (i.e. yoga nidra.) 

I learned that yoga is an integral practice.  It is not just physical exercise, nor is it just relaxation.  On a deeper level it is a discipline to develop consciousness.  It is a means of awakening to who we are beyond the physical body and the conditioned mind.  As Swami Shiva Radha put it, “Yoga means dehypnotizing and waking up.”  It is most deeply a discipline of awareness.  It is sometimes easy to miss this and to let yoga become “yuppie calisthenics.”  As Dr. Korb (ibid.) says, “After going back to my Dad's yoga class a few times, I eventually came to the realization that not only can you practice yoga in real life, but, conversely, you could go to a yoga class and not really be doing yoga.  Some of those hot, tan, thin women around him might just be placing their legs behind their heads, and still not be focusing on keeping their breath calm and steady, or their minds clear (Note: I have removed a lame blonde joke).  They might be focused on something else entirely.  Without the sustained intention of focusing on the present, and calming the mind, going to a yoga class is literally just going through the motions.”

Beyond yoga class, Swamiji taught me that yoga is a discipline that carries over into our daily lives.  Most notably is the practice of karma yoga or mindful activity.  Karma yoga means being aware of ourselves in the midst of our activities, letting go of past impressions, future imaginings and simply being “here-and-now” in our work responsibilities.  Karma yoga is mindfulness-in-action.  Along with this is Bhakti yoga or the cultivation and maintenance of love, devotion and surrender in our lives and Jnana yoga, philosophical self-inquiry.  When we put all of these together we begin to truly and fully practice yoga.  

Bikram and Ethical Yoga

By God’s grace one is born as a human being. Try to make the best of this opportunity.

~ Sri Anandamayi Ma

There is a story I heard somewhere of a spiritual hermit who lived in the woods far from the mental contagion of human society.  He lived out in a forest and even went so far as to build a shelter in a tree where he could meditate without being interrupted.  Nonetheless local people discovered him, learned of his wisdom and would come out from time to time to ask him questions about life.  Eventually the local governor heard of his existence and decided that he needed to impress his subjects by going through the motions of consulting this crazy person. 

He arrived on site accompanied by his retinue and proceeded to address the holy hermit.  He called up, “I have heard of your great wisdom and have come to seek your guidance.”

After a pause the hermit answered, “What is your question?”

The governor was nonplussed.  He was used receiving information without questioning, following the rules as modeled by his peers and most basically, never questioning anything.  He had to think for a minute.  Finally he replied, “How can I find enlightenment?”

The hermit replied, “Be kind and do no harm.” 

The governor replied, “That’s it?  That is the extent of your wisdom?  I was taught that as a child.”

“Easy to say,” replied the hermit, “but hard to practice.”

Yoga is essentially a spiritual discipline.  It is not a religious discipline although it can be incorporated to the benefit of any religious tradition.  It is a holistic and integrative discipline, something hard to grasp with our fragmented modern/post-modern minds.  It is a discipline to help us disconnect from the false conditioning of our lives and to reconnect with our authentic being.  Religion is basically a form of conditioning.  Yoga is about spiritual practice and spiritual evolution.  It is experiential rather than dogmatic.

Having said this, it is somewhat disheartening to look around at the state of yoga education which is currently popular in the West.  A recent article in Elephant Journal article addresses the fact that many so-called yoga instructors do not meditate. (http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/03/why-yogis-dont-meditate/)  From my understanding of the yoga tradition as I have studied and practiced it both at home and in India, the idea of a “yogi” who does not meditate is an oxymoron.  An instructor who is not personally familiar with some form of meditation practice is not a yoga instructor.  He or she might be a teacher of calisthenics but not yoga.

The physical practices of yoga, i.e. asana, are a small subset of what is all about.  There are various definitions of yoga throughout the literature.  For example Patanjali states, “Yoga means bringing the patterns of mind into a state of stillness.”  In a similar vein, Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita states, “Yoga means complete mental equanimity.”  Another definition found throughout the traditional literature is that yoga means the union of the individual self and the Universal Self.  All three definitions point to the same thing: a transcendence of the conceptual ego and the realization of a deeper dimension of being; or more simply put “inner peace.”

This may or may not bring us to the peculiar case of Mr. Choudhury.  To be honest I have never been a fan of his style of yoga.  I have had friends who tried out or were even fond of his “hot Yoga.”  From my training at the Bihar School of Yoga, it seemed to make no sense.  It seemed to be about a particular sequence of asanas (postures) without any regard to individual needs, superficial in that in only focuses on the body and perhaps, um “stinky.”  My greatest reservation was that it did not seem to be connected to the greater, spiritual dimension of yoga (in which case, as noted above, it is not yoga.)

My concerns have been recently confirmed by a series of lawsuits brought against Bikram Choudhury. (http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/2013/07/will-bikram-yoga-survive.html)  Overall it appears that his yoga concession is a travesty of the yoga tradition.  If the charges are true, he is guilty of sexual harassment and rape.  Beyond the criminal scope the reports are that he is racist, misogynistic and homophopic.  He definitely does not seem to exemplify the loving openness and self-discipline that is the heart of yoga. 

Of course it is easy to judge and judgment is a characteristic of limited ego-identification.  On the other hand we need to use discernment and discrimination in a wise way to avoid the snake oil sellers on the path.  The Universal Being uses us all at times as teachers and as students.  An errant guru may impart as much wisdom as a “good” one.  The teaching is always relevant to where we are in terms of our own psycho-spiritual development.