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.