Many
styles, one Yoga
Yoga originated over 5,000
years ago, according to archaeologists' findings on seals and pottery
from the ancient Indus Valley river civilization in northwest India/Pakistan.
There, the earliest pictographs of Surya Namaskaram, the Salute to
the Sun, and evidence of the worship of a chthonic, creative force
connected intimately to the elements and represented by symbols from
nature emerged.
Around 250-500 BCE, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali were written, giving
a context for the comprehensive stages of Yoga practice as eight-limbed
Yoga: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana,
Samadhi. This Eight-Limbed Yoga is Ashtanga Yoga.
How did Yoga arrive in the West?
In 1893 at the convention of World Religions in Chicago, a yogi named
Swami Vivekananda brought from east India and his guru Sri Ramakrishna,
a vision of the universal interpenetration of the basic truths of
all religions. The address he gave shook the world into an awakening
that the "mystical" religions of the East and Far east had
never left their roots in pragmatism and humanitarianism in favor
of transcendental sectarian values. This came at a time when there
were also reformations in India's brahminic religious traditions toward
a more caste-inclusive spirituality called the Arya Samaj, and in
Tibet the tail end of the Rime movement to make secular and accessible
the teachings of the Buddha beyond political and scholastic differences.
There was also a growing interest in Europe in the mystery traditions
of the East and West taking root in the integral schools like the
Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society.
At the early half of the 20th century, the dedication and sacrifice
of a Yogi named T. Krishnamacharya contributed vastly to the revitalization
of the teachings of Yoga for a group of disciples who were later to
become the elders of the modern Yoga movement. Among T. Krishnamacharya's
many disciples are BKS Iyengar (Iyengar Yoga), K. Pattabhi Jois (Ashtanga
Vinyasa Yoga) and TKV Desikachar (ViniYoga). These people, at the
urgings of their many students, have travelled all over the globe
sharing the wisdom and universality of the Yoga practice, as well
as hosting foreigners from all over the world at their gurukuls (schools)
in India.
Another powerful influence in Western accessibility to Yoga came in
the 1970's from a silent (mauna) Yogi named Baba Hari Dass, a renunciate
from the Vaishnav Vairag forest gurukul of Haridwar, north India.
His transmission of Yoga dharma to students across the U.S. and Canada,
is all done with the assistance of a tiny chalkboard. He is also a
prolific writer, translator of Yoga texts, and fluent in several languages.
Within the powerful influence of the silence in which he has been
rooted for the past fifty years, Babaji has been transmitting classical
Yoga teachings and exemplifying the lifestyle of service to countless
people and is known through the Mount Madonna Center and Salt Springs
Center of British Columbia, which produces many classically-trained
Yoga teachers every year.
Krishnamacharya and Babaji, among the above mentioned Yogacharyas,
have taught each of their students in the way that was best suited
for their particular constitution, and karmic/ spiritual unfoldment.
The specific methodology of Iyengar and Jois are also a gift to the
world, appealing to people who have similar resonances to the qualities
of those teachers. These teachers' ability to swim so skillfully in
the vast ocean of Yoga in which they have been immersed for years
makes them capable to throw individual sentient beings a life rope
whose spiritual yearnings would otherwise be pulled under by the materialism
and sectarian distinctions that religion engenders. It is because
of the diversity of the human being that we have so many wonderful
interpretations today of the same root teachings which all herald
from this Ashtanga Yoga of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, as well as
other key Yoga texts like Gherand Samhita, Shiva Samhita, and Hatha
Yoga Pradipika.
Simply put, beyond these distinctions of methodology, Yoga is not
and never has been a religion.
Yoga is a universal path for self-realization that does not insist
upon, but at the same time does not preclude, a God-concept. There
are six
main schools of Indian philosophy derived from the Vedas,
which are the oldest written texts of spiritual revelation dating
back to 5,000 BCE and the advent of the Sanskrit language --some date
them to be as old as 6,000 BCE. Among these six schools, Yoga is the
only one that does not insist upon the worship of a Deity and does
not name a God-concept as imperative to self-realization. Yoga does
not "belong" to Hinduism as it does not encourage or represent
itself, necessarily, as a theistic path. Yoga does not, however, preclude,
dissuade or disencourage one from a devotional practice centered on
one of the sacred images or names of a Supreme being as God/ Goddess
either. As a practical system Yoga reifies whatever truth an individual
must arrive at to fulfill their "personal evolution" and
contribute to the collective evolution of humanity. It is up to the
individual practitioner's efforts to arrive at clear-seeing through
effort---and willingness to trust---in the inherent intelligence and
completeness of what has been given to each of us, and to not look
outside of ourselves for it.
Avoiding Spiritual Materialism
There are now many diverse interpretations of what Yoga is, especially
here in America, where people have arrived at the practice of Yoga
largely through exposure to Asana, looking for a way to relax and
heal the body. The Asana practice of posture can be taught in so many
ways. There is the Vinyasa method of linkage between movement and
breath, popularized as "flow" or "power" Yoga.
In the method popularized by BKS Iyengar there is a more contemplative
physical practice with less instruction on breathing, but with intricate
concentration on alignment, engaging longer holds in postures with
little or no movement between postural transitions. The Ashtanga Vinyasa
school of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois is a more vigorous but progressive,
stage-oriented practice that is derived from a text called the Yoga
Korunta, which gives the exact postures in order that is now known
as the Primary, Secondary, and Third Series. There is also "Hot
Yoga" or modern Bikram style, in which--thanks to modern climatological
controls--the practitioner can now bypass the necessity of internally-created
heat once valued for it's properties of purification and electrically
charging the body with divine "tejas" or radiance",
and just sweat. Hatha Yoga became the popular name for physical Yoga
postures in the 1970's and refers to the balanced physical practice
of Asana that takes it's lead from the seed syllables "Ha"
of Sun and "Tha" of Moon. It is more completely a practice
of rigorous physical and mental purification that includes body cleansing
techniques called shat karma as one of the 7 limbs of that practice.
Hatha and Ashtanga share most of the same "limbs" or observances
and are both concerned with the purification, opening, and centering
of the body-mind complex on the goal of reaching Soul consciousness.
Spiritual materialism is a phrase first coined by Chogyam Trungpa
Rinpoche, a radical teacher from the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism,
who had many experiences witnessing the dangers of Westerners appropriating
spiritual practices from the East and only becoming more and more
deluded and attached to their experiences and intellectual ideas.
Materialism is the attachment to the form of something as a source
of self identity. It can emerge when we fail to practice "aparigraha",
nonaccumulation- and get stuck in the rut of exclusivity around accumulating
more reasons why there is only "one good way" to do a Yoga
practice.
With so many kinds of Yoga becoming popularized in the West, it is
often confusing for people to figure out where they fit in. Sometimes
I have heard people say they are not flexible enough or strong enough
to do Ashtanga Yoga! This makes me very sad, as the conceptual roadblock
installed by marketing the name "Ashtanga" as "Power"
Yoga has actually precluded some people from trying an Ashtanga class,
which can be expressed in so many ways. The term Power Yoga has been
simplistically used in the West to refer to a vigorous style of asanas
that have a heavy emphasis on movement, which has been unfortunately
associated with Ashtanga Yoga. The emphasis on heavy exercise, pushing
oneself beyond one's limits, and self-competition in most Power "Ashtanga"
and Flow-oriented classes have diluted people's understanding of Yoga
to the point that it becomes merely another way to develop ego and
identification with the body, and empowers deeper attachment to things
that are impermanent, like physical accomplishments in asana or states
of awareness, which Patanajali warns about it in the Yoga Sutras even
2200 years ago.
The danger in our materialistic age of increasing dogma and delusion
around what the Yoga practice has to be in order to be Yoga is very
real. It is necessary at some level when a person becomes a serious
practitioner to understand the original language of Yoga--Sanskrit--which
has embedded in it some great vanguards against our clever minds manipulating
what Yoga is to fit our own prejudices, rooted in likes and dislikes.
Ashtanga is a Sanskrit word that means Eight Limbs, and this refers
to the Eight Limbed practice of Raja Yoga (Highest) given by sage
Patanjali over 2200 years ago. Any similarity to "Power"
in the word "Ashtanga" would be a very different kind of
"power" than we are used to, etymologically-- this power
of Yoga to bring us humility, tolerance, deeper creative appreciation
of our lives and genuine lovingkindness and equanimity towards all
as Self.
Unfortunately, there are reinforcements given by some teachers in
different traditions that their way is the only way, or that other
schools are not correct or compatible and that a student, who is totally
unequipped to determine for themselves due to lack of exposure to
anything else, should not try other methods. Sometimes Yoga teachers,
especially when they become diseased with their own fame, like to
react against the traditional and invent their own dogmas to replace
those they have deemed institutional. Yoga, unlike religion, is not
a belief-based system, rather a vast ocean of techniques oriented
towards investigation into human potential. It continues to work because
of people's willingness to work on themselves.
I have used the designation Ashtanga Flow to share the vision of a
practice which includes the philosophical and technical observances
of traditional Yoga practice. Ashtanga Flow is the sharing of the
Vinyasa method of asana, with an emphasis on Pranayama, chanting,
mudra, and other methods of increasing concentration and dispassion
that allow the practitioner to arrive at that Bliss which is beyond
"leading the Witness" into various kinds of experiences.
I am interested in creating a fun and uplifting environment in my
classes, but only to the extent that it doesn't turn into "bhoga"-
indulgence in what we know how to do best (worldliness). The very
definition of worldliness is causality, or samsara. When we repeat
experiences or look for security in doing what comes easily or naturally
to us, we reinforce the ego. It is easy to make people feel good,
not so easy to ensure that people feel good about themselves on an
absolute level. That involves taking the risk to see oneself clearly,
to explore the uncomfortable ways that we tend to bypass out of what
we don't want to face.
The Yoga sadhana is effective when it is directed towards the removing
the roots and seeds of our obstacles instead of giving us more and
more attractive ways of escaping them. Materialism allows us to layer
"more and more" onto who we think we are until we are satisfied
or even convinced that we know something when in fact we have only
superficially touched the surface. We can delude ourselves into thinking
that we have the authority to judge a system of philosophy or a teacher
by virtue of our petty likes and dislikes, sampling a taste of this
and that, shopping around endlessly for "ah-ha" experiences.
We may become temporarily satisfied, although the satisfaction fades
away the minute there is something better or more desirable. This
prolongs suffering for ourselves and for others with whom we inevitably
are interconnected with.
Deep inside, we all quietly feel the seriousness and complexity of
the issues we humans have brought upon ourselves. With conscience
and courage, joy and fierce grace, may we renew our capacity to love
and be loved, to trust and become trustworthy. In this time which
the sages call "Kaliyuga", the age of corruption, may we
offer ourselves completely to the renewal of right human relations,
and right relationship with the resources and gifts of our constant
and generous planet. May the inner Yogas of all the great traditions
of the world's cultures lead us from untruth to truth, from darkness
to light, from ignorance to knowledge, from the finite to the infinite.
Om Asato Ma Sat
Gamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotir
Gamaya
Mrtyorma Amrtam
Gamaya
~Om Shanti, Shanti,
Shanti~
