THE HEART OF YOGA IS LARGELY DEAD

In most systems--be it music, yoga, martial practice, religion--the eventual task is to step beyond the system TO RECOVER THE AUTHENTIC--THE HEART.  

One is never completely outside the systemic, but that is the task.  Every 20 years, or for sure, 30 years, what is right and real is a different reality.  Yes, there is still a thread of the enduring eternal, but  does it have anything to do with what you are doing as “yoga.”

In this blog, it is “yoga.”  It might have been “zen” or “aikido” or “Nashville sound.” 

You see, there is science applied to yoga in  terms of raw physiology and in terms of applied physiology in, for example, medicine.  All you 500 hour yogis, your not on top by going 500, you’ve fallen for a scam in you’re in a rut.  You’re down, not up.  And when you go upside down in our headstands, you are askin’ for trouble.  You’re askin for possible strokes in our 20’s.  Oh so noble, to be able to balance on your head in the center of the room--to be so inverted, so noble and graced and holy.  Or to  value hyper-flex as the holy grail, perhaps the sign of a problem.  And all of your pushing to limits--to “let the pain leave your body”--as likely just another facile form of work and social manipulation, for what?

“Yoga” is a wide-reaching term that references almost whatever you want.  If you go to a high-end yoga conference, let’s say in Sedona, go to the preliminary online materials to register and see the rock-star sort of descriptions of workshops.  That ought to be a bell-weather warning that you’re getting a fad here and another  there and another there.  That may be a sign of your neediness more than an answer; a manipulation of you and others, more than something authentic. 

so, I say, there no “yoga.”  India is now trying to claim it, but look at what they are trying to market, and, I say, market.  If there is anything good in this tradition, once you  become exclusive, you have lost it.

There is a lot of “yoga” in my town, Des Moines, mostly “young-uns” taking bey it and leading classes and a few long-timers. BUT I can’t find yoga here.  What I find is facile-- too easy--an exercise class or a suave alignment class where either stupidity OR beliefs rather than facts are operant.  I watched people coming to yoga for flex and calmness and most leaving after one introduction.  Those wanting an alternative to being on a treadmill tended to stay and enjoy whatever was gong on but it was not yoga. 

The heart of yoga is largely dead, co-opted, stolen, strayed.