The following dialogue takes
place between contemporary Patanjali-yoga teacher, Vidya, and her student,
Brahmari.
V: We begin with
meditation, remembering what Sri Patanjali teaches us: I.13 Tatra sthitau
yatnobhyasah. In English this means, constant pracitice,
yatnobhyasah, is the sustained effort to achieve and maintain a still mind[i].
Find your asana, your meditation seat, and begin to focus your attention on
your breath and quiet your mind.
Exhale
Inhale
Exhale
Inhale
B: I can't do this. I used
to feel so good and so calm every time I practiced and now I don't. I'm trying
to deepen my practice, I'm trying to deepen my awareness by learning more about
myself and the world I live in, but as I become more aware I see and feel more
pain. I recognize it in my own life, in the lives of the people around me and
in the headlines from across the globe, and then I get frustrated, I can't just
sit on my mat and breathe peacefully anymore. I keep returning to yoga in
search of the solace I used to find there and instead I am plagued with
questions: What good am I doing anyone when I get on my mat? Am I directing my
energy in the right direction? What am I doing, even? What is yoga?
Exhale
Inhale
Exhale
V: There is nothing
inherently wrong about the way you are feeling, as Thich Nhat Han puts it so
beautifully:
"Happiness and suffering, they support each other, they
inter-are... It's like the left and the right. If the left is not there the
right cannot be there. So the same thing is true with suffering and
happiness... There is the lotus that grows out of the mud. We need the mud in
order to make the lotus. You cannot grow lotus on marble, you have to grow it
on the mud. So suffering is the kind of mud we must be able to use in order to
grow the flower of understanding and love."
You have found mud, and
this is what happens when you practice yoga. In your explorations, your
learning, your reflections you have found questions, and without those
questions you will not find answers. However, if you try to tackle all those
questions at once you will overwhelm yourself. Pick one and we will go from
there.
B: I am so confused. Six
months ago, a Californian judge ruled that yoga is not a religious practice and
therefore yoga can continue to be taught in American public schools. When I
read the ruling I was left with so many emotions: I am relieved that the yoga
program and others like it can continue in schools, but at the same time I feel
like something important, an entire history even was just erased from the word
'yoga'. The ruling leaves me with so many questions: What is yoga? Is it a
religion, philosophy, or lifestyle? Is yoga a source of spirituality or an exotic, even erotic, form of
exercise? Or is yoga none of these things?
V: The Sanskrit word yoga
has been in existence for thousands of years and has meant a variety of things
to many different people over time. First, what is the literal translation of
yoga in English?
B: Yoga means yoke, both as
in the action of joining two animals together with a piece of wood and the
piece of wood itself.
V: Exactly, in the
Upanisads yoga came to refer to a technique for achieving higher states of
consciousness and ultimately enlightenment. Scholar David Gordon White describes
how the Upanisads laid a foundation that would be expanded upon later in texts,
including Sri Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, establishing yoga as an analysis
of perception and cognition, the raising and expansion of consciousness and a
path to omniscience[ii].
B: Do I want to be
omniscient? If ignorance is bliss then perhaps I would be better off not
practicing yoga.
V: How do students of Sri
Patanjali translate the word yoga?
B: Yoga is typically
translated as union.
V: Union with what?
B: Union with our Atman, or true Self, which is Brahma.
V: Precisely, some have
described Brahma as God, others have likened Brahma to 'the force' in George
Lucas' Star Wars, however one wishes to conceptualize and describe Brahma in
English, the point is that Brahma is in everyone and everything, hence union
with Brahma is a path to omniscience, although it is not just that. The union
with Brahma is a positive way of describing Samadhi, the final stage of yoga,
an approach that is typical of Hindu traditions, however Buddhist traditions
describe the same phenomena as liberation from samsara, the never ending cycle
of life and death in which pain and suffering is inevitable. Ignorance is not
bliss, rather ignorance is what keeps us tied to a never-ending cycle of
suffering, union, or yoga is the way to permanent liberation from samsara.
B: Where in the Yoga
Sutra does Sri Patanjali explain all of that?
V: The Yoga Sutra is
a short summary of a complex tradition: Atha yoga-anushashanam, in
English meaning, I will now review
for you how we become whole[iii]. Sri
Patanjali assumes that his students are familiar with what would have been a
basic understanding of the Upanisads; he did not compile his sutra for
foreigners who have had little to no exposure to this tradition prior to
practicing yoga. So while it is not explicitly said or explained in the Yoga
Sutra taken in historical context, one is able to understand the meaning
behind the very specific words he uses.
B: I have another question,
much like yoga initially was both a noun and a verb, is it not true that it is
both an action and a thing for Sri Patanjali as well? Yoga means union, but
when he says yoga he seems to also be referring to the various actions and
practices that he outlines in the rest of the sutra.
V: Precisely, and already
one can see that yoga, even within a single school of yoga, does not fit nicely
into categorized boxes. It means union, but it also refers to a way of living
and all the verbs that one associates with living. Now, going back to your
initial concerns regarding the yoga school program in California, perhaps a
more important question regarding whether or not it is appropriate to have yoga
in public schools is, what is the purpose of yoga?
B: I believe we have
already answered that question: The primary purpose of yoga is to become one
with Brahma thus liberating oneself from samsara and suffering. The ending of
human suffering does not seems to be inherently problematic.
V: Then perhaps the
question should be how does yoga seek to achieve that goal?
B: I. 2 Yogash citta
vritti nirodhah, we become whole by stilling the mind, or stopping how it
turns things around[iv]. Sri
Patanjali goes on to describe in greater detail different ways we can do this
and why we need to do this.
V: And is yoga something
that we are to keep to ourselves, or should we share these practices as we move
along our journey?
B: Well if there is always
a Teacher and a student, then clearly one is supposed to share these practices.
V: It goes beyond the
Teacher-student relationship: I.33 maitrî-karuñâ-muditopekæâñâä
sukha-duïkha-puñyâpuñya-viæayâñâä bhâvanâtaå citta-prasâdanam. In English,
consciousness settles as one radiates friendliness, compassion, delight, and
equanimity towards all beings, whether pleasant or painful, good or bad[v].
In other words, in order to do yoga and to allow our minds to be still we must
'radiate' our practice outwards towards others, it cannot stop with showing
compassion towards ourselves, if it does yoga just becomes a practice of
self-absorption. Having reviewed what yoga is and what its purpose is, is it
appropriate to teach yoga in public schools?
B: I feel like the values
yoga encourages would be appreciated in schools, but at the same time in our
conversation defining yoga and its purpose we have made several references to
beliefs that are associated with major world religions.
V: The court ruling in
California was with regards to a specific school of yoga, modern Ashtanga yoga;
the degree to which different modern schools of yoga maintain ties with their
Upanisad roots varies.
B: Yet the modern yoga
schools are still products of a long tradition that has ties to religious
texts.
V: The categorization of
Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism as world religions is recent, and these labels
were largely created during British colonialism[vi].
Some would argue that Buddhism does not fit the definition of a religion, and
yet that is typically the category it is placed in. The point is that the lines
defining the tradition of yoga are blurry.
B: But we live in a world
where the most powerful nation-State and its allies try extremely hard to
separate the State from religion. In our world, blurry lines between sacred and
secular are not acceptable.
V: Have politics ever been
truly separate from religion?
B: No, politics have always
been shaped by major religions. For example, Buddhism was able to spread and
become a major world religion in part because it received patronage from major
political leaders in India, China, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Tibet. Modern hatha
yoga, with its emphasis on asana, was largely influenced by the political,
Hindu Nationalist movement going on in reaction to British colonialism in
India. The British justified their colonization of India, and other regions, by
arguing that they were intellectually, physically and morally superior to
Indians, a belief that was internalized by the colonized peoples. These
internalized Orientalist stereotypes Asian men being weak and feminine
encouraged Hindu nationalists to push for Indians to embrace the popular
European physical culture of gymnastics and weightlifting so that they too
would fit European ideals of strength and masculinity[vii].
Swami Vivekananda, the man who brought yoga to America, was a strong supporter
of this Hindu nationalist, physical culture movement arguing that physical
strength is a prerequisite for the realization of the Self[viii].
This movement was also seen by some as a means to train guerilla warriors to
fight a revolutionary war against the British[ix].
V: An examination of Hindu
Nationalism in India today, however, would imply that it is better to keep
politics and religion separate, especially after the BJP, i.e. the Hindu
Nationalist political party's involvement in the 2002 Gujaraat riots. What is
the history of the phrase "separation between church and state" and
what purpose was it intended to serve?
B: The phrase itself
originates from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists in
which he discusses the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, declaring that it
erected a necessary "wall of separation between the church and
state". The idea of separating church and state in the European political
context was unheard of prior to the Reformation and Enlightenment, but it was
not formally put into print until the First Amendment of the of the U.S.
constitution was written. Many of the early colonizers in North America had
experienced persecution in Europe because they were of the 'wrong' denomination
of Christianity, therefore they wanted to ensure that there would be no
official state religion or any laws prohibiting religion. However, from the
very beginning there was always the understanding that what the founding
fathers really meant was that the State was non-denominational, but certainly
Christian.
V: Christianity also played
a critical role in justifying European colonialism. In addition to merchants
and traders, missionaries were often some of the first people to settle in a
new colony. There was a strong belief that Christian Europeans had the
responsibility to spread their belief system and 'civilize' the barbaric
natives. The superiority of Europeans' religious beliefs was expanded to
include their economic and political beliefs and thus the separation of Church
and State was exported abroad. However, racism was also used to justify
European colonialism, and thus non-Christian religions were, and arguably still
are seen as, backwards and barbaric.
B: So in order for the
colonies to become civilized, or to use today's terms, the Third World to
develop, these religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, must be abandoned for
a more 'rational' way of thinking and living, one that fits with
Christian-European ideals and norms.
V: Exactly, in essence,
Christianity is the invisible norm, the belief system that informs how our
society is organized and run without ever being explicitly seen.
B: In this context wherein
European Christian beliefs and values are the established norm, yoga stands out
as unusual and abnormal. Due to its ties with Hinduism and Buddhism, its
presence in a settler-colonial state-funded
school can be perceived as anti-progress. In this
context, for yoga to survive it must, like immigrants, assimilate to the
colonial norms that are present in North America today, and that means erasing
its history and disconnecting from its roots.
V: Exactly, the ruling in
California was only one very prominent example of the process you just
described.
B: If Sri Patanjali teaches
us that yoga is about stopping how the mind turns, isn't this process of
assimilating into the dominant culture contradictory to what we are meant to be
doing?
V: The topic of settler
colonialism is one steeped in political, social and economic issues, and there
are a number of yogis who argue that we have no place in getting involved in
such issues. Politics, economics and social justice are all distractions from
the more important internal practice they argue, and therefore these issues are
a waste of time. If we know the ultimate cause of all suffering and we know how
to stop it, and if at the end of our personal journey we are able to help
others undergo the same process- why pay attentions to current events? If all
suffering has the same source why pay attention to the news? Every single
political conflict has the same ultimate cause and the same path to cessation.
B: Yet so many different
forms of pain and suffering such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia,
Islamaphobia, ageism, ableism etc are also political issues and are impacted by
what goes on in the news. By not recognizing the important role that politics,
economics and social issues play in causing pain we are allowing the pain to
continue and are even contributing to ongoing harm. Sri Patanjali makes it
clear multiple times that an essential part of our yoga practice is ahimsa,
non-harming, and changing the ways that we interact with the world to fall in
line with that ideal. If we as a community turn a blind eye to an issue simply
because it is deemed political, we could be contributing to harmful systems
without our realizing it.
V: Which is of course,
contradictory to the goal of achieving pure awareness. We must think critically
about every aspect of how we live our lives, because our consumer choices are
political. Nor can we simply accept whatever we see in the news as truth,
rather we must critically read news articles, asking ourselves, who is the
author? Who provides the funding? What biases are present here? What is not
being discussed?
B: It feels like pure
awareness is an impossible ideal to achieve.
V: Recall how we began our
lesson: I.13 Tatra sthitau yatnobhyasah, constant practice is the sustained effort to achieve and maintain a still
mind[x].
Our practice never ends, we must commit to constant effort to work through all
that we carry around with us, both the visible and invisible norms that we
assume, to find a still mind where none of these norms can exist.
[i]
Patañjali, Geshe Michael
Roach, Christie McNally. 2005. The Essential Yoga Sutra: Ancient Wisdom for
Your Yoga. New York: Three Leaves, Doubleday. p. 10
Patañjali, Chris Hatranft.
2003. The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: Sanskrit Translation & Glossary.
(http://www.light-weaver.com/ys/ysp-skrit-eng-chip-hartranft.pdf). p. 7
[iii]
Patañjali, Geshe Michael
Roach, Christie McNally. 2005. The Essential Yoga Sutra: Ancient Wisdom for
Your Yoga. New York: Three Leaves, Doubleday. p. 3
[iv]
Patañjali, Geshe Michael
Roach, Christie McNally. 2005. The Essential Yoga Sutra: Ancient Wisdom for
Your Yoga. New York: Three Leaves, Doubleday. p. 4
Patañjali, Chris Hatranft.
2003. The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: Sanskrit Translation & Glossary.
(http://www.light-weaver.com/ys/ysp-skrit-eng-chip-hartranft.pdf). p. 4
[v]
Patañjali, Chris Hatranft.
2003. The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: Sanskrit Translation & Glossary.
(http://www.light-weaver.com/ys/ysp-skrit-eng-chip-hartranft.pdf). p. 4
[vi]
King,
Richard. 2002. Orientalism and Religion. Routledge. Retrieved 9 November 2013, from (http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=33497). p. 111
[vii]
Singleton,
Mark. 2010. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford: Oxford UP. p. 95
[viii]
Singleton,
Mark. 2010. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford: Oxford UP. p. 100
[ix]
Singleton,
Mark. 2010. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford: Oxford UP. p. 104
[x]
Patañjali, Geshe Michael
Roach, Christie McNally. 2005. The Essential Yoga Sutra: Ancient Wisdom for
Your Yoga. New York: Three Leaves, Doubleday. p. 10
Patañjali, Chris Hatranft.
2003. The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: Sanskrit Translation & Glossary.
(http://www.light-weaver.com/ys/ysp-skrit-eng-chip-hartranft.pdf). p. 7
