“Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.” – Patanjali
Millions of folks around the globe practice yoga, and probably half of those people have no idea what real yoga is. Sometimes this annoys me. I guess it’s because I don’t want to be pigeon-holed myself by anything that I don’t identify with. Yoga has been sold out and proliferated on the basis of making money and inflating the ego. I suppose — considering that yoga has been around for about 5,000 years — it’s bound to encounter some of these issues with misrepresentation.
- Misrepresentation of the yoga student, in terms of body type, age, sex, etc.
- Competitiveness with self and others.
- The yoga boutique industry. Period.
- The focus on physical gains alone.
Here’s the thing, though. I could get into trouble for talking about “real yoga.” Teams of people will eagerly step up to the plate to enthusiastically defend “their” yoga. In a nutshell, my case is that yoga is not whatever it means to YOU. Yoga is what it is on a very baseline level. It’s a spiritual practice leading to liberation (moksha). Each style is slightly different in its approach, but the goal is the same. So, in other words, it’s not simply the act of twisting your body into weird shapes so you’ll have a killer bikini body for the summer. And isn’t it a bit liberating already, just knowing that?
Priya Jhawar, Ashtanga Yoga Austin
Understanding the Purpose of Asana
There are numerous physical benefits to practicing yoga, but, to reiterate, yoga is not a fitness program. Regardless of the goal, you will experience changes in your body through the practice. Be happy about that, but also realize that though the physical benefits are part of the process, the achievement of physical postures is not the goal. As practitioners, we need to be careful of putting our emotional and mental energy into “gaining” postures or perfecting the ones we already have in our wheelhouse. The majority of people who focus solely on the postures end up either bored with practice entirely or cripplingly defeated by their own expectations. A student of yoga may practice for 10 years and never be able to achieve a handstand. Not a problem. Not a weakness. And certainly not an indication of failure in the practice. Your physical abilities have nothing to do with how “good” you are at yoga, nor are they indicative of your mental, emotional, or spiritual development. I like to think of yoga as a spiral. The outer edge of the spiral is the physical nature of the practice itself, but as we swirl inward and encounter the other facets of yoga, the yoga student also begins to turn inward toward the intangible aspects of just being.
So how does asana help us reach the end goal of liberation? Most teachers will emphasize that asana must be practiced for a long time before liberation is reached, if ever. A “long time” is a nebulous way to describe the time and effort required, but is as close to an accurate answer as possible. I see the beginning of a dedicated yoga practice as similar to flipping over the cushions on a couch. You’ll soon have a fresh, clean side of the cushion to sit on, but first you have to clean up all that dirt, crumbs, etc. that have been hiding underneath. The body, unused and unkempt, is detrimental to progress.
“Yoga practice transforms the mind and body; it purifies, strengthens, and heals. A troubled mind has a reduced capacity for understanding and a diseased body will always cause distraction and trouble to the mind. Through asana practice, the body is healed…” – Guy Donahaye
The first result of asana is better health, greater flexibility and strength, and a general feeling of lightness and calm. The postures purify the body by wringing it out, literally. If you’ve ever practiced twisted or inverted postures, for example, you’ve more than likely experienced some of these immediate physical effects, i.e. a dire need to eliminate. As I mentioned, though, it’s not the gaining of a posture that makes a good yogi. Your backbend will look very different than mine, but each is relevant to our respective abilities, and we will both experience a profound effect by practicing backbends within our range of ability. To quote K. Pattabhi Jois:
“After the body is purified, it is possible to purify the nervous system, and then the sense organs. These first steps are very difficult and require many years of practice. The sense organs are always looking outside, and the body is always giving into laziness. However, through determination and diligent practice, these can be controlled. After this is accomplished, mind control comes automatically.”
Ooohhh, mind control! Very exciting stuff! So this is where we get to the heart of asana. While practicing these postures, there is something much deeper going on, something you can’t see. It’s an unwrapping and encountering of the true self. All sorts of things will come up during asana — anger, sadness, fear, love, doubt, and, more annoyingly, your own repetitive thought patterns, beliefs, and behaviors. Your mind will be here, there, and everywhere all at once. Asana stimulates self-study, self-observation, and self-acceptance by provoking the body and, thus, the mind. And it does this by being inherently difficult, challenging you to access those areas of yourself that are real, and capable of handling anything. Undoubtedly, the fog about who you are as a person will be lifted, and things about your life and your place in the universe will become clearer. I also like to think of asana as if it’s this gnarly branch that keeps poking you over and over, saying: “Do you still doubt? Do you still obsess over that? Show me where the fear, anger, and dissatisfaction are.” Over countless hours of practice, it becomes possible to name these emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and control your response to them. Mind control; freedom from your own thought prison. But, see, the freedom you experience in your mind, though, is also only a preliminary step to the big L.
More on real yoga in the next post, where I’ll attempt to delve into the philosophical elements of yoga and, ultimately, samadhi.
The Boredom Diaries 