I love yoga, and the more I practise it, the more I love it. Its physical and mental effects are great.
At least the way I do it (when I do). But i honestly really do wonder on what planet most of its practitioners live. I wonder what their practice means to them. For all seems to be directed against the body, at “conquering” it, at acquiring some illusory peaceful state of mind that must represent the complete triumph of the superego, the ultimate repression of all emotion. Emotions are so unwelcome in the average yoga class, so much a taboo. Let’s pretend to be peaceful, serene – however much we are aching inside.
That’s too bad. An age-old tradition entirely turned against its own spiritual-therapeutic logic and roots, no longer a vehicle of liberation but one more vehicle of social control. Those forces are so overpowering and so in control of us that there is nothing they cannot capture and use to their ends. So hard is it to find the authentic, even a taste of the authentic, within the jungle of these myriad forms of repression.
Happily, apparently not all yoga teachers think like this. So I guess it’s just a question of finding that rare pearl… (of course, in tantra we don’t think like that at all – emotions? bring ’em on 🙂 )
Well I liked, for now, Five Rhythms. Very much in fact. For yoga I will keep looking for someone who will love me more than their ego, and let me be as I am.