Yoga

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Yoga is an Eastern practice that dates back to antiquity. Much like the roots of Buddhism, the roots of the discipline are rich in folk tales and stories. What we know for certain is that it was developed by Buddhists, and that different sects viewed the role of yoga in Buddhism differently. It was also ingrained into the Hindu religion, which uses it as one of the central tenants of the faith. In the Hindu faith, it can be used to achieve release from the birth and death cycle (reincarnation).

If you have taken a class and never heard any religious overtones, you should not be surprised. Many Eastern practices have secularized themselves as they migrated to the West. The rational is one you have probably heard before: they made more money that way. The thing about Eastern practices is that they spring from a much different way of looking at the world from that employed by the West. Philosophically speaking, Eastern culture embraces holism, which treats the world as an interconnected network of different beings. We as humans occupy a strong, but limited role in the world around us, and identifying how interconnected everything is brings about a sense of place and humility.

Western philosophy on the other hand has always centered around individualism. There is perhaps no greater evidence of this than the Descartes declaration: “I think, therefore I am.” On a very subconscious level, things in the West are self-centered rather than world centered. If you need proof of this, just look how long it took for the Copernicus model of the solar system to be adopted, or for the ‘radical’ idea that the world was not flat to take hold.

To this day, the Western individualism clashes with the humble holistic practices such as karate, yoga, meditation, or even surfing. Surfing was originally a Pacific Islander practice that was literally communing with the waves. Christian missionaries nearly eradicated the practice as a blasphemous form of idolatry. This clash of cultures has been going on ever since then.

So how did the Eastern practices that contradicted so much of the Western mindset gain acceptance? One and all, they recognized that the methods they employed could be separated from the philosophy that created those methods. So instead of being a form of self control and exercise, karate in the West morphed into a method of self defense. Instead of meditation seeking to unlock Nirvana, it became a way for us to escape the pressures of modern life. As these other practices changed, so too did yoga. It changed from being a method to break free from the cycle of mortality into a physical fitness routine that could keep practitioners limber and sculpted.

Some have complained that this disconnect has caused the various disciplines to lose what really made them valuable. These same critics argue that twisting the spirit of yoga to serve the self, rather than the proper order of the self using yoga to properly view one’s own place in the world, is breaking the purpose of yoga and turning into something it was never intended to be. Most yoga instructors have found a middle ground that neither forces a different world-view down the practitioners’ throat, yet strives to instruct students in more than simply the proper forms of the body during an exercise routine.

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