The other recent what the h@#$ item in the news regarding yoga lately is one near and dear to my heart (WARNING: the yoga blogger in residence is about to jump on her soapbox) -- yoga as a competitive sport. Check out this poll (and feel free to vote) about making yoga an Olympic sport and the accompanying video. Personally, I find the video disturbing. Call me a yoga purist/elitist/whatever but I don't like to hear the following phrases ass0ciated with yoga: "suck it," "judging asanas," "vicious yogi and yoginis," "maximum flexibility and balance."
If you've been reading my blog you know how I feel about yoga as sport (I don't). At the risk of repeating myself, I'll say this -- in regards to asana, it's about the function NOT the form. Yet, competitions like the one depicted in the video focus on "the full expression" of the pose. Perhaps these folks need to re-read Patanjali's sutras. I don't believe that Patanjali discusses yoga practitioners desiring a high number on a scale of 1-10 regarding "beauty, balance, strength, and flexibility" in a pose. Or perhaps it's just a ticked-off yoga practitioner like me who is reading the wrong translation of the sutras. Pardon me.
What is it that all of this nasty yoga news have in common? EGO. The teacher who thinks that he/she knows a student's physical limitations and adjusts according to what he/she thinks the pose should look like, a bureaucrat who thinks that he/she can line the coffers by taxing something that shouldn't be taxed, a movement that cares about a yoga practitioner's outer state than his/her inner state. Last time I checked, yoga wasn't about injuries, money, or a gold medal. If I thought that it was, I wouldn't have started practicing nor would I have continued my practice for well over a decade.
Okay, end of rant. Whew -- I feel better.
After all of that bad news, I like to focus on the good. The good news is that you don't have to get caught up in all of this nonsense -- you can simply practice yoga. You can practice imperfectly, without worrying that some judge is grading you on your form in Virabhadrasana. You can practice as yoga was meant to be practiced -- with sthira and sukha. You can practice knowing that yoga is more about changing the quality of your mind and releasing the knots from your body and mind and less about your yoga wardrobe, the depth of your back arch in Wheel, which "guru" you've studied with, and whether or not you're practicing in a hip studio with the latest big name grunting on the mat next to yours. Yoga is more than all of this. And someday it just might save the world -- or at the very least, your little corner of it.
What a week it's been in the world of yoga. First, a yoga student sues a Boulder, CO yoga studio owner over an unwanted adjustment during yoga class. Then the financially-strapped state of Missouri taxes yoga. Hmmmm...I'm thinking Patanjali would be shaking his head (or is that hood) over these two happenings, reminding us of ahimsa and asteya. My comments on these two events -- always ask first then proceed with caution and is it really necessary or is greed driving the bus?
The other recent what the h@#$ item in the news regarding yoga lately is one near and dear to my heart (WARNING: the yoga blogger in residence is about to jump on her soapbox) -- yoga as a competitive sport. Check out this poll (and feel free to vote) about making yoga an Olympic sport and the accompanying video. Personally, I find the video disturbing. Call me a yoga purist/elitist/whatever but I don't like to hear the following phrases ass0ciated with yoga: "suck it," "judging asanas," "vicious yogi and yoginis," "maximum flexibility and balance."
If you've been reading my blog you know how I feel about yoga as sport (I don't). At the risk of repeating myself, I'll say this -- in regards to asana, it's about the function NOT the form. Yet, competitions like the one depicted in the video focus on "the full expression" of the pose. Perhaps these folks need to re-read Patanjali's sutras. I don't believe that Patanjali discusses yoga practitioners desiring a high number on a scale of 1-10 regarding "beauty, balance, strength, and flexibility" in a pose. Or perhaps it's just a ticked-off yoga practitioner like me who is reading the wrong translation of the sutras. Pardon me.
What is it that all of this nasty yoga news have in common? EGO. The teacher who thinks that he/she knows a student's physical limitations and adjusts according to what he/she thinks the pose should look like, a bureaucrat who thinks that he/she can line the coffers by taxing something that shouldn't be taxed, a movement that cares about a yoga practitioner's outer state than his/her inner state. Last time I checked, yoga wasn't about injuries, money, or a gold medal. If I thought that it was, I wouldn't have started practicing nor would I have continued my practice for well over a decade.
Okay, end of rant. Whew -- I feel better.
After all of that bad news, I like to focus on the good. The good news is that you don't have to get caught up in all of this nonsense -- you can simply practice yoga. You can practice imperfectly, without worrying that some judge is grading you on your form in Virabhadrasana. You can practice as yoga was meant to be practiced -- with sthira and sukha. You can practice knowing that yoga is more about changing the quality of your mind and releasing the knots from your body and mind and less about your yoga wardrobe, the depth of your back arch in Wheel, which "guru" you've studied with, and whether or not you're practicing in a hip studio with the latest big name grunting on the mat next to yours. Yoga is more than all of this. And someday it just might save the world -- or at the very least, your little corner of it.
See, it's not all bad news.
Namaste!