HONORING YOGA’S ESSENCE and how I messed up
Image Credit: Unsplash
Yoga has become more popular in America. For this I am thrilled. And while I am happy others are taking to yoga, I worry that its depth is underappreciated. I challenge you to think of it, not as a means of physical exercise, but as a way of preparing the body for unity of spirit. What if we used yoga to improve the Self, rather than merely improving our flexibility or closing our exercise rings on our Apple Watches?
Here is a bit of history behind the practice, how we have “Americanized” this ancient and complete tradition, and why it is important to consider honoring yoga’s essence.
Yoga’s Essence
In America, most people are familiar with yoga for its poses (asana). In fact, many mistakenly consider yoga a “workout” for those who are thin and flexible and can afford a studio membership. However, yoga was originally intended to prepare the body for meditation and unity with the spirit – it was never intended to be a physical workout. Yoga is a centuries old tradition where the asana is just one, and maybe even the least interesting, step on the eight-limbed path to end suffering. The system of yoga includes ethical principles (yamas and niyamas), breath work (pranayama), withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara), one-focused concentration (dharana), and meditation (dhyana), and union (samadi). Unfortunately, as yoga became popular in the West, it also became glamorized and sterilized. Essentially, we have inadvertently, and also knowingly, stripped yoga of its essence and honor.
I have been in discussion about such things over the past year with a friend who is wise, caring, and inspiring. She’s moved me to wake up to the voices of those who have ancestral lineage rooted in India and their work for those who practice yoga to do less harm.
Something I have been doing is looking at yoga through a lens other than my white, American eyes. Lately, I have been reading and following the work of Susanna Barkataki. Her book Embrace Yoga’s Roots: Courageous Ways to Deepen Your Yoga Practice has initiated my own self-inquiry and guided me to some unsettling discoveries and opportunities to do better.
I have practiced yoga for over twenty years, and I have been a devoted student of yoga for nearly ten years. I deeply respect the practice and work to carry the message of yoga to my community. So, you can imagine my horror, after reading, thinking, and exploring, to discover some ways I had been inadvertently complicit in acts of appropriation rather than appreciation of yoga.
Cultural Appropriation in Yoga
Cultural appropriation happens when a dominant group in a position of privilege and power politically, economically, or socially adopts, benefits from, shares and even exploits the customs, practices, ideas or social and spiritual knowledge of another society or people (Barkataki, 2015).
Yoga is appropriated when a practice that has been developed over thousands of years to help humans overcome attachment and suffering is used to commodify, sell products, or objectify the body (Barkataki, 2020). Two key places where cultural appropriation occurs in yoga are the following:
Glamorizing Yoga – taking cultural symbols, signs, art, and iconography out of context and using them for one’s own purposes to telegraph spirituality or wisdom.
Sterilizing Yoga – this is extracting cultural traditions for one’s own purposes without respecting the culture of origin. This is done with the pretense to make yoga “more accessible.” (Psychology does this disservice with its invention of the term “mindfulness-based-stress-reduction,” which is taking yoga’s system and re-packaging it to an American audience as this wonderful new concept that can be taught in a 4-hour workshop instead of years of study. But I digress…)
In broad strokes, both strip and dishonor yoga’s deep roots. A deeper understanding of these concepts goes beyond the scope of this blog. However, I direct you to Barkataki’s blog that offers a rich explanation of the difference between cultural appropriate and cultural appreciation HERE.
The following is my account of applying Barakataki’s work and revealing my process of deep listening, reflecting, and correcting myself to honor yoga’s essence.
Self-Inquiry and Discoveries
While in the process of reading Barkataki’s book, I glanced up from my home office desk to the poster on my wall. It displayed an illustration of the Buddha under which sat the phrase “Let that shit go.” When I bought the poster, I remember thinking, “This is totally something I’d say. It’s so me.” I tend to have a foul mouth and I teach letting go and love the Buddha’s lessons. But now I had to reconsider: Is there a perspective I have not been aware of? Who is profiting from this poster?
On this examination, the poster was clearly disrespectful and harmful to many people in the yoga tradition to have this religious icon associated with profanity. Well, shit. It was like those magic eye hidden 3-D photos from the 90’s where you can look at it a hundred times and not see it. And then the image becomes clear, and you cannot un-see it. Except this photo was not a hidden fish, it was blasphemous. I have since taken it down.
Then I became distrustful of myself. I observed the rest of the décor in my house, and the clothing in my closet. And I stumbled upon another item to reconsider.
I surveyed a tank I owned from a clothing line called Spiritual Gangster that read “Kindness is so gangster.” Now, this did not feel as disrespectful as the poster, but still, I had to ask myself the following: could this be perceived as coolness by appropriation? Is an Indigenous-owned company profiting from this shirt?
Again, this felt like glamorization of yoga, it felt questionable and unnecessary, and I have since discarded this tank.
I felt foolish and embarrassed for being blindly unaware and complicit of cultural appropriation in these instances. But I am grateful for this opportunity to take notice and pivot. And I am reminded by Barkataki that it is important to get uncomfortable and think and talk about the things that are diluting yoga and dishonoring its roots. This is part of the yoga practice.
Another thing I am changing upon reflection is the way I end my yoga class. I have always ended class by saying “Namaste.” In most classes I have taken as a student it has been used as a signifier of the end of class as well. As I considered my reasons for using it, they landed somewhere around “Just because that’s how others do it.” “Just because” Western yogis have adopted this custom of did not feel rooted in intention and meaning. Moreover, I am re-learning that Namaste is traditionally a salutation when meeting an elder, not a farewell. Am I even using this Sanskrit word in the right way?
Upon re-considering my use of Namaste to end class, it began to feel glamorizing. Suddenly it seemed to imply, “Me, your wise teacher has imparted all her wisdom. Depart.” Cringe.
I could not un-feel it. So, I decided to experiment with other options. The first two times I refrained from ending class with Namaste students remained seated, waiting to be dismissed. Still uncomfortable and cringy. The third time I decided to explain up front to the class to expect a different ending. I also shared a bit about why I was doing so and invited anyone who had questions or wanted to discuss further to see me after class. Honestly, I felt nervous that I would be viewed both as foolish and/or woke. But I would rather be perceived by others as such then to do harm or not share truth. And in the end, there was no backlash. In fact, there have been several interesting conversations after class with my amazing yoga community. They offer perspective and we all get curious and ask questions. I still do not know the answer to the issue of how to end class, but I appreciate that my students are willing to be in this place of inquiring with me.
The Work…To Be Continued
I revere the practice of yoga, and yet, inadvertently stripped yoga of its essence and honor. As a dedicated student of yoga, I assumed I was “fine.” I thought, “Sure I’ll read about the cultural appropriation of yoga, but certainly I haven’t contributed.” And few of us want to do harm intentionally. But have we really considered the intention and meaning behind what we say, and what we do, and how we move through this world, and the impact it might have on others? Until we check, and really ask the questions, and look through eyes other than white Americans, we cannot say for sure. Cultural appropriation has a way of creeping in. Thankfully, the practice of yoga offers the following tools to keep ourselves from stripping yoga of its essence and doing unintentional harm to others: the yamas of Ahimsa (nonviolence), Satya (truth); the niyama of Svadhyaya (self-study); the practice of pranayama (controlling the breath) to calm the body; and dhyana (meditation) to clear the mind and connect with the ancient and central electricity which we share with everything that exists. This work is a process to return to often. We are wise to turn our direction to the to the black and brown voices that are doing the work of awareness and liberation. Let us continue to amplify them and keep ourselves in check.
