As always, thank you for caring about what is being taught/said in the world of yoga as a physical practice today. Context makes such a difference, as usual, as does literacy in the source texts. Once one commits to life in the material world, with its joys and sorrows, s it’ s difficult to take “liberation” seriously. Freedom to seems much more the human option than freedom from.
Thank you for this elucidating piece. Why do I suspect it may not be popular with those who teach 200 hour Yoga Teacher Trainings to which PYS is core curriculum?
One of my takeaways is that we don't need Yama & Niyama to give us an ethical framework, we need a broader, deeper sense of our common humanity and the normative constraints which arise from said commonality. Taking that normativity seriously requires the difficult work of introspection, self-interrogation (vicara) and taking responsibility for how we show up in the world. Tall order no doubt and I'm frequently short of the mark...
I wonder if Y & N are so compelling in the dominant yoga world view because it's a view that has left religion behind, indeed offered an alternative to organised religion but still seeks the legitimacy that religion (ostensibly) confers? Religions too offer ethical frameworks and thus abdication of thorough self-interrogation and responsibility. Is the guru the yoga analogy to the priest confessor?
"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent?"
You're quite right: YS leaves organized religion behind but not religion. We are invited to behaviors, intentions, and experiences that treat the human condition as itself problematic and proffers a salvation that relieves us of the world itself. In the Y&N there are injunctions to deny an essential feature of our humanity (celibacy) or at least control our sensualities as if they were some kind of sin; we're to surrender to god though to Patanjali's credit he disavows vicarious salvation (as the Christians propose)---but the agenda is to claim the goal of isolation (kaivalya) from conditional reality, albeit by imposing conditions on that embodied "problem." Any tradition that posits a goal that invites us to be super human (as Medford Spiro puts it) is a religion. The appeal here I think to so many yogins is that it an individual project (how very American that is in ethos) and relieves us of institution (church). Religions come in so many flavors.
Thank you so much for this. I remember seeing a model on the cover of Time magazine doing an asana. It was around 1992ish, I think. It was unheard of before. I was overjoyed knowing more people would choose sadhana. Fast forward to 2024 to a yoga class with very loud heavy metal and a teacher not looking at the students, at all. I feel blessed to have been your student, and so can understand the distinctions you posit. I don’t have good words the describe the resting place I find in this. Your work is so important to me, to the world. My work has
been so much in the mundane, but with me always adjusting and withdrawing attachment, but still deepening connection/immersion. (Really don’t have words). There is a path for which you hold the lamp. Thank you.
Thanks for this lesson. As you hint at toward the end, perhaps the Gita, written for householders, might have been the better text for modern folks to have adopted. It seems that the Yoga Sutras were more intended for those with the rare adhikara that would make the renunciate life a possibility. I believe that I recall you saying a few years ago that the yamas and niyamas are designed to keep one from getting entangled in the world so that one can go on with the practices for liberation undisturbed.
So good to read your words again! We all have missed you!
Can’t wait to get back on zoom and have my mind blown! I was thinking just this week about how to act without hidden agendas. Honestly as a human, I’m not completely sure I can. I will keep doing the work, not of liberation. The work of considering the questions. Thank you Dr. Brooks.
I love this. Emphatically yes. What the heck - moral this and that? However, I do think Patanjali has a point or two that can apply to those of us who do choose to maximize our lives lived in form. My experience is that actual regular transcendence - journey through the superficial mind, toward, and knocking at the door of the formless - is useful, if only to shore up ones ability to do ones work and live ones life with a modicum of integrity and grace.
As always, thank you for caring about what is being taught/said in the world of yoga as a physical practice today. Context makes such a difference, as usual, as does literacy in the source texts. Once one commits to life in the material world, with its joys and sorrows, s it’ s difficult to take “liberation” seriously. Freedom to seems much more the human option than freedom from.
Thank you for this elucidating piece. Why do I suspect it may not be popular with those who teach 200 hour Yoga Teacher Trainings to which PYS is core curriculum?
One of my takeaways is that we don't need Yama & Niyama to give us an ethical framework, we need a broader, deeper sense of our common humanity and the normative constraints which arise from said commonality. Taking that normativity seriously requires the difficult work of introspection, self-interrogation (vicara) and taking responsibility for how we show up in the world. Tall order no doubt and I'm frequently short of the mark...
I wonder if Y & N are so compelling in the dominant yoga world view because it's a view that has left religion behind, indeed offered an alternative to organised religion but still seeks the legitimacy that religion (ostensibly) confers? Religions too offer ethical frameworks and thus abdication of thorough self-interrogation and responsibility. Is the guru the yoga analogy to the priest confessor?
"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent?"
Nietzsche / The Gay Science
You're quite right: YS leaves organized religion behind but not religion. We are invited to behaviors, intentions, and experiences that treat the human condition as itself problematic and proffers a salvation that relieves us of the world itself. In the Y&N there are injunctions to deny an essential feature of our humanity (celibacy) or at least control our sensualities as if they were some kind of sin; we're to surrender to god though to Patanjali's credit he disavows vicarious salvation (as the Christians propose)---but the agenda is to claim the goal of isolation (kaivalya) from conditional reality, albeit by imposing conditions on that embodied "problem." Any tradition that posits a goal that invites us to be super human (as Medford Spiro puts it) is a religion. The appeal here I think to so many yogins is that it an individual project (how very American that is in ethos) and relieves us of institution (church). Religions come in so many flavors.
But not pistacchio, my favourite 🍦
loved this, Dearbhla!
Thank you so much for this. I remember seeing a model on the cover of Time magazine doing an asana. It was around 1992ish, I think. It was unheard of before. I was overjoyed knowing more people would choose sadhana. Fast forward to 2024 to a yoga class with very loud heavy metal and a teacher not looking at the students, at all. I feel blessed to have been your student, and so can understand the distinctions you posit. I don’t have good words the describe the resting place I find in this. Your work is so important to me, to the world. My work has
been so much in the mundane, but with me always adjusting and withdrawing attachment, but still deepening connection/immersion. (Really don’t have words). There is a path for which you hold the lamp. Thank you.
Thanks for this lesson. As you hint at toward the end, perhaps the Gita, written for householders, might have been the better text for modern folks to have adopted. It seems that the Yoga Sutras were more intended for those with the rare adhikara that would make the renunciate life a possibility. I believe that I recall you saying a few years ago that the yamas and niyamas are designed to keep one from getting entangled in the world so that one can go on with the practices for liberation undisturbed.
So good to read your words again! We all have missed you!
Can’t wait to get back on zoom and have my mind blown! I was thinking just this week about how to act without hidden agendas. Honestly as a human, I’m not completely sure I can. I will keep doing the work, not of liberation. The work of considering the questions. Thank you Dr. Brooks.
Angee ❤️💙💚
I love this. Emphatically yes. What the heck - moral this and that? However, I do think Patanjali has a point or two that can apply to those of us who do choose to maximize our lives lived in form. My experience is that actual regular transcendence - journey through the superficial mind, toward, and knocking at the door of the formless - is useful, if only to shore up ones ability to do ones work and live ones life with a modicum of integrity and grace.
Thank you, as always, Douglas...💞