The Gathering Courage

Learning, Deciding, and Choosing a Life of Engagement

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Aho’ Rajanaka,

I hope this finds you well. We know where there is light there is shadow and this is no truer than in our current age of (mis-) (dis-) information. The internet opened the projects of news gathering and information to nearly everyone, we are no longer solely in the clutches of corporate-controlled sources. But that also means our shattered illusions of trust demand better ways to make trust worth its risks. Without trust we may become the worst forms of ourselves, no matter the information we have before us.

In whom shall we place our hearts? That must begin of course with our selves---no small task but that is what is meant when Patanjali says atha, now let us study yoga. This call to the moment is meant for you, now. When he says “anu-shasanam,” he means this call must be answered together (anu-) and that it needs to be learned (shasanam).

This is why yoga is taught as shastra, not revelation, intuition, much less isolated opinion or mere personal experience. This means we’re going to cultivate experience because we need teaching, learning, and conversation. Shastras are “treatises” of rooted argument (not quarrels); they are teaching tools, experiments brought into a laboratory with methods and shared purpose, then tested, verified, made sound by one’s own efforts and experiences. We answer to questions and invite disproof; we seek to hold our ground and at once remain willing, open, true to change. Yoga tells us that the truth belongs to you because it belongs to us all. How do we accomplish that?

All this “science” in bringing us closer to the true is also going to require as much courage. Gathering the trust we need to seek the truth is literally “courage”: it is to engage the heart. Courage may not itself prove a virtue but more importantly prove to be virtue’s requisite. We feel courage, we know it when we see it, but can we cultivate courage?

There are yoga traditions that claim we can and must, for what the heart knows to be of its own nature, the mind must learn and decide and choose---only then will our efforts to incorporate, bring us more fully into embodiment and take us closer to wholeness, to a more integrated sense of being. The secret of course is that heart and mind are not mere complements: they are comminglings, they are two as one and one into two, they are each distinctive but never separate---and we know this because all this is true of our selves. We are each only ourselves, something like each other, and nothing but each other. We need not trouble ourselves about completing the journey of yoga to finalities if we can commit to making it our way of life.

Modern postural yoga has been revolutionary in its effort to bring deeper integration into bodily experience. And of course there are other ways to encourage and empower our bodies to become engaged, so engaged that what has been learned and practiced may appear natural and spontaneous. What you know is that you can’t fool the body: yoga isn’t about tricks, it’s about creating an alliance with yourself. We take care of the body, nurture the body to learn so that it become more natural in actions and responses.

Not all of us learn in the same ways, of course. But our powers of the mind are not separate from those of our heart---the Sanskrit word manas applies equally to both. It may seem “elitist” or naïve to believe that the truth can still be vetted but this yoga means to bring together heart-and-mind/mind-and-heart.

Where to begin? What originates in each of us must seek a humanity in all of us that fosters connection, trusts in shared needs, and seeks demonstrable reasons to believe actions are made in good faith. Yoga doesn’t ask you to believe this or that or to have faith in testimony that cannot be tested and tried. Rather, it asks for your participation in a collective human endeavor, to create a shared exertion and a willing cooperation to listen and to contribute. We will become what we seek for ourselves when we support the causes we learn better to share.

And we’re going to need some standards of professionalism---training, experience, standards and values that speak to hard-won achievements. This is one of the important meanings of the term siddhi. Siddhi isn’t about magical powers, it’s about the ascertainable, the demonstrable, it’s about corroboration and even credentials. Yes, your creds, ‘cause that too is literally your heart on display. Credential is credo, la couer, all in origin the same source, the heart.

But the forces of doubt are real and yet need not be our adversary. How do we trust in much of anything? Who’s trying to tell the truth? How do we answer to each other to foster trust in our sources? We can (and we have) created methods and witness to such siddhi. Your yoga siddhi is the way you make yourself an example of your heart’s presence, your mind’s dedication, and your body’s expression.

It’s the aim of the demon in yoga lore, the nihilist and the authoritarian to undermine every confidence and assurance we need because he knows---as do we--- that life under the best of circumstances is predictably warning us to be heedful, observant, conscientious. Amid all this mishigas and mayhem, who do you trust and why? The worst will claim their absolute certainty even as they undermine confidence in any fact but their own. So, what is more dangerous: contending with the perils of doubt or becoming immovably sure?

The answer we seek is in each other, in our collective endeavor to make connection and commitment. Yoga never diminishes the power of individual courage because it teaches that the true yogin learns and practices yoga together (anusasanam). It feels quaint to say as much but in our present era, we’ve discovered how people courageous enough to document events with their phone cameras when they might be gunned down by masked government agents are examples of truth---because they have engaged as individuals for individuality shared, collected, and greater than any freedom claimed for one’s self alone. Truth stands a chance because the courage we see is real, it happens when hearts-and-minds chose each other. Yoga isn’t an exotic ancient practice, it is the everyday effort we make to be ourselves and human together. When you engage yourself, you engage in a share humanity; when we are most ourselves we are most like what we share truly.

To become more deeply connected to our concerns of conscience we’ll need to match our commitments to action. But it is when our hearts break and we feel the pain, a shared pain, we learn that yoga means to embrace another invaluable paradox: we must stand fast for the truth and at once become parties to change, to growth, to learning, and progress.

It’s been a week of heartbreaking news but also of movement and choice---brave individuals and mass movements in the streets can show a way forward and forestall their violent ruling dystopia from becoming our collective future.

We’ve seen leadership from our neighbors, heroic hearts like Renee Good and Alex Pretti doing the right thing when those in power don’t seem to learn and progress seems thwarted. What we have learned is that we will not be crippled even by well-warranted anxiety and fear, not if we trust in each other’s hearts, not if we bring clarity of mind to the pursuit of truth. We will not jettison the strength and dignity of shared values and learning capable of amendment for intolerant certainties that refuse engagement with truth’s honest pursuit.

It’s going to take more time than any of us as individuals may have to bring about a world safer, more equitable in prosperity, and committed to justice than what we see today. But that commitment too is a yoga worth our bodies, hearts, and minds.

More soon. In the meantime, join us on Zoom for conversation and our learning together. Truth stands a chance when we stand together ready to lend a hand and grow together. Take care, okay?

Saprema, with affection,

Douglas