A CONVERSATION ABOUT YOGA

There is a conversation right now in the yoga world, a conversation in which certain yogis are rebelling against the old systems and against the patriarchal lineages that told us we had to do it their way and that if we did not then we would not transcend the suffering in our life. That this conversation is happening is exciting and I have spent the last 6 months listening to interviews with yoga teachers who are breaking the mould, reading books offering a different understanding and also learning about the different aspects of mind/body movement such as somatics and neuro-science. I have been a little obsessed to be honest, to the point that this Summer was the first time in an age since I read a book that was not about yoga, but now I am back and I am back to my podcasts and growing book list.

My obsession grows because this growing conversation about yoga has enabled me to start to understand my yoga, my practice, slowly I am feeling my way through years of questioning whether or not I was a true yogi or not because I did not have a “guru” or a clear lineage. When I heard the lovely J Brown and Theo Wildcroft talk about her thesis on “post lineage yoga” (see https://www.wildyoga.co.uk/2018/04/) it blew my yoga world open as it gave a word for my yoga. Post lineage yoga is, she says, an understanding that on one side of the fence is the commercial world of yoga and on the other side of the fence is lineage based yoga but that there will always be people in the middle of that, people who do not buy into the commercialism of yoga but who also do not follow any one lineage. You see if you practice yoga, inevitably the question comes up “what style of yoga do you practice” in other words “what lineage are you of” and in all honesty I have never had a straight answer for it. I would say I practice Hatha but that felt a cop out, I mean all yoga is Hatha, so then I would invariably mutter a few words of waffle about embodied practices and hope that that would suffice. When I was writing content for my website my struggle to describe my practice was painful, I had to reach out to a few different students and ask them to describe my practice to me. What I heard back was fascinating and not what I expected at all.  My yoga was described to me as “active stillness” – a hard one to put into any lineage or yoga box right. So still I was a little unsure where that left me within the grand and ancient traditions of yoga.

Many systems of yoga have come undone, undone because of the notion that yoga is dualistic – that in order for the human being to be free they need to transcend the ego, that they need to practice in a specific way and that only through those practices will they reach liberation or enlightenment. Invariably this involves a teacher at the top laying down the ground rules, codifying yoga into a system that has to be followed. Many of these teachers are normal human beings like you & I, they all have an intention that is pure and genuine, but as we know, what can happen within a teacher/student relationship when the dynamic becomes unbalanced, and when one person holds more power than is healthy, issues arise. The issue being that the teacher is considered the person with all the knowledge and that only through the transmission of this knowledge can the student be liberated. What strikes me is that this idea of duality may entrap the student into a place of suffering, for it in many ways belittles us into feeling we are not good enough, because we are “not there yet”. That we have to do more, be more, in order to reach the heady heights of self realisation. So the notion of the guru and lineage, whilst in many circumstances is one of deep respect, love and reverence, can also be flawed.

[Please know that I mean no disrespect nor offence to those that have a guru, it can be a wonderful relationship that provides a lifetime of learning and devotion, so long as it is a balanced relationship with healthy teacher/student boundaries.]

It is my belief though that there is no place for us to to get to, nothing we need to do to transcend, because all that we need lies within in us already, that we do not have to do anything at all to find peace and freedom. That a teacher is a human being working with what they know, through the lense of their lives, serving in the only way that they know and that the teacher is as much a student as the student is a teacher. That the student can be questioning of the teacher, questioning of what the teacher asks them to do and that the teacher can allow the student to find their own conclusions, irrespective of if they are different. For yoga to be safe, Donna Farhi stipulates that the teacher is an authority without being authoritarian and that the teacher meets the student wherever they are at. This is a non dualistic viewpoint of yoga. It allows us to find the yoga that works for us, without bowing down to anyone person’s idea of alignment or aesthetics. It allows the student to be their own guru, their own teacher, free to explore all that helps them wake up to the joy of living.

Maybe it is because I just turned 45, or maybe it is because my body is asking for more TLC (I strongly suspect the two are connected) but I am completely and utterly clear in that yoga is not about striving, it is not even, to be honest, about the postures and I think that at long last, I have found the confidence to not give a damm about a load of alignment rules that were written by male teachers, many years ago, that are not relevant to my life today and my body. If I choose to move my body in a different way because it feels better, then I will do. If I choose to totally ignore a whole stack of postures because I see no value in them, I will do. I will choose to practice the yoga that is right for me and as a teacher I hope to allow others to do the same.

As J Brown says “Everything about our world encourages us to strive for more, to progress and push ourselves past our edges to attain some unknown thing. If we take a step back and see that we are all mystical beings on this earth, surrounded by infinite space, we don’t need liberation, enlightenment or to be realised. We are whole, and yoga can help us to live that and be okay in our lives.”

So next time someone asks me what my style of yoga is, my answer will be “I practice and teach yoga” and if they want to know more than I will say that “my yoga is not determined by any one lineage, teacher or system” and if pressed even more then I will say “I am solely interested in how we can be more loving and less fearful, how we can live with more ease and less struggle and I am interested in how yoga can be a part of that process.” And that for me is enough.

If this conversation interests you and you have an hour to spare then do listen to this keynote talk by Donna Farhi herself, in it she talks about what yoga is. She is a leading voice in this conversation and a yogi who has inspired me since I first discovered yoga.

Peace