  A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart by Martin Luther King Jr I must begin with this short book because I read it early in January and it set the tone for the entire year. Martin Luther King Jr is quite famous, but I had never read any of his actual writing. Then last year I heard a King expert speak about how misunderstood King is, buried under cultural symbolism and over-simplified platitudes. King, said the expert, was actually quite complex and detailed in his thinking, and was more controversial than is known. So I resolved myself to read some of his work. This volume contains six short essays and speaks to his intelligence and thoughtfulness, his philosophical rigor as well as his religious foundation. The title indicates a difficult balance that King says we should strive toward: a tough mind and a tender heart. King argues forcefully for the path of nonviolent resistance, saying that it can be effective where outright violence is not. He explains that nonviolent resistance "combines tough-mindedness and tenderheartedness and avoids the complacency and do-nothingness of the soft minded and the violence and bitterness of the hardhearted." Within his argument is deep belief in the underlying good of humanity. In the essay "The Sword That Heals," he suggests that people know injustice when they see it. "Punish me," he says. "I do not deserve it. But because I do not deserve it, I will accept it so that the world will know that I am right and you are wrong." Overall, King's writing is thoughtful and deep. Far more complex than our general impressions of his fame.  How the World Thinks by Julian Baggini I love a broad-scope look at philosophy and how our minds process the world. This book takes "big perspective" to a new level, breaking out of any single philosophical system to examine and compare a few different views from around the planet. While this approach seems simple enough, it reveals a profound limitation of most philosophical inquiry — that it is based in one specific tradition. In the West, most philosophers and other types of thinkers in the past 2000 years have worked in the tradition of the Greeks, Plato and Aristotle. And while there is diversity in the way people think, Westerners generally share a common worldview that looks through the lenses of reason, Christianity, capitalism and individual autonomy. Baggini's book considers the Western worldview but also two other significant perspectives: those of India and China. Each of these areas of the world has an ancient and highly developed way of seeing the world and how humans function within it. There are central themes here, like how each culture thinks about time, ourselves, and even the nature of knowledge itself. While it is not an attempt at perfect understanding of all of these philosophical systems — indeed, such an endeavor would be impossible — the simplicity and directness of the comparisons are stark and illuminating.  Natural by Alan Levinovitz Like most people, I value "natural" things. (And yes, that "natural" needs quotation marks.) I prefer all-natural foods to something that isn't labeled as such, wondering if it is processed or chemical or, God forbid, unnatural. Levinovitz's book takes subconscious preferences like these and questions them. Why do we prefer natural things? Furthermore, what do we mean by "natural"? As he delves into the meanings we place on the word "natural," it becomes apparent that it is a fuzzy idea, and one that is rooted in faith. We believe that the world around us will not hurt us, but if we intervene and add our own unnatural elements, the results will be harmful. My favorite chapter is about natural medicine and healing. These concepts have changed profoundly from their earliest usage thousands of years ago. Medicine was originally part of a natural cure, set apart from more superstitious cures like rituals, exorcisms and prayer. Medicine was a move toward the physical body and away from the spiritual realm. In this way, medicines dealt directly with nature. This has changed in the past few centuries, as many in the West have become disillusioned by the systems of medical health. It can feel like diagnoses of illness and the prescription of medicines separates us into discrete parts. The symptoms and illness get treated but the whole person gets ignored. So now "natural" medicine tries to treat the whole person, and often places itself in opposition to the medical approach to treating disease. Somehow, medicine is now unnatural. This book is insightful and readable. Levinovitz takes a topic that easily flies under the radar of our awareness — often we prefer natural things without knowing why. As he discusses the different aspects of nature and natural ideals, the concepts slip through our fingers.  The Power by Naomi Alderman This is a story about a supernatural power that develops in women — the ability to generate electricity and project it through their bodies and hands. With this power they can protect themselves and also control, harm or kill others. Some embrace the power and utilize it to gain equality and status in society; some reject it and try to live in more traditional ways; some use it for terror. The responses of the women, and the responses of the society around them are central to this story. This book is wonderfully written and readable. The story centers on a few characters and follows them through their plights. Each uses their power differently, in ways that are entirely plausible and human. Some use it to protect those they love while others use it for revenge. Perhaps the most surprising element of this book was how real it felt despite the women with magical hands. Every decision that is made is credible, which at times is all the more terrifying.  On Gaslighting by Kate Abramson I stumbled across this book at a shop in London, and I had the thought that must have motivated the writing of the book in the first place: What exactly is gaslighting? We've all heard the term, and it has become more prominent in the last few years, it seems. Often it gets used as a harsher way of saying "you are wrong" or "that is misleading." But "you are gaslighting me" is a way of announcing a more sinister intention to the misleader. My curiosity about gaslighting must be combined with the fact that this type of book is one of my favorites. The philosophical essay which is often simply titled "On _____". (Last year On Bullshit was one of my favorites.) These essays are usually quite sophisticated in their reasoning while also being conversational and relatively easy to read. According to Abramson, gaslighting goes beyond mere lying or misleading or arguing. It is set apart because it is a long term project to destabilize a person's ability to think for themselves. Over time, the target begins to question their own sanity and eventually becomes unmoored from reality. It goes far beyond persistent disagreement, denial or lying. Those things certainly exist, and a long-term liar can make us question the nature of reality. But gaslighting is intentionally designed to make a person lose their own ability to think, and eventually they feel that their own reasoning is faulty. This book is as interesting for its clarity about topics that are not gaslighting. It brings specificity to the ideas of deceit and disagreement as it defines gaslighting. In this way, it is similar to On Bullshit, which brings clarity to ideas of truth and lie while it defines bullshit.  The Amaraugha and Amaraughaprabodha of Goraksanatha translated by Jason Birch This is one of two truly scholarly books on my list this year. (The other is by Norelius, below.) But the importance of this book to our understanding of yoga history, especially hathayoga, is immense. This book is an output of the Hatha Yoga Project that, over the past decade, has revolutionized the way we think about hathayoga. The Amaraugha is probably the first text that explains a system of hathayoga, as well as the first text to describe a system of four yogas, and the earliest to describe a relationship between hatha and raja yogas. All of these were adopted by later texts including the hugely influential Hathapradipika in the 15th century. So the Amaraugha is vital to our understanding of where hathayoga comes from, what its meaning was in the earliest days, and how it evolved over the centuries. This book includes a critical edition of the text, an English translation, and an introduction that discusses the most important elements. Any serious practitioner who is interested in the history of yoga and can tolerate the formalities of scholarly writing will benefit from reading this book. Birch is the sharp end of the spear in hathayoga study. All the rest of us are using his work as a primary reference point.  Kerouac by Ann Charters Over the summer, a friend and I were discussing the prevalence of Buddhism in Western thought, and the possibility that it began in the 1950s with the so-called Beats like Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs. Though I have read several of Kerouac's books and knew a little bit about his Buddhist influence, I was unclear about what Kerouac's other influences were. How influenced was he by Buddhism, actually? How much Buddhism was present in the thinking of the other Beats? So I decided to read a biography of Kerouac, in the hope that I could better understand the cultural movement of the time. The first thing that struck me while reading Ann Charters's biography was how brilliantly it is written. There is urgency and creativity to the language, not just a ho-hum play by play of his life. It is exhaustively researched, and told in a story as compelling as one of Kerouac's novels. In addition to every beat, trip, relationship and book of Kerouac's life, it includes his interactions with other key cultural figures like Allen Ginsberg and William S Burroughs. My initial inquiry was quickly overshadowed by the depth and intensity of Kerouac's quest for life and literature. Disenchanted by a materialistic society, seeking inward, authentic spiritual insight, he could never sit still for long. The influence of Buddhism on him was smaller than I initially thought. He seems to have studied it and discussed it and written about it intensely for a brief period. Overall, he strived after a new form of writing that was immediate and free.  Soul and Self in Vedic India by Per Johan Norelius This is a beast of a book in the best way possible. A 600 page scholarly investigation of various notions of the self in the Veda. These include full chapters on atman, manas, purusha, prana and asu. Norelius traces the meaning and usage of these concepts through the entire Vedic corpus, as well as investigating smaller bits of their usage in other traditions. The difficulty of a book like this is the same as the difficulty of any vast set of teachings like the Veda. There are no clear answers, no straightforward narratives. So many concepts change in meaning in a non-linear fashion, or have different significance to different groups. The best we can do is to try to understand the meanings and hold them side by side, without collapsing them into a perfectly sensible story. I always finish reading volumes like this with an awe-filled sense of the complexity of history and knowledge.  Orbital by Samantha Harvey
This is one of the more recent books I read this year. It just won the Booker Prize in November. The day after I heard about it, I saw it in a bookstore and picked it up. It is one of the most profound, poetic and beautiful pieces of writing I've ever read. The story is built around a small group of astronauts who are orbiting the earth aboard the International Space Station. Their removal from the rhythms and patterns of earth is destabilizing, and everything from their blood to their sleep, their sense of time and the meaning of humanity is untethered. Though the book is short and easy to read, it combines evocative, poetically written prose with genuine insights into the meaning of our lives and our relationship to this planet.
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 Modern yoga practitioners often embrace the idea of equality and relate it to the ancient spiritual teachings of yoga. This can lead to positive developments like the cultivation of compassion and humility. But it can also lead to more troublesome developments like the belief that any suffering is in our own minds and therefore our own fault, which can cause us to be apathetic, overlooking ingrained prejudice and inequality.
Let's take a look at where the concept of 'equality' in yoga comes from, and what it means when someone says 'we are all one'. THE ESSENCE... In many ancient yogic texts, there is the belief that all of reality is underpinned by a single universal consciousness, called brahman. This means that a computer is nothing but brahman, a dog is nothing but brahman, you are nothing but brahman, and I am nothing but brahman. It is not unlike the recognition that all the objects in the universe are made of energy, whether that energy manifests as light, a hydrogen atom, a drop of water or a human being. When you look underneath the differences in external appearance, the same essence underlies everything. So when a yogi says 'we are all one', this really means that the essence which underlies all existence, including yours and mine, is the same. NAMES AND FORMS...AND HUMAN IMBALANCE But what this does not mean is that you and I are the same, nor that our experiences are the same. In the very same ancient texts is the recognition that when we are born as humans, we take on a distinct physical form that is separate from other forms. For example, I am separate from the computer, and I am separate from you. We take on a name and a form. Our essence is still brahman, but our names and forms are different. The goal of spiritual practice in this vein is to recognize our true essence as brahman rather than this body and mind. But it does not mean that our bodies, minds, histories, goals and identities are the same. The physical world is quite different from the spiritual world. We must recognize that we, as humans, create imbalance in the world. We take objects from one place and move them to another. We cut down trees to build houses, and we protect our own families by destroying others. While these things are all, by definition, brahman, that does not mean that our 'names and forms' are all inseparable. If it did, we would be just as happy to be eaten by a fish as to eat the fish ourselves. SPIRITUAL EQUALITY vs PHYSICAL EQUALITY While we may believe that we are the same on an essential, spiritual level, this certainly does not manifest into the physical realm of human bodies and minds. The way that the yogic concept of spiritual equality — that 'we are all one' — manifests in the world is infinitely complex and frustrating. Our human minds and bodies are designed to be selfish, even if our spirits are 'one'. We are born with the need to feed and protect our bodies at the expense of pretty much everything around us. This is what the yogis call 'ignorance' (avidya) and 'ego' (asmita), two foundational problems of every human. So next time someone says 'we are all one', recognize that it is a spiritual statement but not a physical, human one. If we seek to make the physical world more like the spiritual one, we must make the effort to subordinate our own desires to the good of others, and to make the human world more equal through our own action.  Two weeks ago, the state of Alabama overturned a 30 year ban on yoga instruction in public schools. Now yoga can be taught in schools there, with a few caveats.
The bill continues the transformation of modern yoga into a secular, physical, health-centric exercise practice, a process that began about 100 years ago in India. As far as the bill promotes health in students, it is to be applauded. But its understanding of the essence of modern yoga is off the mark, which leads to a couple mistaken restrictions, like the exclusive use of the English language. According to the bill, "All instruction in yoga shall be limited exclusively to poses, exercises, and stretching techniques. All poses shall be limited exclusively to sitting, standing, reclining, twisting, and balancing. All poses, exercises, and stretching techniques shall have exclusively English descriptive names. Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited." These stipulations come from concerns over the possibility of yoga's inherent religiosity or spirituality. Religious teaching of any kind is not permitted in public schools, and some worry that even non-religious yoga practices are a trojan horse, smuggling Hinduism or Buddhism into the curriculum. At the root of the confusion is a common term: yoga. It can refer to old practices or new, spiritual, religious or physical. The confusion arises when we do not know which are being taught, or when we think they are all the same. The Alabama bill makes this mistake, equating yoga practice with Hinduism. It requires parental permission for any student to participate, including the statement, "I understand that yoga is part of the Hinduism religion.” Let’s look at this misunderstanding in a little more detail. Practices called yoga have been around for thousands of years. For most of history, yoga was spiritual, a practice of linking one's awareness with the eternal soul within, or with a deity. In this way, yoga can be associated with Hinduism. But yoga that is practiced today is different. In the early 20th century, yoga practice became largely physical and focused on health, downplaying or entirely dropping its spiritual and religious elements. According to yoga scholar Mark Singleton, conceptions of yoga in the 20th century are shaped by "modern physical culture, 'healthism', and Western esotericism." In other words, modern yoga is closer to gymnastics than prayer. Even though they share the same name — yoga — modern practice is fundamentally different from earlier spiritual forms. Confusion is common. Most people who do not practice yoga, and even many who do, mistakenly think that the postures and exercises in a yoga class are ancient and inherently spiritual in nature. But most of the stretches and asanas in a yoga class come from calisthenics, gymnastics and dance as recently as the last few decades. As such, they are exercises that look good, feel good and improve our health. Singleton writes, "among outsiders and practitioners alike, there is often little awareness that these modes of [modern] practice have no precedent (prior to the early twentieth century, that is) in Indian yoga traditions.” So it is no surprise that parents and politicians fear inherent Hinduism in yoga, even though little or none exists in its modern iterations. THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE This same misunderstanding appears in the Alabama bill with regard to language. Though it is not stated explicitly, the insistence on "exclusively English descriptive names" seems to be a way to prevent the use of the Sanskrit language, most likely due to fear that Sanskrit will smuggle in Hinduism or Buddhism. But non-English languages are fundamental parts of many disciplines. In music, every student learns the Italian allegro, andante, forte and piano, words meaning fast, slow, loud and soft. And biologists often use Latin to classify species like homo sapiens. Some yoga postures are named after Hindu deities. For example, Hanumanasana is named after the god Hanuman; Virabhadrasana is named after Virabhadra; Vasishthasana is named for Vasishtha. These names and their deities are rightfully forbidden from public schools, just as any mention of Moses, Jesus or Mohammed would be. But other postures are named for secular objects like shapes and animals. There is Trikonasana, the Triangle Posture; Vrikshasana, the Tree Posture; Bhujangasana, the Cobra Posture, among countless others. Surely these names do not infringe upon religious freedom or inherently imply Hindu worship, whether in English or Sanskrit. And there is no harm in learning the Sanskrit word for tree. At its core, then, the new bill in Alabama continues the secularization, exercise and health focus of modern yoga. In this way, it isn't terribly different from the twentieth-century innovations of Vivekananda or Yogendra, who removed unattractive traditional beliefs in favor of modern ones. — Singleton, Mark. 2010. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford University Press.  The issue of cultural appropriation has been troubling yoga lately. Did the West steal yoga from India? Does India own yoga? Do Indians naturally and inherently understand yoga because of their cultural heritage? Is it in their blood? Some have suggested that non-Indians should not teach yoga.
Three elements are worth stating briefly before we answer the central question. First, any claim that intelligence, knowledge, understanding or ability can be judged by a person’s heritage or race should be recognized for what it is. At best it is nationalism, at worst it is racism. With yoga, the sentiment is understandable on several levels. Yoga has become a billion dollar industry beyond India's borders. Furthermore, much about what modern yoga is today shifted drastically while India was under British rule. The desire to reclaim a popular system as one’s own is relatable. Yoga, like many other trades, practices or professions can be passed down generation to generation. At a young age, the next in line takes over the family business. They grow up around it and learn everything there is to know about it from the older generation. This is different. This is closer to a master/apprentice or guru/disciple relationship. In this case, the second generation will have knowledge and understanding that the outside world won't have. But this is because of the immense time spent learning and studying the craft. If the child of an expert chooses not to study or practice yoga for example, they cannot expect to know a great deal about it even if they are directly related to an expert. Second, heritage of a subject or art form in a country does not give that country exclusive ownership of it. Ideas and goods have been traded internationally for thousands of years, evolving as they go. The Chinese cannot claim the exclusive right to make paper, the Babylonians mathematics, nor the Indians yoga. Third, we need to be clear about what we mean by 'yoga'. This may seem obvious, but it is nuanced enough to deserve a little explanation. There is no doubt that yoga originates in India. The ancient Katha Upanishad is its first known explanation. For thousands of years, yoga was a spiritual practice of uniting one’s awareness with an eternal spirit within, or with a deity. In the twelfth century, a practice with bodily elements developed, called hathayoga, the 'yoga of force'. But the goal was the same, to create spiritual unity with a higher being. In the early twentieth century, this changed drastically. Over the course of a couple decades, yoga was refashioned as a modern, scientific, physical practice for health. Modern yoga represents a fundamental break from the older spiritual iterations. It shows influence from European physical cultures like gymnastics and calisthenics. As such, even India’s claim as the singular authentic source of modern physical yoga is worthy of healthy debate. But let’s get back to the central question: who should be teaching yoga? The answer is the same as for any topic, whether mathematics, physics, astronomy, music or literature. A topic should be taught by those who have knowledge of it. Regardless of their age, gender or race, a teacher needs no more — and no less — than expertise of their subject. This gets more complicated because of the unequal power structures permeating the world. Those that know should teach. However, those that have resources should work to make sure that those who have less still have the opportunity to learn if they choose to. Perhaps the question is not who should teach, but rather how do we make high quality education affordable and available. This issue has quickly moved in the wrong direction as more and more "teacher" trainings see big money to be made. This is in exchange for the promise of the title of teacher, often with not enough regard for the task of actually training a teacher. As for the suggestion that non-Indians should not teach yoga, the nationalistic element should quickly be discarded. Furthermore, we need to address the quality of yoga teachers. The only worthwhile question to ask about a potential yoga teacher is this: do they know what they are doing? |
AUTHORS
Scott & Ida are Yoga Acharyas (Masters of Yoga). They are scholars as well as practitioners of yogic postures, breath control and meditation. They are the head teachers of Ghosh Yoga.
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