Yoga philosophy – Page 9

November 12, 2014

WAWADIA Update #18: One Hundred Years of Yoga in One Big Apple Day

So we have the stonecutter, and the baby-whisperer. The values of the entire last century of modern postural yoga would seem to oscillate between these two icons. On one end of the mālā-string, a harsh discipline seeks to reconstruct the person into a worthy vehicle of devotion. On the other end, we’re encouraged to release every discipline and habit that has obscured the original ease and pleasure of movement. Modern yogis slide back and forth on that string, like beads, in constant dialogue between the desire for a new self and a primal memory.

November 4, 2014

WAWADIA: A Working Thesis

The body of modern yoga is a body of longing, possibility, and revelation. But it’s also a body of shame, confusion, and suffering. Injury can mark the place where these two bodies wrestle on the mat.

October 22, 2014

WAWADIA Update #17 /// Question: Is Injury-Free Yoga Possible?

I acknowledge that a completely injury-free yoga is not a reasonable goal. Nor a desirable one, perhaps. Firstly, it’s impossible: all things tend towards entropy. Secondly, people who crave growth will at times overstep their means and even ignore their wits as they leap in fear and faith towards a fantasized future self.

October 11, 2014

Why Are Some Folks Distorting and Dismissing Chelsea Roff’s Article on Anorexia and Yoga?

Roff is obviously not saying that yoga causes eating disorders. She's saying here and throughout the piece that for all its marketing of therapeutic benefit, yoga culture has more work to do to distinguish itself from the toxicity of the dominant body-shaming paradigm. That in fact, its very pretences to therapy and spiritual renewal often cover up the psychopathologies of its practitioners.