March 9, 2016
This essay first appeared in Yoga International: thank you to Kat Heagburg for editorial help. ____ You’ve probably heard a number of translations for the haṭha […]
February 27, 2015
This was originally published at Yoga International. Thank you to Kathryn Ashworth and the editorial team there. Framing the Problem Leena Miller Cressman, my colleague at […]
November 16, 2014
In the process of this study, I’ve reached out for as much theoretical help as I can find, and tried to view the scene through as many lenses as possible. I’ll describe some of these lenses here, briefly, to give a sense of what’s going on behind the curtain, and the concerns that have driven my questioning technique in the interviewing process. All of these lenses have limitations, which means that I don’t apply any of them exclusively or rigidly. I’m actually interested in their flaws as much as their strengths, because the flaws show me where more study and more humility are required. Each lens can only hold a part of the story about how we hurt and heal through yoga.
November 11, 2014
At the age of 30, I went to a yoga class in Manhattan, trying to pull myself out of depression. It was at Alan Finger’s old place. The instructor was a woman my age who seemed charmed in a way that both irritated and attracted me. Like she had some pleasurable secret. Smiling, she said: “Today we’ll try to see if we can join the small self to the larger self.” The words jostled some memory of the Arjuna story, but they didn’t help my mood.