So, I’ve started practicing Fiji McAlpine’s great chakra flow series, and it got me thinking about chakras and the role of mystical and spiritual concepts in yoga.
Most Western yoga classes I’ve taken are oriented around asana, and one could easily focus on that and mute or ignore spiritual dimensions of yoga entirely. Certainly many or most of the classes offered on this site would fit into that.
Yet, a lot of traditional yoga concerns matters that fall outside of science; some close to religion, like the existence and development of the subtle body or a yogi’s relationship with divinity, and some closer to shamanism, like the purported mystical properties of mantras.
How much do these esoteric and spiritual concepts play a role in your practice? And can you divorce yoga entirely from the spiritual and still preserve aspects of its essence?
Matthew, This is a fantastic topic of conversation!
What I have learned through practicing yoga over the years is that we are all ONE, but that does not mean we are all the SAME. Another way of looking at it is that you are not a drop in the ocean but the ocean in a drop.
Each of us is animated by the same intelligence that creates life, where that comes from or what to call it is a mystery that we all explore in our own way. You can look at the spark of life from a scientific point of view, a mystical perspective, or an intuitive curiosity. Yoga is for me an exploration of what it means to be alive, how to work with the energy that is in me and around me in a way that is beneficial for my own body and being, but also for the world I live in.
I do think that practicing yoga on a simply physical level can be of benefit, because there are many roads you can take to get to the same destination. Learning about how to connect with your body, teaches you how to be mindful in connection. That can’t be kept in just one corner of your life, but will start to expand into all areas. Everything is interconnected.
I often joke that out of a class of 20 people, students will be on their mat for a variety of reasons and motivations, many superficial. They will have those basic needs met and so much more. I don’t need to convince people to listen to their chakras as we practice, they are learning to do so on their own.
I love the inquiry! I have a graduate degree, a career and lots of experience all in spiritual traditions, which can be like studying maps. But Yoga is some of the best actual territory that engages an active/yang experience, a receptive/yin and the reconciling /interplay within between and amongst. Sometimes I am only trying to stretch my aging midlifer’s body so I don’t crack in half, and then I find myself surprisingly receptive and moved or empowered… Sometimes I’m actively trying to be spiritually aware and what arrives is that I need David’s advice to go slow and just let the physical bones sink. Yoga meets my criteria for a spiritual practice too, in that it supports my better relating with others and Life itself.
Completely agree!