Dealing with Dogma
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011)
Since beginning my full time Mysore program I’ve had the pleasure of reconnecting with some of my former students and the good fortune to meet some wonderful new ones. It’s always been a joy for me to have the opportunity to share this wonderful tradition with others and help students to develop their own personal practice. Curious students have often commented, “I hear that Mysore is really strict”. Some have heard that if they can’t do a certain pose that they’ll have to leave the room and that they are not allowed the use of props or allowed to do prep poses. For the record let’s clear a few things up. I don’t run a strictly traditional room. We practice Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, everyone works on their own practice, and I work the room adjusting and helping people with their practice teaching the sequences, the Vinyasas, the breathing, the Bandhas, Drishti etc. There are those of us that are strictly traditional and those of us that are less so. We practice in the mornings at sunrise, those of us that wish to recite the mantra do, and those of us that don’t, well, don’t. If you want to learn it I’ll teach it to you, if you don’t, no worries, it’ll still be there when and if you’re ready.
My philosophy about this is that I get to know the students and their practice, and that I deliver a consistent message, and this can only happen if I see students regularly. I am the only teacher in the room so there is less chance for confusion. This being said there inevitably comes a point where students require information that appears to deviate from strict tradition in order that further progress is possible. When this occurs I show students options that may work more effectively given a particular situation. Now I can already hear many of you screaming; “that’s not the way it’s done!” “If you do that you’ll dilute the tradition.” The tradition is well documented and it’s not going to magically disappear. It’s how I’ve learned and practiced for many years. I’m not attacking the tradition, I’m saying that there is always more than one way to look at and solve a problem. If this were not the case no great achievements including Ashtanga Yoga would have ever occurred.
Most of my students are open-minded free thinkers, (or they probably wouldn’t be studying with me) and most if not all of them have a blog not unlike this one. One of them blogged about something they were doing in their practice and from what I understand received some anonymous disparaging comments from other more “strictly traditional” yoga practitioners that took issue with the way in which they were choosing to proceed. This student has expressed real concern about being alienated and attacked by the very community that is supposed to foster the search for truth and self-knowledge because they had realized that it was time to take responsibility for their own development and began to listen to their own inner voice. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I was under the distinct impression that yoga was actually supposed to make people kinder and more compassionate.
It’s always struck me as curious how children seem to instinctively know when some adult or bossy child attempts to enforce their opinions or beliefs upon them. They automatically recoil or retreat to their own centre, yet as adults we seem so willing to give up the power over our bodies, minds, and ultimately our destiny to gain acceptance from agenda driven individuals and organizations. Unfortunately more often than not these are clubs with rules designed to remove our individuality, our inner voice, to further their own agenda. There have been no great achievements in this world without individual creativity. We all deal with enough Dogma, why impose it on our yoga practice? So here’s an idea. Just listen to your own inner voice and have the courage to be who you really want to be.
Just an idea ;•) d
Like the post, Delia. Thanks.
Delia – great post. Fully agree.
Hi Delia, Liked your recent bit on self-practice. It’s somewhat funny where the more strict Ashtangi can spend the time to not only become attached to their practice, but extend their field of attachment onto someone elses. Dogma, liberation, attachment becomes pretty muddy where this is the case. There may be more professing masters out there than masters professing. Your words are a breath of fresh air. Take care, Jim
Thanks, it’s sad but true Jim
d
OTOH, a structured practice can be nice for those of us whose lives are already full of creative decision-making, and critical thinking. It’s refreshing not to have to be creative in yoga, too. And the repetition encourages the “cessation of vrittis.” A clear mind is a great achievement, too.
Of course, the nasty anon comments are totally not cool…
Absolutely Stephanie, I agree that structure is essential, providing that we don’t allow the familiar to become mindless. Constantly bringing new awareness back into the practice ensures that we don’t slip into patterns that breed injury.
d
I love this post and hope you don’t mind that I use your quote at the top.
There’s a lot of dogma around diet as well. In fact, there’s just a lot of dogma in yoga generally. I’ve been on the receiving end of quite a few comments and I find it really off-putting. The dogma is a big part of why I practice mainly at home these days, which is sad because I love the tradition and my traditional teacher. I’m just not in a place where I can be exposed to that stuff and not get upset about it.