Dear all

"Certainty is the enemy of freedom". Tom Robbins

Having recently returned from a month in India I can't help feeling that our
modern/western sensibilities have stifled the potential and boundlessness of
yoga by trying to frame it in a context of certainty, asana (posture),
alignment and physical perfection. In its homeland, the practice is largely
invisible but characterised by its all encompassing pursuit of truth,
freedom and divinity. India has so much to teach - in microcosm and
macrocosm - but most of all I found it to be a place of paradox and
contradiction: populous, with the fastest growing population in the world
(one in six people on the globe is Indian), a nuclear and economic
superpower with 50% illiteracy, a third of the world's poor (despite being
home to some of the world's wealthiest people and companies), and the
world's oldest modern religion. Overwhelming natural beauty and a high
level of nature consciousness but environmentally ravaged by pollution;
mayhem on a very inadequate road system but no road rage and a dearth of
accidents; luxurious hotels, private jets and opulence in amongst beggars,
hawkers and some of the worst physical deformities imaginable; a lack of
clean water, no primary healthcare and some of the friendliest people I have
ever encountered.

Spiritual, yes - although highly ritualistic with obvious inconsistencies
e.g.: in the treatment of animals; colourful and vibrant yet staid and
conformist; friendly and secretive; bustling and oppressive but
contemplative and meditative; cheap, but boy can you get ripped off;
accepting yet judgmental, sexist and racist; and so the list goes on.. India
is not the world in microcosm - it is the world! And with over a billion
people in only 3 million square kilometers, it's difficult to escape.

What a place, what an education, what a completely different place from the
other countries I have been fortunate to visit. Whilst I hold firm to the
belief that you don't have to go to the Himalayas to find yourself, I now
believe that it might be a great deal easier if you can!

Of all the revelations, two stand out: Firstly, modern society's concept of
civilisation is an absolute farce - a worldview of dogmatic belief,
chemically induced and produced, war-mongering and dominative behavior is so
foreign to our inherent nature that we must surely rebel against it at some
time. If we don't - the planet will and is starting to. In rural India we
sometimes faced the prospect of defecating (poohing) in nature (when you
gotta go and there's no toilet) - something that doesn't come naturally to
our "civilised" mindset because we think it's unclean. Instead we produce
porcelain toilets, in a process of manufacturing which leads to extensive
pollution and toxic chemical production, we use rare and precious water to
transport the excrement (pooh) through a labyrinth of sewage pipes and
systems (all of which need to be manufactured), we add some more chemicals
to clean the water, manufacture toilet paper and a whole range of
"essential" ancillary products like sprays, detergents and bleaches - and
this is more clean?? Now I'm not advocating that everyone should just do it
(pooh) in the bush but surely it's obvious what folly this mindset is and
what damage it does - instead of allowing the nature to work its process?

The second, and less ablutive (pooh related) revelation was about yoga - the
yoga of India didn't seem to me to be all about the physicality that we,
outside of India, have made it (aside from one, very influential, style and
teacher). Alignment, precision, structure, orginisation, rules, notions of
wrong and right, were existing precepts that were overlaid into the original
practice with it's roots in shamanic imitations of the gracefulness of other
animals - a celebration of nature spirits and a recognition of our
co-existent place in this space we occupy.

Yoga was a spiritual practice with a physical component that has become a
physical practice with a diluted spiritual component. The yoga of India is
a pursuit of awareness, detachment, meditation and divine linkage - "it is
not necessary for one to do the physical postures to be a practitioner of
the authentic yoga" (Swami Bharati). You wouldn't believe that by looking
at the ever-increasing range of books in the bookstores. When next you say
"I do yoga", be aware that what we should say is "I do postures, which is a
small component of Hatha (physical) Yoga which is part of Raja (royal) Yoga
which is part of the many techniques of Yoga." These ancient, scientific
and externally powerful techniques were developed over lifetimes of teachers
for the purposes of moving towards transcendence. Yes, some of us may
choose to use the techniques to get fit, lose weight or firm the buttocks,
but the potential is so much larger.

Body reflects mind reflects spirit but the caveat is that it depends on your
intention - i.e. why and how you practice. See it as a fitness regime and
it is that (a pretty good one too), see it as a breath focused moving
meditation and you begin to unlock the power of the practice. This, in
turn, allows the yoga to expand into all facets if your life - breathing
into stress, recognizing what's really important in your life, getting back
to nature and moving towards your God or non-God. Everything in life is
yoga and the eight limbs of Ashtanga yoga stretch into all of it - moral
observances, personal practices, postures, breathe control, sensory
withdrawal, one pointed focus, meditation and bliss. These limbs are
available to all of us to use to bring contentment, fulfilment and meaning
to our lives, irrespective of religious orientation - seems kinda silly not
to use them.

With Love,
Chris and the Moksha team.

"Truth is one, interpretations many"
~ Bapuji

"Men do not mirror themselves in running water - they mirror themselves in
still water." Chuang Tzu

The mind is like a lake rippled by thoughts - only once we have stilled the
ripples can we see ourselves for who we truly are.