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chapter viii recovering the Body: yoga Millions of Westerners, and in particular north americans, are practising yoga. they pick up their yoga mats, head for a local yoga studio, and spend an hour or two performing the physical exercises (postures) of the many different and evolving forms of hatha yoga. they are taking part in a 5,000-year-old spiritual practice that is also an art, a science and a philosophy1 —although for many of them it is not perceived as much more than a good workout that gets their bodies into shape and enhances their energy levels. “yoga has been secularized and turned from a rigorous spiritual discipline into an ‘instant’ fitness system.”2 Some of these practitioners, however, will see beyond the physical benefits and notice a quieting of the mind, or an emerging dissatisfaction with the materialist direction of their lives; they might begin to search for deeper meaning in the postures they perform on their mats. they might become teachers themselves or disciples of one of the many indian teachers, whose role has been to transplant this ancient practice into new ground, adapting it to the Western body and mind. they might become serious yogis and yoginis3 and, if they do, their lives may be transformed. Whether they realize it or not, they are also learning a new approach to the body, one that sees mind, body and spirit as so inextricably linked that any disturbance in one is a disturbance in the other. they may also begin to experience spirit as something different from mind and as a new dimension for self-exploration. georg Feuerstein emphasizes that the traditional purpose of yoga “has always been to bring about a profound transformation in the person through the transcendence of the ego.”4 this goal is reflected in all the martial 236 the liMitS oF MeChaniSM arts of the east, where self-cultivation means, in effect, a total transformation of the self in relation to the world. the idea that yoga has been secularized in the West presupposes that it is, or was, a religion, but this is not a position that receives unanimous support. Some writers hold that yoga predates the hindu religion with which it is often identified. vivian Worthington points out, for example, that hinduism actually adopted yoga, since yoga originally existed outside the framework of Brahmanism, as the early form of hinduism was known: although fiercely contested and often persecuted by the Brahmins, [yoga’s] main writings, the Upanishads, were later adopted by the Brahminical establishment and tagged on at the end of the vedas, thus changing the whole complexion of hinduism….5 other writers (often writing from an academic and religious studies point of view) hold that the Vedas came first and the Upanishads came later. given that these ancient texts were oral before they were written, deciding who is correct is not an easy matter. it can safely be noted, however, that even if yoga itself is not a religion, it has influenced, and has been practised within, different religions for centuries, most notably hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and even Sufism.6 another claim that it is quite safe to make is that, in its millennia of existence, yoga has existed in many forms and undergone many adaptations. in addition, all commentators emphasize the syncretic nature of the indian mind and culture, its ability to adapt to new ideas and to accept many different versions of the same general philosophy, even where they might be, or might appear to be, contradictory. in this, the indian belief system is akin to that of the renaissance naturalists whom we met in Chapter 4. in the final analysis, finding the ‘authentic’ yoga history and practice is a task best left to the academics, one of whom tells us that, “as long as there is no agreement on the interpretation of the written sources from the indus civilisation, such claims about the presence of yoga will remain possible interpretations.”7 yoga has a distinctly spiritual dimension, but it does not demand any particular set of beliefs, dogmas, or rituals; it can be practised by people of any religion or no religion. a serious practitioner of the discipline, however, cannot ignore the spiritual goal of self-transformation. the word ‘yoga’ itself means ‘yoke’ or ‘union,’ and refers to the union of the lower, everyday self (ego) and the higher or transcendental Self. arriving at this latter state entails meditative [3.144.17.45] Project MUSE (2024...

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