Part 1 of

Finding Space on our Yoga Mats for Politics, Social Activism, and Social Justice

• 

I don’t know if you have been following this country’s latest developments or if you’re one of those yogi’s that prefers to press mute to the political news of today. And, I’m sure some of you are already thinking Yoga and Politics where’s the intersection between those, How does Yoga involve politics? And, I can’t find fault anyone in that thinking, but if we can build a bigger awareness around what yoga is, then I think naturally the overflow occurs and the intersection just becomes an obvious connection.

I think we should take a step back from the idea of what “Yoga” means in  mainstream society, as this quasi fitness and stress management practice. While certain types of Yoga can be a form of exercise, the framework that yoga is only a physical or even mental self betterment practice is just one part of the overall structure that encompasses yoga.

The question then, what is yoga? I’ll preface my explanation by saying  I’m not a Sanskrit Scholar, but the word Yoga, comes from the Sanskrit word to Yoke. So, when we practice yoga we are “yoking” or forming a union between the Duality of life into a Non-Duality. I might have lost you in the last statement, so let’ start with talking about what Duality and Non-Duality are as words in this context, so we can have a shared language and start to piece some of these things together.

Dvaita in sanskrit mean Duality, and in the Yogic sense and for the purpose of this blog, means the existence of two opposing system. One way to think about is the duality that exists with each of us, and the existence of both our mind and our physical body. When we practice yoga, one union that happens is this sort of mind-body connection that gets created, we step on our mats, and start to connect our minds with our body, and breath with our movement. When the process occurs a yoking and a union occurs, and that process that occurs is Yoga.

Non-Duality or Advaita, means the existence of two things at the same time. We are both, inherently “good” inside  and at the same time we make mistakes and sometimes do “bad” things, we are both citizens to a country as well as citizens of the earth. We can call Sacramento home, as well as someplace else, the existence of the latter does not negate the existence of the former. Weaving these ideas together, we can start to see ,that, duality means we are one thing or one way, and that non-duality means we are more than just one thing or one way. So, with in the Duality there is also a Non-Duality, for example, we may find ourselves mad at friend or family member(duality) but at the same time, we also have love(nonduality) for that person.

Bringing that knowledge about the nature of duality and non duality with in the scope of tangible reality, I invite you to think about the duality of living our normal day to day lives. The feeling of who you are as a person both at work, at home, or commuting between those two worlds. Maybe, those shared realities we call society conjure up feelings of stress or anxiety within you, and maybe you go to yoga, to escape that feeling, to get of your head for a litte bit(duality). And,  in that process you start to become more embodied, you start to feel what’s going in your body, and for the first time all day, maybe you even start to notice your thougts, and how they are making you feel(non-duality). Its not as if Yoga has eliminated the stresses from your life, it’s merely just the awareness that you gained about feeling stressed, So the big question, then is, why if we go to yoga to escape our stresses, why would we want to talk about politics, and social justice, The prevailing thought being, there can’t be peace within stress because they are polarizing feelings and so there can’t be space for both.

What I’m here to say, is that, there can be space for both Yoga and Social Activism, within the practice of Yoga. I would even go further in saying, that, the very essence of pushing away anything stressful, anxiety, or negative, is fundamentally the antheis of what lies at the heart of yogic teachings because how can we yoke, or form a union with our mind and body, if we deny the existence of what the mind may be feeling.

All of this, begs the much bigger question here, which is, how can we find peace, if we are pissed off about what’s happening in our cities, our country’s and our world, because let’s face it, the world right now, at least as I type this, kinda sucks. We have states here in the United States straight up violating federal laws, blatant systemic racism, and global warming wreaking havoc on our earth, all while certain groups of people stand by and deny its existence altogether. How do we know what know, and not get angry, how can we find even a sliver of peace in this crazy world and still be instruments of change?