Reply to Yoga is Hindu. Period.

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Yoga is Hindu. Period."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Interesting thread. I happen to agree with OP that yoga is being culturally appropriated out of Hinduism by most yoga studios, but many yoga studios do try to be mindful of the spiritual components of yoga.

I think there's a different problem with mainstream yoga that is FAR more worrying: most people don't realize that yoga can seriously, seriously fuck you up. I'm not talking about a sprained hamstring here, I mean it can induce psychotic states. When corporate yoga doesn't acknowledge the mystic Hindu and Buddhist practices, they leave you pretty vulnerable to all the intense spiritual and sometimes scary effects of yoga.

The dangers of yoga are clearly outlined in the scripture, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. In chapter 2 it says, "Just as lions, elephants, and tigers are tamed, so the prana [the divine force in the breath, similar to Chinese qi] should be kept under control. [b]Otherwise it can kill the practitioner.[/b]" (emphasis mine)

Pranayama is the breathing exercise that you're taught in yoga class. It can [i]rewire your nervous system[/i] and really, really mess you up if you're not doing it under the close and careful supervision of an experienced teacher.

And most American yoga teachers are NOT experienced.

They go through about 200 hours of "teacher training" and that's it. That's their certification. They cannot protect you from out of control kriyas, they can't stop a spontaneous kundalini crisis and they can't tell you if you're doing pranayama incorrectly, frankly, because they have not been correctly trained in pranayama.

I'm speaking as an American yogi who was initiated by a guru and also trained in ashtanga yoga in India. This was decades ago before yoga became a big rage. I have seen the difference between people who were taught correctly and people who weren't.

People who went deep into advanced asanas just for the physicality and challenge and ended up in psychotic states.

People who had their nerves fired and fried by incorrect, badly taught pranayama.

People who used mudras that they were not supposed to use - but hey nobody told them that at their Lululemon-wearing yoga studio - and invited all kinds of problems into their lives.

Honestly, there is so much that is dangerously wrong with the way mainstream yoga is practiced, and the danger comes from stripping away the mystical parts of it and then still trying to teach beginner students how to do things like awaken their kundalini. That is very irresponsible. Nobody has any business awakening their kundalini without the supervision, guidance and protection of a self-realized guru. The kundalini is Shakti (the mother goddess), and she will [i]fuck you up[/i] because she wants to burn away your blocks and limitations - but the issue is that you will either becomes self-realized or you will die...or you will develop symptoms of mental illness. I'm not joking. I've heard of people who have died.

Authentic yoga practitioners in India are extremely aware of the dangers of yoga, and nothing is watered down there or sanitized and packaged up nicely for profitable mass consumption. Yoga is literally a highly advanced and sophisticated superhighway to the cosmic consciousness and it's not meant to be casually dabbled with.[/quote]

Wut?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics