KAREN HORNEY

Karen Horney, Feminine Psychology, edited with an Introduction by Harold Kelman (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1967, 1973) ("Among all the manifestations of the neurotic need for love, I want to emphasize one that is very common in our culture. It is the overvaluation of love. . . ." "An important characteristic of the neurotic need for love is insatiability, which shows itself as an extreme jealously: 'You must love only me!' We can observe this phenomenon in many marriages, love affairs, and friendships. Jealousy, as I understand it here, is not a reaction based on rational factors, but is insatiable and demands that they be loved exclusively." "Another expression of the insatiability of the neurotic need for love is the need for unconditional love, which is expressed as 'You must love me, no matter how I behave.' This is an important factor. . . . The need for unconditional love shows itself also in their demand to be loved without having to give anything, as if to say: 'It is simple to love someone who reciprocates, but let's see if you love me, if you don't get anything in return.' . . . It can go so far that even in their sex life they may feel, 'You love me only because you get your sexual satisfaction from me.' The partner must prove his real love by making sacrifices in his moral values, reputation money, time, etc. Anything that falls short of this absolute demand is taken as rejection." Id. at 246-247. "Another sign of the neurotic need for love is the extreme sensitivity to rejection, which is so frequent among persons with hysterical characteristics. They perceive all kinds of things as rejections and react with intense hate." Id. at 248.).


Karen Horney, Final Lectures, edited by Douglas H. Ingram (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1987).

Karen Horney, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization (New York: & London: W. W. Norton, 1950, 1970) ("The most pertinent symbol, to my mind, for the neurotic process initiated by the search for glory is the ideational content of the stories of the devil's pact. The devil, or some other personification of evil, tempts a person who is perplexed by spiritual or material trouble with the offer of unlimited powers. But he can obtain these powers only on the condition of selling his soul or going to hell. The temptation can come to anybody, rich or poor in spirit, because it speaks to two powerful desires: the longing for the infinite and the wish for an easy way out. According to religious tradition, the greatest spiritual leaders of mankind, Buddha and Christ, experienced such temptation. But, because they were firmly grounded in themselves, they recognized it as a temptation and could reject it. Moreover, the conditions stipulated in the pact are an appropriate representation of the price to be paid in the neurotic's development. Speaking in these symbolic terms, the easy way to infinite glory is inevitably also the way to an inner hell of self-contempt and self-torment. By taking this road, the individual is in fact losing his soul--his real self." Id. at 39. Neurotic Pride: "With all his strenuous efforts toward perfection and with all his belief in perfection attained, the neurotic does not gain what he most desperately needs: self-confidence and self-respect. Even though godlike in his imagination, he still lacks the earthy self-confidence of a simple shepherd. The great positions to which he may rise, the fame he may acquire, will render him arrogant but will not bring him inner security. He still feels at bottom unwanted, is easily hurt, and needs incessant conformation of his value. He may feel strong and significant as long as he wields power and influence and is supported by praise and deference. But all of these feelings of elation collapse easily when, in a strange environment, this support is lacking; when he incurs failure; or when he is by himself. The kingdom of heaven does not come through external gestures." Id. at 86. "[T]he neurotic development, initiated by the early unfavorable constellation, weakens him at the core of his being. He becomes alienated from himself and divided. His self-idealization is an attempt to remedy the damage done by lifting himself in his mind above the crude reality of himself and others. And, as in the stories of the devil's pact, he gets all the glory in imagination and sometimes in reality. But instead of solid self-confidence he gets a glittering gift of most questionable values: neurotic pride." Id. at 87. "This book began with a vigorous emphasis on the importance of the real self.  The real self . . . is the alive, unique, personal center of ourselves; the only part that can, and wants to, grow. We saw that unfortunate conditions prevent its unimpeded growth from the very beginning." Id. at at 155. "In terms of the devil's pact, the abandoning of self corresponds to the selling of one's soul.  In psychiatric terms we call it the 'alienation from self.' This latter term is applied chiefly to those extreme conditions in which people lose their feeling of identity, as in amnesia and depersonalization, etc. . . .  It is strange and even startling that a person who is not asleep and has no organic brain disease does not know who he is, where he is, or what he does or had been doing." Id. at 155-156. "To put it succinctly: neurotic pride is the enemy of love." Id. at 246. "[T]he pride system removes the neurotic from others by making him egocentric. To avoid misunderstandings: by egocentricity I do not mean selfishness or egotism in the sense of considering merely one's own advantage. The neurotic maybe callously selfish or too unselfish. . . . But he is always egocentric in the sense of being wrapped up in himself. . . . [H]e  lives in any case by his private religion (his idealized image), abides by his own laws (his shoulds), within the barbed-wire fence of his own pride and with his own guards to protect him against dangers from within and without. As a result he not only becomes more isolated emotionally but it also becomes more difficult for him to see other people as individuals in their own right, different from himself. They are subordinated to his prime concern: himself." Id. at 291-292.).

Karen Horney, The Neurotic Personality of Our Time, (New York: & London: W. W. Norton, 1937) ("The craving for affection is so frequent in neuroses, and so easily recognizable by the trained observer, that it may be considered one of the surest indicators for an existing anxiety and its approximate intensity. In fact if one feels fundamentally helpless toward a world which is invariably menacing and hostile, then the search for affection would appear to be the most logical and direct way of reaching out for any kind of benevolence, help or appreciation." "If the psychic conditions of the neurotic person were what they frequently appear to himself to be, it ought to be easy for him to gain affection. If I may verbalize what he often senses only dimly, his impressions are something like this: what he wants is so little, only that people should be kind to him, should give him advice, should appreciate that he is a poor, harmless, lonely soul, anxious to please, anxious not to hurt anyone's feelings. That is all he sees or feels. He does not recognize how much his sensitivities, his latent hostilities, his exacting demands interfere with his own relationships; nor is he able to judge the impression he makes on others or their reaction to him. Consequently he is at a loss to understand why his friendships, marriages, love affairs, professional relations are so often dissatisfactory. He tends to conclude that the others are at fault, that they are inconsiderate, disloyal, abusive, or that for some unfathomable reason he lacks the gift of being popular. Thus he keeps chasing the phantom of love." Id. at 105-106. "Modern culture is economically based on the principle of individual competition. The isolated individual has to fight with other individuals of the same group, has to surpass them and, frequently thrust them aside. The advantage of the one is frequently the disadvantage of the other. The psychic result of this situation is a diffuse hostile tension between individuals. Everyone is the real or potential competitor of everyone else. This situation is clearly apparent among members of the same occupational group, regardless of strivings to be fair or of attempts to camouflage by polite considerations. . . . " "The potential hostile tension between individuals results in a constant generation of fear--fear of the potential hostility of others, reinforced by a fear of retaliation for hostilities of one's own. Another important source of fear in the normal individual is the prospect of failure. The fear of failure is a realistic one because, in general, the chances of failing are much greater than those of succeeding, and because failures in a competitive society entail a realistic frustration of needs. They mean not only economic insecurity, but also loss of prestige and all kinds of emotional frustration." Id. at 284-285.).


Karen Horney, New Ways in Psychoanalysis (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1939, 1966) ("If narcissism is considered not genetically but with reference to its actual meaning is should, in my judgment, be described as essentially self-inflation. Psychic inflation, like economic inflation, means presenting greater value than really exist. It means that the person loves and admires himself for values for which there is no adequate foundation.  Similarly, it means that he expects love and admiration from others for qualities that he does not possess, or does not possess to as large an extent as he supposes. According to my definition, it is not narcissistic for a person to value a quality in himself which he actually possesses, or to like it to be valued by others. These two tendencies--appearing unduly significant to oneself and craving undue admiration from others--cannot be separated. Both are always present though in different types one or the other may prevail." ". . .The factor which contributes most fundamentally to the development of narcissistic trends appears to be the child's alienation from others, provoked by grievances and fears. His positive emotional ties with others become thin; he loses the capacity to love." "The same unfavorable environment produces disturbances in his feeling for self. In the more severe cases these mean more than a mere impairment of self-esteem; they bring about a complete suppression of the spontaneous individual self. . . ." "What does an individual gain by self-aggrandizement?" "He escapes the painful feeling on nothingness by molding himself in fancy into something outstanding. . . . The more he is alienated, not only from others but also form himself, the more easily such motions acquire a psychic reality. Not that he discards reality because of them--as the psychotic does--but reality takes on a provisional character, as life does for a Christian who expects his real life to begin in heaven. His notions of himself become a substitute for his undermined self-esteem; they become his 'real' me." "By creating a fantasy world of his own in which he is the hero he also consoles himself for not being loved and appreciated.  He may feel that though others reject him, look down on him, do not love him for what he really is, it is because he is too far above their understanding. My personal impression is that the illusions do far more than give secret substitute satisfactions. I often wonder whether they do not save the individual from being crushed entirely and thus whether they are not literally life-saving." "Finally, self-inflation represents an attempt to put relationships to others on a positive basis. If others do not love and respect the individual for what he is they should at least pay attention to him and admire him. The obtainment of admiration is substituted for love--a consequential step.  From then on he feels unwanted if he is not admired. He loses any understanding of the fact that friendliness and love can include an objective or even critical attitude. What falls short of blind adoration is to him no longer love; he will even suspect it of being hostility. He will judge others according to the admiration or flattery he receives from them.  People who admire him are good and superior, people who do not are not worth bothering with. Thus his main gratification lies in being admired, but also his security rests on it, because it gives him the illusion that he is strong and that the world around him is friendly. It is a security on a rickety basis, however, any failure may bring to the surface all the underlying insecurity. In fact, not even a failure is needed to elicit this effect; admiration paid to someone else may be sufficient to bring it about. Id. at 91-94.).

Karen Horney, Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis (New York: & London: W. W. Norton, 1945, 1966) ("Sexual intercourse as such--aside from its biological function--has the value of constituting proof of being wanted. The more the compliant type tends to be detached--that is, afraid of being emotionally involved--or the more he despairs of being loved, the more will mere sexuality be likely to substitute for love. It will then appear as the only road to human intimacy, and be overrated as love is, for its power to solve everything." Id. at 61. "The more the emotions are checked, the more likely it is that emphasis will be placed upon intelligence. The expectation then will be that everything can be solved by sheer power of reasoning, as if mere knowledge of one's own problems would be sufficient to cure them. Or as if reasoning alone could cure all the troubles of the world!" Id. at 85. "Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning." Id. at 135. "The most comprehensive formulation of therapeutic goals is the striving for wholeheartedness: to be without pretense, to be emotionally sincere, to be able to put the whole of oneself into one's feelings, one's work, one's beliefs. It can be approximated only to the extent that conflicts are resolved." "These goals are not arbitrary, nor are they valid goals of therapy simply because they coincide with the ideals that wise persons of all times have followed. But the coincidence is not accidental, for these are the elements upon which psychic health rests. We are justified in postulating these goals because they follow logically from a knowledge of the pathogenic factors in neurosis." Id. at 242.).

Karen Horney, Self-Analysis (New York: & London: W. W. Norton, 1942, 1968) ("But even if we grant that a considerable number of people can profitably analyze themselves, will they ever complete the work? Will there not always be problems left that are not solved or not even touched upon? My answer is that there is no such thing as a complete analysis. And this answer is not given in a spirit of resignation. Certainly the greater the degree of transparency and the more freedom we can attain, the better for us. But the idea of a finished human product not only appears presumptuous but even, in my opinion, lacks any strong appeal. Life is struggle and striving, development and growth--and analysis is one of the means that can help in this process. Certainly its positive accomplishments are important, but also the striving itself is of intrinsic value. As Goethe has said in Faust: 'Whoe'er aspires unweariedly, / Is not beyond redeeming.' " Id. at 275-275 (italics and emphasis added).).


Karen Horney, The Unknown Karen Horney: Essays on Gender, Culture, and Psychoanalysis, edited with and Introduction by Bernard J. Paris (New Haven & London: Yale U. Press, 2000) ("SEX AS A THING APART[:] When a person loses touch with his own identity, he is no longer aware of his real feelings and desires, which become distorted or repressed. He engages in pretenses and becomes emotionally insincere. Sex becomes impersonal and degraded because he engages in it without really being there." "The process of self-idealization is part of a vicious circle that degrades sex even further. . . . " "A conflict arises here because even though the neurotic regards sexual activity as a form of degradation, he also overvalues it as a means of proving his lovability because he beats himself down, he feels that no one can love him, but . . . he has an overwhelming need for love and human contact. He feels that even though he is unlovable as a person, maybe another will love him for sex, which is all he has to offer. So sexual attractiveness is a substitute for being lovable, and the sexual partner provides the human contact the neurotic craves so desperately." Id. at 156. ).

ENLIGHTENED SWORDSMANSHIP: NEED THE PRACTICE OF AMERICAN LAW (OR, FOR THAT MATTER, THE TEACHING OF AMERICAN LAW) BE SO SOUL-LESS?

Daisetz T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture (Bollingen Series LXIV), with an Introduction by Richard M. Jaffe (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 1959, 2010) ("The swordsman's 'unconscious' and the psychoanalysts' 'unconscious' are not to be confused, for the former is free from the notion of self. The perfect swordsman takes no cognizance of the enemy's personality, no more than his own. For he is an indifferent onlooker of the fatal drama of life and death in which he himself is the most active participant. In spite of all the concern he has or ought to have, he is above himself, he transcends the dualistic comprehension of the situation, yet he is not a contemplative mystic, he is in the thickest of the deadly combat. This distinction is to be remembered when we compare Eastern culture with Western. Even in such arts as that of swordsmanship, in which the principle of opposition is most in evidence, the one who is to be most intensely interested in it is advised to be liberated from the idea." Id. at 96-97. "One great advantage the sword has over mere book-reading is that once you make a false move you are sure to give the opponent a chance to beat you. You have to be on the alert all the time. While to be on the alert is not the ultimate of swordsmanship, it keeps you true to yourself: that is to say, you are not allowed to indulge in idle thinking. Thinking is useful in many ways, but there are some occasions when thinking interferes with the work, and you have to leave it behind and let the unconscious come forward. In such cases, you cease to be your own conscious master but become an instrument in the hands of the unknown. The unknown has no ego-consciousness and consequently no thought of winning the contest, because it moves at the level of nonduality, where there is neither subject nor object. It is the reason that the sword moves where it ought to move and makes the contest end victoriously. This is the practical application of the Lao-tzuan doctrine of 'doing by not doing.' Sun-tzu, a great authority on warfare, says: 'It is not the best thing to win every battle one is engaged in; the best thing is to win without planning to win.  This is perfect victory.' " Id. at 132-133. "But we must remember that it is no easy task to realize this state of mind, for a man has to go  through a great deal of discipline, not only moral but highly spiritual. As Ichiun says, a first-class swordsman must also be a 'perfect man': he is not only to be great in his profession, but as a moral character he is also to be great in every way; the swordsman must be more than a mere technician who cannot think of anything else but displaying his skill in the art of killing. As long as the technician is impatient in the demonstration of his art he can never come out victorious in his combat. . . . " Id. at 209-210. "We are not necessarily all ascetics, but I do not know if there is not in every one of us an eternal longing for a world beyond this of empirical relativity, where the soul can quietly contemplate its own destiny." Id. at 256-257.)

LUDWIG VON MISES WOULD BE BESIDE HIMSELF WERE HE ALIVE TO COMMENT ON THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS IN EUROPE . . . AND IN AMERICA.

Ludwig von Mises, Selected Writings of Ludwig von Mises, Volume 1: Monetary and Economic Policy Problem Before, During, and After the Great War, edited and with an Introduction by Richard M. Ebeling (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2012).

A 1950s and 1960s BROOKLYN CHILDHOOD

Martin Lemelman, Two Cents Plain: My Brooklyn Childhood (New York: Bloomsbury, 2010) (From the bookjacket: "Martin Lemelman's elegiac and bittersweet graphic memoir Two Cents Plain collects the memories and artifacts of the author's childhood in Brooklyn. The son of Holocaust survivors, Lemelman grew up in the back of his family's candy store in Brownville during the 1950s and '60s, as the neighborhood, and much of the city, moved into a period of decline.").

A LITTLE PRAYER

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Energy of Prayer: How to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice, with an Introduction by Larry Dossey (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2006) (Gathas for Daily Activities: Waking Up: "Waking up this morning, I smile. / Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.  / I vow to live fully in each moment / and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion." Id. at 152.). 

THIS MORNING I ATTENDED MY 100TH ASANA CLASS ASANAS/PRACTICE.

Bernie Clark, The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga: The Philosophy and Practice of Yin Yoga, with a Foreword by Sarah Powers (Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2012).

B. K. S. Iyengar, Light On Pranayama: The Yogic Art of Breathing, with an Introduction by Yehudi Menuhin (New York: Crossroad, 1985) ("Aims in Life (Purusarthas): 12. Man has four aims in his life: dharma, artha, kama and moksa. Dharma is duty. Without this and ethical discipline, spiritual attainment is impossible. Artha is the acquisition of wealth for independence and higher pursuits in life. It cannot give lasting joy; nevertheless, a poorly nourished body is a fertile ground for worries and diseases. Kama means the pleasures of life, which depend largely on a health body. As the Kathopanisad says, the 'self' cannot be experienced by a weakling. Mosksa is liberation. The enlightened man realises that power, pleasure, wealth and knowledge pass away and do not bring freedom. He tries to rise above his  sattvic, rajasic and tamasic qualities and so escape from the grasp of the gunas." Id. at 9. "4. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (I 16) mentions the six destroyers of yoga practices; over-eating, over-exertion, useless talk, undisciplined conduct, bad company and restless inconsistency. According to the Bhagavad Gita (VI 16) Yoga is not for those who gorge themselves, starve or sleep or stay awake too much. The Yoga Upanisads include bad physical posture and self-destroying emotion, like lust, anger, fear, greed, hatred and jealousy." Id. at 47.).

B. K. S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga, Revised Edition, with a Foreword by Yehudi Menuhin (New York: Schocken, 1977).

B. K. S. Iyengar, The Tree of Yoga, edited by Daniel Rivers-Moore, and with a Foreword by Patria Walden and Manouso Manos (Boston: Shambhala, 2002) ("Though yoga is often considered in the West to be only physical, it is also a physio-psychological and psycho-spiritual subject. It is a science which liberates one's mind from the bondage of the body and leads it towards the soul. When the mind reaches and merges with the soul, the soul is freed and remains thereafter in peace and beatitude. If a bird is kept in a cage, it has no possibility of movement. The moment the cage is opened, the bird flies out and seizes its freedom. Man attains that same freedom when the mind is released from the bondage of the body and comes to rest on the lap of the soul." Id. at 5-6. "The problem with many of us is ambition. You want to perform the asana as you see me perform them, but you forget that I have been practising yoga for more than fifty years, whereas you are just beginning. An ambitious or impatient approach will bring you illness--physical illness or mental illness. So treat the practice of yoga as part of your life, allowing it space within your normal activities." Id. at 28. "Yoga cannot be learnt through lectures. Yoga has to be taught by precept, and in teaching, practical things are involved. . . . " "There is very little value in teachers' certificates. The value is in the teacher's way of approaching teaching. The world is pure, atman is pure, but unfortunately the people living in the world are very corrupt. As yoga became more popular in the West, many people started teaching yoga, claiming to teach the Iyengar method. Some used my name, and unfortunately still use it, to teach things which I myself never taught. . . . [T]he important thing is not the certificate. What is important is whether you are compassionate.  You have to be compassionate as well as merciless. The two have to go together, but you must know where to be compassionate and where not to be compassionate in order to help the pupils with their problems." Id. at 163-164.).

Leslie Kaminoff & Any Matthews, Yoga Anatomy, Second Edition, illustrated by Sharon Ellis (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2012).

HOWEVER, TRUE YOGA IS NOT MAINLY ABOUT ASANAS/POSTURES. "THE TRUE AND ENTIRE PURPOSE OF YOGA IS SPIRITUAL IN NATURE." FOR ME, THIS WILL BE A VERY LONG, ENDLESS (EXCEPT BY DEATH) JOURNEY. AS THEY SAY, 'IT IS THE JOURNEY, NOT THE ARRIVAL, THAT MATTERS.' AMERICANS, GENERALLY SPEAKING, MAY BE A RELIGIOUS PEOPLE RELATIVE TO, SAY, EUROPEANS; BUT AMERICANS ARE NOT A VERY SPIRITUAL PEOPLE. MOREOVER, AMERICANS ARE AN ANTI-INTELLECTUAL PEOPLE; AND, IN MANY CRUCIAL ASPECTS,  THE "ENLIGHTENMENT" NEVER REALLY ESTABLISHED STRONG ROOTS HERE AFTER THE NATION'S FOUNDING GENERATIONS [E.G., THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION IS, FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, A CONSERVATIVE, COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY DOCUMENT.] IN THE CONTEXT OF YOGA, MOST AMERICANS ATTRACTED TO YOGA HAVE LITTLE INTEREST IN THE SPIRITUAL OR HIGHER ASPECTS OF YOGA. RATHER, THEIR INTEREST DOES NOT GET MUCH BEYOND MERE ASANAS AS PHYSICAL FITNESS. I AIM TO GET BEYOND THAT, AND INTO THE SPIRITUAL, AND STRIVING TOWARD GREATER CONSCIOUSNESS. THE ASANAS--OR, TO BE MORE PRECISE, THE PRACTICING OF THE ASANAS--, THOUGH ESSENTIAL, ARE MERELY THE PLATFORM FOR PURSUIT OF THE SPIRITUAL.

Richard Rosen, Original Yoga: Rediscovering Traditional Practices of Hatha Yoga, illustrated by Evan Yee (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2012) ("What is modern yoga all about?  Traditional Hatha Yoga is what might be called a 'full-time job'--time-consuming, strenuous, physically dangerous, and morally objectionable to mainstream standards in more ways than one. If the practice was to appeal to a popular audience, corners had to be cut so that the average householder-practitioner could fit a practice into her busy schedule, and dangerous or objectionable exercises had to be modified or excised altogether. When the dust of renovation settled, there really wasn't much left to do, so exercises were imported from outside sources--Indian wrestling and Western gymnastics--to beef up the practice. They were given Sanskrit names to make them seen 'yogic'; in this way, modern Hatha Yoga became asana-centric, or more precisely, it became equated with asana.  In fact, most 'yoga' classes, . . . books, and videos nowadays are 'asana' classes, books, and videos. I'm not here to criticize this development, a many traditionalists do; I actually believe that the modern 'asana-ization' of Hatha Yoga was a good thing, a way to draw hyper, body-image-conscious Westerners into the fold and get them hooked. According to both the Hatha-Yoga-Pradipka and Gheranda-amhita, the first-stage of traditional Hatha Yoga isn't the behavioral injunctions--the yamas and niyamas as it is in Patanjali's yoga--but asana. What we Westerners have been doing for the last sixties years or so is just that, practicing the first traditional Hatha stage, preparing ourselves for . . . what?" Id. at 3. We have been preparing ourselves for NOTHING ELSE--the asanas have become the end-goal of westernized/American yoga. We are stuck in the first stage, not really wanting to explore the truly deeper and spiritual aspects of traditional or to strive toward higher consciousness. After all, doing such would be detrimental to, and inconsistent, with a life geared toward materialism and making a buck. Traditional yoga is inconsistent with the American Dream.).

SO, WHAT IS A PERSON TO DO?  ENGAGE IN A TRUE YOGA PRACTICE!

T. K. V. Desikachar, The Heart of Yoga: Developing A Personal Practice, Revised Edition (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1995) ("The practice of yoga gives us the chance to experience the many different meanings of the word yoga. We have already described yoga as a movement from one point to another, higher one that was previously beyond our reach. It doesn't matter whether this shift comes about through practicing asana, through study and reading, or through meditation.-- it is still yoga." "In our practice we concentrate on the body, the breath, and the mind.  Our senses are included as part of the mind. Although it theoretically appears possible for body, breath, and mind to work independent of one another, the purpose of yoga is to unify their actions. It is primarily the physical aspect of our practice that people see as yoga. They will rarely notice how we breathe, how we feel the breath, and how we coordinate our breathing with our physical movement; they tend to only see our flexibility and suppleness. Some may want to know how many asanas we have mastered or how many minutes we can stay in a headstand." "Much more important than these outer manifestations is the way we feel the postures and the breath. . . . " Id. at 17. "Yoga cannot guarantee us this or that particular benefit if we practice diligently. Yoga is not a recipe for less suffering, though it can offer us help in changing our attitude so that we have less avidya and therefore greater freedom form duhkha. We can understand the whole practice of yoga as a process of examining our habitual attitudes and behaviors and their consequences." "What suggestions does yoga make about our interaction with others--our behavior toward those around us--and about our attitude toward ourselves? The attitude we have toward things and people outside ourselves is called yama in yoga, and how we relate ti ourselves inwardly is called niyama." "Yama and niyama deal with our social attitudes and lifestyles, how we interact with other people and the environment and how we deal with our problems. These all form a part of yoga, but they cannot be practiced. What we can practice are asanas and pranayama, which make us aware of where we are, where we stand, and how we look at things. Recognizing our mistakes is the first sign of clarity. Then gradually we try to bring about some changes in the way we show our respect to nature or relate to a friend. No one can change in a day, but yoga practices help change attitudes, our yama and niyama, it is not the other way around." Id. at 97. Or, as one of my teachers puts it: "What we do here on the mats carries over into what we do off the mat." From T. Krishnamacharya's Yoganjalisaram: "SURRENDER TO YOGA, FOR / WHERE IS THE CONFLICT WHEN THE TRUTH IS KNOWN? / WHERE IS THE DISEASE WHEN THE MIND IS CLEAR? / WHERE IS THE DEATH WHEN THE BREATH IS CONTROLLED?" Id. at 220.).

YOGA (AND BUDDHISM) ARE CHANGING MY LIFE. OR, RATHER, I AM CHANGING MY LIFE THROUGH MY YOGA PRACTICE (AND MY PRACTICING BUDDHISM).

A PERSPECTIVE ON POVERTY IN BRAZIL

Carolina Maria de Jesus, Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus, translated from the Portuguese by David St. Clair, with an Afterword by Robert M. Levine (New York: Signet Classics, 2003) (From the "Translator's Preface": "'July 15, 1955. The birthday of my daughter Vera Eunice. I wanted to buy a pair of shoes for her, but the price of food keeps us from realizing our desires. Actually we are slaves to the cost of living. I found a pair of shoes in the garbage, washed them, and patched them for her to wear.' Thus begins this book, the diary of a simple uneducated slum Negress that has been called by critics 'possibly one of the best books to come from a Brazilian in this [the twentieth] century.'" Id. at v.).