YESTERDAY EVENING I DID MY 400TH POSTURAL YOGA CLASS

Then, later that night and early this morning, I asked myself, What does this mean to me? And, equally important, What does this not mean to me?

What four hundred postural yoga classes does not mean to me is four hundred classes. Four hundred is just a number. I possess a somewhat peculiar talent of being able to keep a running count in my head of all sorts of matters involving numbers. (I get this from my mother, who as a cashier at a currency exchange, was able to keep in her head a running total of not only the balance in her cash draw, but a running total of the denomination of the bills: that is, singles, five, tens, twenties, etc.) And, though I am mental decline--see, unlike most people I am not in denial of the aging process--, I still am pretty good at remembering facts and data--in fact, doing mathematical puzzles is part of my daily exercise--, especially if I can translate it into a number. For example, I remember birthdays, though I don't always chose to acknowledge birthdays, and other meaningless dates because these can be stated in a numerical format. 

Also, four hundred postural yoga classes does not signify the accomplishment of some goal. Four hundred postural yoga classes was not a "goal" of any sort. So, in a sense it is has no greater significance than a marker on a jogging trail. You know how far you have gone, you use the occasion to take inventory of your body, of your breathing, etc., and you decide whether to continue, whether to turn back, or perhaps collapse and wait for the paramedics. No need for the paramedic quite yet. No need to stop. My breathing and my body are both okay. Inventory taken. I will continue doing postural yoga.

So, what the four hundred postural yoga classes mean to me? First, it simply means discipline. The getting up, going to class, and doing the work. Discipline is a dying virtue among Americans. We have too many distractions, and we give in too easily. Second, it means making a commitment to myself. No one else give a damn whether or not I do yoga, and they should not give a damn. Every time I go to yoga class I acknowledge that "this is for me".  It is simply a commitment to take care of myself, a commitment to take responsibility for my well-being. Third, and most importantly, four hundred postural yoga classes mean to me something that is completely nonphysical. It means a commitment to strengthening my interior life. In doing the asanas all sorts of thoughts and emotions enter the mind, and I realizes that most of who I am has nothing to do with my body, or even my actions. Who I am has mainly to do with my thoughts and emotions, my wants and fears, in short, the inner dialogue(s) I have with myself. For instance, the dialogue I have with myself about being annoyed with people coming to yoga class late, the dialogue I have myself about why I am the sort of person who is annoyed by others coming to class late, the dialogue about whether I want to continue to be the sort of person who is annoyed by people coming late, the dialogue about how I am going to change from someone annoyed by people coming late into someone who is not annoyed. Such dialogues come up on the yoga mat, but continue off the mat. I find myself, in a sense, always on my yoga mat dealing with the inner dialogue. So, what does four hundred postural yoga classes mean to me? It means a commitment to a deeper interior life, a commitment to deeper inner dialogue, and a commitment to a deeper sense of who I am now and who I want to be. That is, the discipline of developing me. That is what yoga is about, the discipline of yoking the mind and the body, or the mind, the breathing, and the body, into an integrated whole. The discipline of developing the integrated me.

It is mainly a solitary journal. However, I would be remiss were I not to acknowledge that helping hands of my yoga instructors and yoga cohorts when I stumbled along the path. 

Namaste.  

ANGER

Garret Keizer, The Enigma of Anger: Essays on a Sometimes Deadly Sin (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002) ("I have grown increasingly impatient with the blithe reductionism of the so-called self-help movement. I have grown impatient at seeing the laudable idea that life is a series of struggles to be undertaken--or questions to be asked, or burdens to be borne--replaced with the idea that life is essentially a set of problems to be solved by the adoption of the right program (spiritual or electronic) or the purchase of the right product (pharmaceutical or electronic)." Id. at 9-10. YES! "I have also grown increasingly angry at our full-bellied acquiescence to social and economic injustice. I'm referring to the notion that everything other than the perfectible self is too vast and complex to admit to any remedy whosoever, and that our best course of (in)action lies in ironical detachment or in the cultivation of an abrasive attitude that deliver some of the release, but packs none of the punch, of well-aimed rage. Our advertising and even our arts covey the idea that we as a society are brash, irreverent, and free of all constraints, when the best available evidence would suggest that we are in fact tame, spayed, and easily brought to heel." Id. at 10. SO TRUE!! From "Anger as Mentality": "Of course, if you have actually been a victim, or if you live in an abusive relationship or in what amounts to a war zone of violent activity, you can hardly be accused of exaggerating your danger...." "For many of us, however, I suspect that the opposite is true. "We have an exaggerated view of the dangers of our neighborhood, because our neighborhood is perceived as a composite 'world,' which, strictly speaking, does not exist except on paper, on a screen, and in our heads. Inhabiting such a virtual neighborhood is not necessarily a humanizing experience. It can engender a kind of fantasy life in which the dangers of people everywhere add up to the sum total of our danger, not by way of sympathy, but by way of paranoia, which expresses itself in daydreams of revenge and self-defense.  These daydreams can often be formulated as a series of 'if' clauses: 'if someone ever did something like that to my family,' 'if what happened six thousand miles away ever happened right here,' 'if this stranger I'm seeing before me turned out to be another version of the person whose face and name are now on the news,' and so on. The 'then' clauses that follow the 'if' clauses can amount to actual anger in responses to imaginary provocation With the right stimulus, they can lead to actual violence." Id. at 69, 72-73. Contemplate all the personal resources that are wasted to address the fear generated by the "if-clauses/then-clauses" that in one's head. One gets a stronger lock for the house, even though the old lock was strong enough. One limits one's nighttime activities, even though the likelihood of one's being victimized approaches zero. One advocates for a still larger police force, or extra patrol in one's neighborhood, etc. One looks more distrusting at one's neighbors, and one's neighbors at one. One's barters away liberty for the sake of a greater sense of safety. And it may well be only a greater sense of safety, not greater actual safety, that is gained; if that.).

UNTITLED

Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum, translated from the Italian by William Weaver (New York: A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book/ Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988, 1989) ("You are always born under the wrong sign, and to live in this world properly you have to rewrite your horoscope day by day." "I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom." Id. at 49. "'He's old enough to be your father,' I said to Amparo as I dragged her through the stalls. 'Even my great-great-grandfather. He implied that he's at least a thousand years old. Are you jealous of a pharaoh's mummy?' 'I'm jealous of anyone who makes a light bulb flash on in your head.' 'How wonderful. That's love.'" Id. at 177-178. "'Who among us is living in the past? You, who would bestow the horrors of the toiling industrial age upon this country, or I, who wish that our poor Europe might recover the naturalness and faith of these children of slaves?' 'Jesus,' Amparo said in a nasty hiss, 'You know as well as I do that it's just another way of keeping them quiet. ...' 'Not quiet. Capable of expectation. Without a sense of expectation, there can be no paradise; isn't that what you Europeans have taught us?'" Id. at 186. "'The one true answer?' 'Of course. That there's nothing to understand, Synarchy is God.' 'God.' 'Yes. Mankind can't endure the thought that the world was born by chance, by mistake, just because four brainless atoms bumped into one another on a slippery highway. So a cosmic plot has to be found--God, angels, devils. Synarchy performs the same function on a lesser scale.' 'Then I should have told him that people put bombs on trains because they're looking for God?' 'Why not?'" Id. at 318-319. "'Signora, there's nothing in this world that demands more caution than the truth. To tell the truth is like leeching one's own heart....'" Id. at 349-350. "'If the Templars, the real Templars, did leave a secret and did establish some kind of continuity, then it is necessary to seek them out, and to seek them in the places where they could most easily camouflage themselves, perhaps by inventing rites and myths in order to move unobserved, like fish in water. What do the police do when they seek the archvillian, the evil mastermind? They dig into the lower depths, the notorious dives filled with petty crooks who will never conceive the grandiose crimes of the dark genius the police are after. What does the terrorist leader do to recruit new acolytes? Where does he look for them and find them? He circulates in the haunts of the pseudosubversive, the fellow-travelers who would never have the courage to be the real thing, but who openly ape the attitudes of their idols. Concealed light is best sought in fires, or in the brush where, after the blaze, the flames go on brooding under twigs, under trampled muck. What better hiding place for the true Templar than in the crowd of his caricatures?'" Id. at 354. "You don't complain about being mortal, prey to a thousand microorganisms you can't control; you aren't responsible for the fact that your feet are not very prehensile, that you have no tail, that your hair and teeth don't grow back when you lose them, that your arteries harden with time. It's because of the Envious Angels." "The same applies to everyday life. Take stock-market crashes. They happen because each individual makes a wrong move, and all the wrong moves put together create panic. Then whoever lacks steady nerves asks himself: Who's behind this plot, who's benefiting? He has to find an enemy, a plotter, or it will be, God forbid, his fault." "If you feel guilty, you invent a plot, many plots. And to counter them, you have to organize your own plot. But the more you invent enemy plots, to exonerate your lack of understanding, the more you fall in love with them, and you pattern your own on their model.... Diotallevi's remark was: 'Of course, you attribute to the other what you're doing yourself, and since what you're doing yourself is hateful, the others become hateful. But since the others, as a rule, would like to do the same hateful thing that you're doing, they collaborate with you, hinting that--yes--what you attribute to them is actually what they have always desired. God blinds those He wishes to destroy; you just have to lend Him a helping hand.'" Id. at 619-620.).

FOR ME, "ANY ROAD IS THE RIGHT ONE"

Stephen Berg, Crow With No Mouth: Ikkyu, 15th Century Zen Master, versions by Stephen Berg; with a preface by Lucien Stryk (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 1989) ("sexual love's attachment pain is deeper that I can know / wind soothes my thoughts this lust my ceaseless koan / impossibly happy" Id. at 20. "sin like a madman until you can't do anything else / no room for any more" Id. at 21. "no walls no roof no anything my house / doesn't get wet doesn't get blown down" Id. at 22. "only a kind deadly sincere man / can show you the way here in the other world" Id. at 27. "wife daughters friends this is for you satori / is mistake after mistake" Id. at 31. "I try to be a god man but all that comes of trying is I feel more guilty" Id. at 31. "sometimes all I am is dark emptiness / I can't hide in the sleeves of my own robes" Id. at 34. "it's logical: if you're not going anywhere / any road is the right one" Id. at 37. "something in us always wants to cry out / someone we love knows hears" Id. at 50. "don't hesitate get laid that's wisdom / sitting around chanting what crap" Id. at 54. "in war there's no time to teach or learn Zen carry a strong stick / bash your attackers" Id. at 60. "the wise know nothing at all /well maybe one song" Id. at 61. 'nobody understands my no Zen Zen / not even that crow's shattering bleak scream got it" Id. at 62.  "a beautiful woman's hot vagina's full of love / I've given up trying to put out the fire of my body" Id. at 62. "only one koan matters / you" Id. at 67. "anybody can enter Buddha's world / so few can step into the Devil's" Id. at 70. "those old koans meaningless just ways of faking virtue / this gorgeous young whore wears silk robes that hang open about an inch" Id. at 71. "no masters only you the masker is you / wonderful no?" Id. at 76.).

BUDDHIST LOVE

Eugen Herrigel, The Method of Zen, edited  by Hermann Tausend, and translated from the German by R. F. C. Hull (New York: Vintage Books, 1960, 1974) ("It goes without saying that a disciple of the Buddha may not hate, and in the end cannot hate. Equally, he may not love in the ordinary sense of the word, and in the end cannot do so. Yet he does not become unfeeling and indifferent. He lets everything and everybody have a share in his rich capacity for loving, without counting on any love in return. He loves impartially, selflessly, as though only for the sake of loving. And this not because it gives him person pleasure or satisfies a personal desire, but because he must do so out of abounding love. This love, if one can call it that, since it is incapable of changing into hate, is beyond both. It is not like a leaping flame that may subside at any moment; it is like a calm radiance that perpetuates itself. This love, which can neither be disappointed nor encouraged from without, in which goodness, compassion, and gratitude are mingled, which does not woo, does not obtrude itself, make demands, disquieten, or persecute, which does not give in order to take, possesses an astounding power, precisely because it shuns all power. It is gentle, mild, and in the long run irresistible. Even so-called inert things open themselves to it, and animals, otherwise shy and distrustful, trust it." Id. at 94-95.).

I do wonder, seriously wonder, whether I have the capacity to love. Or, perhaps it is just an incapacity for romantic love. All the times I thought I loved someone, thought I was 'in love,' were, I think, mainly my role playing. Society, culture, literature, films, etc., inform us what love is suppose to look like, how one is supposed to act when one is in love. So, I, being a good student, engaged in the outward behavior. My mind was there, but where was my heart? Hate--the withholding of love--I am quite capable. But love? If one cannot love some one individual with whom one has actual contact, can one have buddhist love?.

Still, in Buddhism, there seems to be hope for even this heartless soul.


Donald S. Lopez, Jr. The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life (New Haven & London: Yale U. Press, 2012) ("Anyone destined to buddhahood--and according to some important Mahayana sutras, all beings are destined to buddhahood--must develop compassion. Research on the psychopathic personality suggests that empathy is genetic. Yet, the Buddhist claim is that empathy, and compassion, can be developed by anyone, and eventually will be developed by everyone. The Buddhist traditions do not assume that compassion is a natural endowment, a personality trait possessed by some and lacked by others. Compassion is a state of mind that can, and must, be cultivated. Far from seeking to quiet habitual thoughts, the bodhisattva is obsessed by one. It is the thought, 'I will liberate all beings in the universe from suffering.' It must be the first thought in the morning and the last thought at night; it must be the thought that motivates and all actions. And techniques are provided for producing this habitual thought." Id. at 129.  From the bookjacket: "This book tells the story of the Scientific Buddha, 'born' in Europe in the 1800s but commonly confused with the Buddha born in Indian 2,500 years ago. The Scientific Buddha was sent into battle against Christian missionaries, who were proclaiming across Asia that Buddhism was a form of superstition. He proved the missionaries wrong, teaching a dharma that was in harmony with modern science. Today his teaching of 'mindfulness' is heralded as the cure for all manner of maladies, from depression to high blood pressure." "In this potent critique, a well-known chronicler of the West's encounter with Buddhism demonstrates how the Scientific Buddha's teachings deviate in crucial ways from those of the far older Buddha of ancient India. Donald Lopez shows that the Western focus on the Scientific Buddha threatens to bleach Buddhism of its vibrancy, complexity, and power, even as the superficial focus on 'mindfulness' turns Buddhism into merely the latest self-help movement. The Scientific Buddha has served his purpose, Lopez argues. It is now time for him to pass into nirvana.").

READINGS IN ZEN BUDDHISM

Martine Batchelor, trans., The Path of Compassion: The Bodhisattva Precepts, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2004).


Perle Besserman & Manfred Steger, Crazy Clouds: Zen Radicals, Rebels and Reformers (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1991).

Bodhidharma, The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma, A Bilingual Edition translated and with an Introduction by Red Pine (New York: North Point Press / Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1987) ("Buddhas don't save buddhas. If you use your mind to look for a buddha, you won't see the buddha. As long as you look for a buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the buddha. Don't use a buddha to worship a buddha. And don't use the mind to invoke a buddha. Buddhas don't recite sutras. Buddhhas don't keep precepts. And buddhas don't break precepts. Buddhas don't keep or break anything. Buddhas don't do good or evil." "To find a buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a buddha. If you don't see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless. Invoking buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory; keeping precepts results in a good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings--but no buddha." Id. at 11-13. "Buddha is Sanskrit for what you call aware, miraculously aware. Responding, perceiving, arching your brows, blinking your eyes, moving your hands and feet, it's all your miraculously aware nature. And this nature is the mind.. And the mind is the buddha. And the buddha is the path. And the path is zen. But the word zen is one that remains a puzzle to both mortals and sages. Seeing your nature is zen. Unless you see your nature, it's not zen." Id. at 29. "If you're going to invoke the Buddha, you have to do it right. Unless you understand what invoking means, you'll do it wrong. And if you do it wrong, you'll never go anywhere." "Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either. And to invoke means to call to mind, to call constantly to mind the rules of discipline and to follow them with all your might. This is what's meant by invoking. Invoking has to do with thought and not with language. If you use a trap to catch fish, once you succeed you can forget the trap. And if you use language to find meaning, once you find it you can forget language." "To invoke the Buddha's name you have to understand the dharma of invoking. If it's not present in your mind, your mouth chants an empty name.... Chanting and invoking are worlds apart. Chanting is done with the month. Invoking is done with the mind. And because invoking comes from the mind, it's the door to awareness. If you cling to appearances while searching for meaning, you won't find a thing. Thus, sages of the past cultivated introspection and not speech." Id. at 109-111.).

Thomas Cleary, ed., & trans., Rational Zen: The Mind of Dogen Zenji (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1993) ("Zen Buddhism does not teach escapism, chronic withdrawal, or denial of ordinary reality. The late Tang dynasty master Caoshan (Sozan) said, 'There is no need to avoid or escape anything; just know about it, that's enough. If you try to avoid it, it's still affecting you. Just don't be changed or affected by things, and you'll be free.'" Id. at 6).

Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History, Volume 1: India and China, translated by James W, Heisig and Paul Knitter, with an Introduction by John McRae (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2005)  ("In order to bring the spiritual and intellectual context of Zen into clearer relief, however, we can focus on the great Mahayana sutras that enjoy a special proximity to Zen. These sutras give voice to the new spiritual inspiration of Mahayana and offer an important stimulus to speculative reflection.... At first, Western literature on Zen did not pay sufficient attention to this relationship; for a long time, fascination with the early Chinese masters of whom the chronicles and koan collections speak overshadowed the Indian sutras." "The two decisive components of Zen are the Mahayana sutras, which provide its religious-metaphysical roots, and the Chinese spirit, which provides its distinctive dynamism. Any attempt to understand the spiritual environment of Zen must take both elements into account. It was only when the Chinese leaven was added to Mahayana Buddhism that the fermentation process began that resulted in Zen...." Id. at 41. "That the Chinese showed a preference for Mahayana over Hinayana is due principally to the wisdom teachings of the Prajnaparamita sutras, which they found to resonate deeply with their own spiritual heritage." Id. at 66. "Taoism played a central role in the reception that China gave to Buddhism. An appreciation of the close relationship between these two religions during the early years of Chinese Buddhism paves the way for understanding how the Taoist influence on Buddhism was later to culminate in the teachings of the Zen school. . . . More significant are the limes of contact running between the growing Buddhist movement and the stream of Taoist spirituality that were inaugurated at the end of the Han period,  Meditation, in a variety of forms, pervaded religious praxis at all strata, but the most profound influence rested in the spiritual bonds between the Buddhism of the Mahayana sutras and Taoist teachings on wisdom.  The 'Taoist guiise' that Buddhism donned did not remain external but worked deep-reaching changes on Buddhist thought.  This encounter nourished the various schools of Chinese Buddhism, all of which were intimately related to one another dispute doctrinal differences. With the development of Zen, the spring swelled into a mighty torrent,  This dies not mean that the origins of the Zen school can be explained simply as a more or less fortuitous blend of Buddhist and Taoist elements. We should rather say that what developed during the T'ang period was a new awareness of the creative energies inherent in Chinese Buddhism, an awareness that grew until it resulted in the formation of the unique meditation school of Mahayana that is Zen." Id. at 68.).

Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History, Volume 2: Japan, translated by James W, Heisig and Paul Knitter, with an Introduction by Victor Sogen Hori (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2005).

Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Enlightenment: Origins and Meaning, translated from the German by John C. Maraldo (New York & Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1978).

Huang Po, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld (New York: Grove Press, 1958) ("17. Ordinary people all indulge in conceptual thought based on environmental phenomena, hence they feel desire and hatred. To eliminate environmental phenomena, just put an end to your conceptual thinking. When this ceases, environmental phenomena are void; and when these are void, thought ceases. But if you try to eliminate environment without first putting a stop to conceptual thought, you will not succeed, but merely increase its power to disturb you. Thus all things are naught but Mind--intangible Mind; so what can you hope to attain? Those who are students of Prajna hold that there is nothing tangible whatever, so they cease thinking of the Three Vehicles. There is only the one reality, neither to be realized nor attained. To say 'I am able to realize something' or 'I am able to attain something' is to place yourself among the arrogant. The men who flapped their garments and left the meeting as mentioned in the Lotus Sutra were just such people. Therefore, the Buddha said: 'I truly obtained nothing from Enlightenment.' There is just mysterious tacit understanding and no more." Id. at 44-45.).).

Hui Hai, Zen Teaching of Instantaneous Awaking: being the teachings of the Zen Master Hui Hai, Known as the Great Pearl, translated by John Blofeld, with a Foreword by Charles Luk (Devon, UK: Buddhist Publishing Group, 1987) ("As to the central goal of Buddhism, it is this: When we have learnt (and in our turn taught) how to be utterly dispassionate, how to view all things in their essential oneness; when outflows cannot be enticed from us by any object whatsoever, nor the smallest stain be left upon our minds; then phenomena lose their power to defile and we dwell quiescently in the innate purity of our own minds, discovering moreover that these minds are not ours at all, but uncreated, everlasting mind itself." Id. at 19.).


Philip Kapleau, ed., The Wheel of Death: A Collection of Writings from Zen Buddhist and Other Sources on Death, Rebirth, Dying (Harper Colophon Books, 1971, 1974.).

Philip Kapleau, The Wheel of Life and Death: A Practical and Spiritual Guide (New York: Doubleday, 1989).

T. P. Kasulis, Zen Action/Zen Person (Honolulu: U. of Hawaii Press, 1981, 1985) ("Accepting the possibility of a philosophical study of Zen Buddhism, we must ask how such a study should be structured.  The focus in this book is on the Zen Buddhist view of the person." Id. at x. "[T]he first of the two strands of the Zen doctrine of nothingness: the mistrust of conceptualization." Id. at 16. "Now let us examine how the person is understood in Zen." "Like the modern Western personalists, Zen maintains that no characterization of the person ever captures its full reality: a description only highlights one aspect to the exclusion of others. Yet, unlike the personalists, the Zen tradition does not limit this principle to persons: any characterization of anything falls short in the same way. For Zen, this restriction is more important when it concerns the person only because human beings can delude themselves by identifying with particular descriptions. Dogs do not think of themselves as collies, spaniels, or even as dogs. Only humans reduce themselves to communists or capitalists, blacks or whites, centers of self-consciousness or of stimulus-response, disciples or Zen Masters. These categories are not intrinsically dangerous as long as one remembers them to be relative--that is, limited to specified perspectives. Once one starts to understand oneself or others as equivalent to these categories, however, one is closed to experiencing in ways inconsistent with the image. This is what Zen Buddhism considers the attachment to conceptualization. If one understands the relatively at the heart of all distinctions consistency is not an exclude for dogmatism. . . ." Id. at 25-26. "[T]he second strand: nothingness as a source." Id. at 29. From the backcover: "Of the many books on Zen Buddhism, Zen Action/Zen Person is the first by a professional American philosopher with training in East Asian languages, Zen practice, and the full range of Asian philosophies preceding the development of Japanese Zen Buddhism. This book is also the first thorough investigation of the intimate relationship between Zen doctrine and Zen practice. For many readers, Kasulis' work will clarify some of the key terms left obscure in the pioneering works of such writers as D. T. Suzuki and Alan Watts.").

Jakusho Kwong, No Beginning, No End: The Intimate Heart of Zen, edited by Peter Levitt, with a Foreword by Thich Nhat Hanh (Boston: Shambhala, 2010).

Muso Kokushi, Dream Conversations: On Buddhism and Zen, translated and edited by Thomas Cleary (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1996) ("The central benefit of Zen, in the context of the ordinary ups and downs of life, is not in preventing the minus and promoting the plus but in directing people to the fundamental reality that is not under the sway of ups and downs." Id. at 5.).

Taizan Maezumi, Appreciate Your Life: The Essence of Zen Practice (Shambhala Classics), edited by Wendy Egyoku Nakao & Eve Myonen Marko, with a foreword by Bernie Glassman (Boston & London, 2002) (From the backcover: Here is the first major collection of the teachings of Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995), one of the first Japanese Zen masters to bring Zen to the West and founding abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles and Zen Mountain Center in Idyllwild, California. These short, inspiring readings illuminate Zen practice in simple, eloquent language. Topics include zazen and Zen koans, how to appreciate life as the life of the Buddha, and the essential matter of life and death.").

Taizan Maezumi & Bernie Glassman, The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment, rev'd & expanded ed., edited by Wendy Egyoku Nakao & John Daidhin Buksbazen, with a foreword by Chogyam Trungpa (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2002).

Taizan Maezumi & Bernie Glassman, eds., On Zen Practice: Body, Breath, and Mind, revised by Wendy Egyoku Nakao & John Daidhin Buksbazen, with a foreword by Robert Aitken (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2007).

Thomas Merton, Mystics and Zen Masters (New York: Noonday Press, 1967) ("What I intend to question is simply the idea that Zen meditation is simply a rest in individual 'essence' which abolishes all need for and interest in external and historical reality, or destiny of man." Id. at 7. "[I]t is quite false to imagine that Zen is a sort of individualistic, subjective purity in which the monk seeks to rest and find spiritual refreshment by the discovery and enjoyment of his own interiority. It is not a subtle form of spiritual self-gratification, a repose in the depths of one's own inner silence, Nor is it by any means a simple withdrawal from the outer world of matter to an inner world of spirit. The first and most elementary fact about Zen is its abhorrence of this dualistic division between matter and spirit. Any criticism of Zen that presupposes such a division is, therefore, bound to go astray." Id. at 13.).

Paul Reps & Nyogen Senzaki, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-ZenWritings (Shambhala Pocket Classics) (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1994) (From the backcover: "Included here are four Zen and pre-Zen classics: 101 Zen Stories--anecdotes and enlightenment stories of the great masters; The Gateless Gate--forty-eight Zen koans to awaken the enlightened mind; The 10 Bulls, or 'Ox-herding Pictures--depicting the ten stages of awareness; and Centering--a four-thousand-year-od Sanskrit text that may well be one of the roots of Zen thought." From 101 Zen Stories: "A student of Tendai, a philosophical school of Buddhism, came to the Zen abode of Gasan as a pupil. When he was departing a few years later, Gasan warned him: 'Studying the truth speculatively is useful as a way of collecting preaching materials. But remember that unless you meditate constantly your light of truth may go out.'" Id. at 86. From The Gateless Gate, by Ekai: "Do not fight with another's bow and arrow. / Do not ride another's horse. / Do not discuss another's faults. / Do not interfere with another's work." Id. at 45.).

Grace Schireson, Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens, and Macho Masters, with a foreword by Miriam Levering (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2009).

Elihu Genmyo Smith, Everything Is the Way: Ordinary Mind Zen (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2012) ("Sitting is a natural slowing down of this rushing, self-centered, mind-body chattering that we often live. This is the practice of realization, which is what we are, and this practice allows us to be who we are. As we practice, we discover who and what we are. This is the process of sitting whether for one period or for many years." Id. at 3. "Practice is the moment of choice, life is the moment of choice. Giving self to practice, this is a moment of choice. Giving charity of speech, charity of eyes, charity of mouth, charity of mind, charity of functioning. Do you give choice? Only by being awareness in this moment arising-passing. There is never anything but this arising. Arising is awareness." "Practice is not a means to an end: it is the means and the end wrapped up together. Awareness is this functioning life." Id. at 60. "To paraphrase Dogen, practice and experience are not nonexistent; they are the brightness being tainted. This is the whole of our life. Practice is always exactly where you are. It is important to know that exactly where you are is the whole of this brightness. Yet this requires practice; it requires ongoing exertion, including seeing where you are refusing to be brightness. Doing so right here in the midst of our ordinary functioning, right here the brightness reveals itself, right here the brightness reveal our self." Id. at 178. "In the Zen tradition, we celebrate Buddha's enlightenment on December 8. In some Buddhist traditions, it is celebrated in the spring at Wesak. Every morning you can celebrate this enlightenment, because every morning is attaining, encountering, embracing, and being intimacy--the life that we are." Id. at 236. From the backcover: "These days, when Zen has become a kind of shorthand for anything that's enigmatic or aesthetically spare, it's refreshing to be reminded that Zen is at heart a practice for waking up form the dream we inhabit--in order to free ourselves from the suffering the dream imposes on us. Elihu Genmyo Smith's eminently practical Zen teaching never loses sight of that central concern: Whether it takes the form of zazen (meditation), koan work, or just eating your breakfast, the aim of Zen practice is always nothing other than intimacy with ourselves and everything around us.").

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Zen Doctrine of No Mind: The Significance of the Sutra of Hui-neng (Wei-lang), edited by Christmas Humphreys (New York: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1949, 1972) (From the backcover: "Zen Buddhism is unique in the field of religion, being the only school which strives, with no reliance on scriptures or Saviour of any kind, to 'break through' to the beyond of thought, and to achieve a state of consciousness beyond duality." "One of the most famous Zen master was Hui-neng (638-713) and this work is largely concerned with his teaching. But it covers the whole purpose and technique of Zen training, and in the view of many goes further into the deeps of Zen than any other work of modern times.").

Alan Watts, The Way of Zen (Vintage Spiritual Classics/ Vintage Books, 1957, 1989) ("Our problem is that the power of thought enables us to construct symbols of things apart from the things themselves. This includes the ability to make a symbol, an idea of ourselves apart from ourselves. Because the idea is so much more comprehensible than the reality, the symbol so much more stable than the fact, we learn to identify ourselves with our idea of ourselves. Hence the subjective feeling of a 'self' which 'has' a mind, of an inwardly isolated subject to whom experiences involuntarily happen. With its characteristic emphasis on the concrete, Zen points out that our precious 'self' is just an idea, useful and legitimate enough if seen for what it is, but disastrous if identified with our real nature. The unnatural awkwardness of a certain type of self-consciousness comes into being when we are aware of conflict or contrast between the idea of ourselves, on the one hand, and the immediate, concrete feeling of ourselves, on the other." Id. at 119-120. "Man's identification with his idea of himself gives him a specious and precarious sense of permanence. For this idea is relatively fixed, being based upon carefully selected memories of his past, memories which have a preserved and fixed character. Social convention encourages the fixity of the idea because the very usefulness of symbols depends upon their stability. Convention therefore encourages him to associate his idea of himself with equally abstract and symbolic roles and stereotypes, since these will help him to form an idea of himself which will be definite and intelligible. But to the degree that he identifies himself with the fixed idea, he becomes aware of 'life' as something which flows past him-faster and faster as he grows older, as his idea become more rigid, more bolstered with memories. The more he attempts to clutch the world, the more he feels it as a process in motion." Id. at 122. "There is a saying in Zen that 'original realization is marvelous practice' (Japanese, honsho myoshu). The meaning is that no distinction is to be made between the realization of awakening (satori) and the cultivation of Zen in meditation and action. Whereas it might be supposed that the practice of Zen is a means to the end of awakening, this is not so. For the practice of Zen is not the true practice so long as it has an end in view, and when it has no end in view it is awakening--the aimless, self-sufficient life of the 'eternal now.' To practice with an end in view is to have one eye on the practice and the other on the end, which is lack of concentration, lack of sincerity. To put it in another way: one does not practice Zen to become a Buddha; one practices it because one is a Buddha from the beginning--and this 'original realization' is the starting point of the Zen life. Original realization is the 'body' (t'i) and the marvelous practice the 'use' (yung), and the two correspond respectively to prajna, wisdom, and karuna the compassionate activity of the awakened Bodhisattva in the world of birth-and-death." Id. at 154.).

NINE MONTHS IN, STILL TRYING TO DEEPEN MY YOGA (AND BUDDHISM) PRACTICE: MOVING FROM MERE HATHA YOGA TO RAJA YOGA, FROM POSTURE TO YAMA.

If there is a theme for me--a personal theme--in the readings below, it is that mastering various asanas --such as Easy Bird of Prey-- will not move me along the path to enlightenment. The asanas, and mere mastering the asanas, is not what traditional yoga is about or concerned. Modern postural yoga, as practiced in the West, merely shares a name with traditional yoga and has to stand on its own. Modern postural yoga has utility, and so do many of the asanas; but postural yoga and the most of the asanas are not yoga for me. The attachment to the body, the worshipping of one's body, is not yoga for me. Modern yoga is, or often seems, mainly narcissism with good marketing. For me, it is the discipline of mastering an asana that matters, not the mastering itself. It is the discipline of doing yoga everyday that matters, not the doing of the yoga asanas themselves. It is the discipline of setting aside the time, and being on time, for yoga practice that matters, and not the mastering the asanas. It is the journey, not the arrival, that matters. Ultimately, the journey is a solitary one.

Chip Hartranft, The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali: A New Translation with Commentary (Boston & London Shambhala, 2003) ("[T]he primary purpose of consciousness: to see things as they are and to achieve freedom from suffering." Id. at ix. "[T]he leading form of yoga now practiced, hatha yoga, which was developed in part to temper the bodymind and focus its energies for meditation. In Patanjali's era, though, the yoga posture, or asana, was simply a means of sitting as steady steadily and effortlessly as possible and was not an exercise system of any kind. This older, contemplative yoga has come to be known as raja-yoga--the 'royal' or exalted' path--distinguishing it from the later hatha yoga. ... The yoga of Patanjali is a process of stilling and interiorization, in which utter physical and mental calm is brought to every aspect of human personhood and experience. For him, asana was but the bodily aspect of this process." Id. at x. "Practice, or abhyasa, is the will to repeatedly align and realign attention to the present moment, the only place where the singular process of yoking consciousness into profound stillness can be enacted. Sustained effort is required because the forces of distraction are strong and unrelenting. Furthermore, in the first phase of stillness, they tend to increase the longer one remains immobile, as body sensations build and the impulse to move or think about what's happening intensify. At this point abhyasa is easily misperceived as a struggle against discomfort and restlessness. Soon, though, one begins to regard the very sensations of discomfort and restlessness as indivisible from everything else that can be felt, and they cease to be a problem. For this reason, one must persist in returning to the here and now, holding on to the possibility of calm and lucidity, even in those moments and places where the bodymind fell under siege." Id. at 5-6. "We are wise, [Patanjali] says, to realize that there is suffering everywhere, even in the experiences we enjoy and yearn for. There is no ultimate happiness to be found in external, impermanent things. For every transitory delight we can know, a painful attachment arises. Furthermore, nature's constant transformation are subliminally stressful, relentlessly challenging the self's idea of itself as an enduring entity. And at any time, latent impressions can become activated and emerge as wanting, fear, anger, or sorrow." Id. at 25-26. "In fact, hatha yoga practice may initially be driven to some extent by narcissism. After all, hatha yoga can appeal to us because of the powerful way it addresses some of the self's most cherished preoccupations--health, attractiveness, sexual energy, and longevity. When attachment to these properties lurks subliminally, seeding us with the urge to transcend phenomena life pain and fatigue simply in order to push the body beyond its barriers for its own sake, the potent hatha practice can be self-defeating and injurious. Evan a practice that appears excruciating self-denying can be motivated by a subliminal need to adorn the self with the particular virtue of asceticism, itself but another form of adornment. Highly evolved teachers like Patanjali and the Buddha came to regard the ascetic impulse as a 'near enemy' or awakening, seeming to be a support but actually hindering progress. With wise dedication and self-inquiry though, hatha yoga can become a realization practice, illuminating the nature of our violations and attachments, fostering radical self-acceptance, and weakening the grip of the self and its self-serving perspective." Id. at 78.).

Elizabeth De Michelis, A History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism (New York: Continuum, 2005) ("The way MPY [Modern Postural Yoga] has been practised throughout the twentieth century is of course worlds apart from all forms of classical yoga...." "By the middle of the twentieth century what would become the standard international MPY classroom format was taking shape. This went hand in hand with drastic changes in mores, which in turn brought about changes in popular ideals of body image and identity.... Such developments resulted in increasing attention and importance being given to physical grooming, including fitness and the cultivation of youthful looks. These predilections were not new in themselves.... What was unprecedented, however, was (and is) the attention, value and energy given their cultivation in the later part of the twentieth century and beyond. Quite naturally, the more esoteric aspects of MPY came to play a part in these phenomena, and this discipline thus established itself at the margins of the 'sports and fitness' category." "The other great boost to MPY was provided by the recognition of 'stress' as a specific (if not univocally defined) psychosomatic syndrome.... The constellation 'urban living - stress - MPY' is not random. Modern conditions of urban living are notoriously frustrating, and this type of lifestyle is also highly conducive to sedentariness. Hence the need for fitness and de-stressing, both of which can be supplied by MPY. But there are deeper sources of frustration, insecurity and anxiety, linked to the gradual secularization of developed societies." "Adopted and cultivated in conditions of marked privatization and relativization of religion, MPY is successful...because it provides 'experiential access to the sacred'." "Such experiential access to the sacred, epitomized by the 'secular ritual' of the MPY practice session, represents the third key to understanding the current success of MPY, along with its fitness and de-stressing application. These three elements constitute, guna-like, the 'root contents' and main facets of MPY's polymorphism: the flexibility and adaptability of this discipline depends on their presence and on the multiplicity of their possible combinations." "Analyzed in their religio-philosophical underpinnings, these three elements also reveal the ambiguous polyvalence characteristic of occultistic teachings, The 'fitness' discourse relates to mainstream anatomical and physiological assumptions, but also, at a more esoteric level, to MPY's 'mechanical power to revolutionize our whole being.'... The religio-philosophical discourses that shape and validate the ritual dimensions of the MPY session, finally, bring to bear both traditional religious concepts (God, transcendence, devotion, etc.) and modern understandings of 'spirituality' as awareness of and participation in/attunement to a holistic and evolutionary universe...." "Thus the MPY session becomes a ritual which affords various levels of access to the sacred, starting from a 'safe,' mundane, tangible foundation of body-based practice. In such DIY forms of spiritual practice, there is room for the practitioner to decide whether to experience her practice as 'spirital' or as altogether secular. Except in cases of thoroughly utilitarian (fitness or recreational) performance, however, some notion of healing and personal growth is likely to provide the deepest rationale for practice." Id. at 249-251 (citations omitted).).

Barbara Stoler Miller, Yoga: Discipline of Freedom: The Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali, a translation of the text, with commentary, introduction, and glossary of keywords (New York: Bantam Books, 1995) ("At the heart of all meditative practice in Asia is what Indians call yoga, the system that 'yokes' one's consciousness to a spiritually liberating discipline." Id. at ix. "The aim of yoga is to eliminate the control that material nature exerts over the human spirit, to rediscover through introspective practice what the poet T. S. Eliot called the 'still point of the turning world'." Id. at 1. "[I[n the strictest sense yoga is the absolute detachment of one's spirit from the corruptions of the material world, an interior freedom from the insidious cycle of desire, anger, and delusion." Id. at 4. "Patanjali's eight-limbed [yoga] practice includes moral principles (yama), observances (niyama), posture (asana), breath control (pranayama), withdrawal of he senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and pure contemplation (samadhi). The eight limbs are essentially eight stages in the cumulative acquisition of yogic power." Id. at 52. Studio yoga practice, or the economics and business of studio yoga practice, seems to rarely gets beyond the asana, pranayama, and (a little of the) dhyama limbs or stages in the acquisition of yogic power. It is, I think, nearly impossible to get beyond a superficial yoga practice though exclusive studio practice. One has to find a teacher, and take one' practice outside or beyond the studio. And, one can appreciate why it would take a lifetime, even under the best of conditions, to acquire yogic power and be a true yogi. A serious yoga practice is always a work in progress.).

Erich Schiffmann, Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness, with photographs by Trish O'Rielly (New York: Pocket Books, 1996) (This is a good, and valuable, book for practicing the asanas/poses. But it is not helpful in terms of engaging in a serious practice of classical yoga. "The simple perspective I have come up with, through all the years and thousands of hours of practicing yoga and meditation since that first exposure, is that yoga makes you feel good. It's relaxing. It's energizing. It's straightening, You feel better at the end of a session than before you began, and life runs more smoothly when you maintain a consistent discipline than when you don't.  Yoga enhances your experience of life. It changes your perspective. You thereby find yourself spontaneously embracing a larger, more accurate conception of who you are, how life works, and what God is. You start seeing things differently, with less distortion--which results in more peace of mind, better health, more enthusiasm for life, and an ever-growing authentic sense of inner well-being."  "As you practice yoga and meditation regularly, this subtle sense of feeling good gradually becomes so pervasive, so natural and genuine, so much a part of you that it carries overs into the whole of your life. And in doing so it helps clarify your deepest longings, motivations, and aspirations, thereby restoring optimism, hope, meaning, and purpose to life." Id. at 20, THAT IS PURE BULLSHIT. LOW QUALITY, BUT NONETHELESS PURE BULLSHIT. You are not alive to "feel good." If feeling good is your primary aim in life, you are living one sorry life no matter how good you feel about it. Moreover, though a consistent 'yoga' practice may make you feel good, relax you, energize you, strengthen you, it will not change your perspective. It will not make your live run more smoothly. It will not enhance your experience of life. And it certainly will not spontaneously give you a personal introduction to god. Neither will mere meditation. Holy Corndogs! Why do we Westerners, especially we Americans, always think that there is an easy fix. All the world needs is a good five cent cigar. Right. Life is, to a sizable degree, suffering. The best we can hope and strive for is to eliminate the gratuitous (self-inflicted, other-inflicted) suffering. If you want to achieve any of the things Schiffmann attributes to consistent yoga practice and meditation, one will need to do a whole lot of other heavy lifting off the yoga mat and off the meditation pillow. It is said that Siddhartha was a piss poor yoga practitioner; still Siddhartha became the The Buddha. So mere yoga, or not mere modern yoga, is not the path to enlightenment. A serious and consistent yoga practice creates a space, creates an opening, etc., for on to begin to explore a path other than that which one has been on. But modern yoga is neither the path itself nor the real journey along the path to enlightenment.).

Mark Singleton, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2010) ("However, in spite of the immense popularity of postural yoga worldwide, there is little or no evidence that asana (excepting certain seated postures of meditation) has ever been the primary aspect of any Indian yoga practice tradition--including the medieval, body-oriented hatha yoga--in spite of the self-authenticating claims of many modern yoga schools.... The primacy of asana performance in transnational yoga today is a new phenomenon that has no parallel in premodern times." Id. at 3. "Although it routinely appeals to the tradition of Indian hatha yoga, contemporary posture-based yoga cannot really be considered a direct successor to this tradition." Id. at 5. "A more valid and helpful way of thinking ...might be to consider the term yoga s it refers to modern postural practice as a homonym, and not a synonym, of 'yoga' associated with the philosophical system of Patanjali, or the 'yoga' that forms an integral component of the Saiva Tantras, or the 'yoga' of the Bhagavad Gita, and so on. In other words, although the word 'yoga; as it is used popularly today is identical in spelling and pronunciation in each of these instances, it ha quite different meanings and origins. It is, in short, a homonym, and it should therefore not be assumed that it refers to the same body of beliefs and practices as these other, homonymous terms." Id. at 15. "One thing, however, seems evident: yoga as it is practiced in the globalized world today is the result of a new emphasis on physical culture.... What will become of yoga as it grows and acculturates in the West remains to be seen." Id. at 210.).

Michael Stone, Awake in the World: Teachings from Yoga and Buddhism for Living an Engaged Life (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2011) ("There is nothing holy or religious about Yoga theory or practice. These teachings are most alive in the gardens, alleys, and ravines where those who may not even know they are yogis are challenging the status quo both internally and externally. This is not a practice that thrives in temples or commercial studios. This is a path for those seeking freedom from the psychological and cultural entanglements of mind and body.... In the same way that all freshwater rivers reach toward the saline oceans, your life and your Yoga practice are seamless continuities of one another...." Id. at xi-xii. "I have always been uncomfortable with the way that Yoga has been redefined in contemporary culture as not only a physical health regime but also a mainstream form of physical materialism. There is no doubt that Yoga postures and breathing practice are therapeutic. But cultivating a healthy body has become an obsession with youthful self-image and physical perfection. Look at the ways our culture has superimposed its values on Yoga practice. The commercial operation--and often the large profits that Yoga studios make--seems at odd with some of the basic values of Yoga: nonstealing, nonaccumulation, and the wise use of energy." "But beyond that there is a deeper issue, which is that Yoga has traditionally been subcultural. Yoga has always been a practice at the outskirts of culture because its practices had more to do with undoing habitual patterns than reinforcing the dominant grooves of the culture. As Yoga comes to the West, we need to look beyond the surface and investigate some of the basic axioms of practice not because there is anything wrong with a healthy body or a calm mind but because spiritual practice is always a practice of letting go rather than accumulation. Id. at 144-145.).

Michael Stone, ed., Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind: Writings on the Connection Between Yoga and Buddhism, with a foreword by Robert Thurman (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2010) (From Shosan Victoria Austin's essay, "Zen or Yoga: A Teacher Responds": "Buddhism is a religion, with all the forms of social, physical, and mental observance this word implies. Yoga is a path that unites our layers of experience. As B. K. S. Iyengar...has said, 'Yoga is not a religion but a religious subject which enhances the religiousness of mankind.' Buddhism is a yogic religion; Yoga is not a form of Buddhism. Yet both Buddhism and Yoga cover much of the same ground--how to end suffering through orienting to one's true self (Yoga) or our true nature (Buddhism)." Id. at 45. "When we read the old texts on Yoga postures, we find descriptions of the internal pathways of the breath, not the angular or external metric alignment instructions of contemporary asana form. Instead we hear about the ways the mind and breath move together through the internal pathways, as expressed in the meridians (nadis) that run through the subtle body. The various Yoga postures are designed to recirculate, stimulate, and balance the energy moving though the mind-body process. The old images of Yoga postures also focus on the quality of the eyes, particularly illustrating receptive gazing (drsti) and inward focus (pratyahara). Unlike the muscular shapes of modern Yoga photographs, the body appears subtle and at ease, the posture noble and elegant." Id. at 211.).

Michael Stone, The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner, with a foreword by Richard Freeman (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2008) ("This book is about how to cultivate a yoga practice, what constitutes a yoga practice, how to recognize and work with the different stages on the path, and how to keep the tradition of yoga a living tradition through committed practice and critical engagement." Id. at 12. "There are two themes in this book: (1) The essence of yoga teaches us that all forms of clinging create suffering. Nothing can be owned as 'I, me, and mine.' And (2) a disciplined and appropriate practice leaves no stone unturned. A broad understanding of yoga theory integrated with specific practices takes the formal techniques of yoga to deeper levels but also brings yoga off the mat, out of the meditation hall and into the tangled world of our interpersonal relationships, our habitual psychological holding patterns, and the complexity of ethical action." Id. at 12. "I realized that yoga practice matures, not by adding more and more spectacular postures but by simply paying attention to the movements of the breath in the space of the heart and the role of the mind with the body, not apart from it. The five klesas describe the essence of yoga: a path of freedom from our habitual cycles of discontent." Id. at 6. "If our practice is creating flexibility of the body without corresponding flexibility of the heart, we need to redress the way we conceive of and engage in practice." Id. at 12. "I saw around me people accomplishing great feats of flexibility and wonderful postures practices, but those same practices did not guarantee a commensurate opening of the heart. Perfection in yoga poses did not guarantee psychological or spiritual insight." Id. at 15. "The heart of yoga is the cultivation of equilibrium in mind and body so that one can wake up to the reality of being alive, which includes not just joy and health but impermanence, aging, suffering, and death. A yoga practice that excludes the shadows of illness or aging cuts itself off from the truths of being alive. Similarly, a practice that focuses exclusively on physical culture and the performance of yoga poses at the expense of psychological understanding and transformation is a one-sided practice. Without the balance practice of all eight limbs, and a path rooted in the first limb, yoga practice can easily become another form of materialism." Id. at 63. "When teaching, I almost always read the instructions for dying or these descriptions of the elements during the ten minutes of savasana (Corpse pose) when the students are lying down, the room is dark and the collective breath is coming into stillness. If not treated as a practice of dying, savasana is reduced to as relation exercise and divorced from its purpose as a mediation on impermanence and, by extension, gratitude." Id. at 200. "Attending a yoga class at any popular studio is a fascinating and disconcerting study of the way in which people sculpt yoga into whatever they would like it to be.  Many teachers use their certification as a modern 'yoga teacher' to simply articulate their personal philosophy on life, sometimes without ever having had a teacher of their own." Id. at 169.).

Michael Stone, Yoga for a World Out of Balance: Teachings on Ethics and Social Action, with a foreword by B. K. S. Iyengar (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2009) ("The practice of yoga is a practice of being with the reality of what is. Arriving in the present moment is sometimes painful because we stop and see our past choices and the unconsciousness in many of our activities. When we see the shadow of our actions, we can get motivate to change our habits." Id. at 64. "When we are caught up in denial, our perceptual abilities are obscured. We should not underestimate the power of grounded observation, or bearing witness. The first step of yoga is to start where we are, and this usually means recognizing where there is discontent or suffering. When we begin with the truth of suffering both in the human, nonhuman, and human-built realms, we begin to move out of the denial or apathy that most cultural media perpetuates." Id. at 94. "When we take more than we need, we are, in effect, stealing. Of the five yamas, asteya, not taking what is not freely given, casts the widest net, especially for those of us embedded in cultures devoted to accumulation and consumerism. What is consumerism? The core notion of consumerism is that people subject to consumerism overbuy; they purchase goods that they 'clearly do not need for subsistence or for traditional display'--more than an objective observer would judge that they need and perhaps more than they themselves, upon sober reflection, would admit that they need. But who is going to be the 'objective' observer? People overbuy, according to most descriptions, to emulate others, to indulge themselves sensually, to escape feeling the reality of their circumstances, to fill up lack. Consumerism does not refer to basic subsistence nor to a general life of enjoyment or pleasure but rather to seeking satisfaction through buying things. This is more than being caught by the sensuality of goods; we are caught in a mythology in which there is a correlation between duhkha and consumption whereby consuming things, we imagine, will overcome or even satisfy our unsatisfied mental states." Id. at 106-107.).

Sarah Strauss, Positioning Yoga: Balancing Acts Across Cultures (Oxford & New York: Berg, 2005) ("In this book, I have tried to tell a fairly simple story about the ways that certain ideas and practices of yoga, primarily those of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, have moved from India to elsewhere in the world and back. In the telling, I explain how, over the past century, the practice of yoga has transformed from a regional, male-oriented religious activity to a globalized and largely secular phenomenon." Id. at xix. "The original goal of classical yoga, kaivalya, or isolation of the self, is a far cry from the contemporary goals of health, stress reduction, and flexibility that are frequently encountered with both Indian and non-Indian communities." Id. at 4. "The high percentage of yoga practitioners in the 'helping professions' ... can be interpreted as an effort by these individuals to resist domination by technocrats and other organizational specialists of modernity.... These professions may appeal to certain individuals precisely because the fact of providing service seems to overshadow their complicity with market forces, thus allowing their practitioners to feel as if they are escaping 'direct implications in capitalist economic relations.' These helping professions then provide a rationale for living in the world while attempting to transcend its desires. They are another 'middle way' between the horns of a dilemma, a sustainable choice which seeks a compromise between physical comfort and spiritual satisfaction...." Id. at 83 (citations omitted). "I argue that this community has constituted itself in part through its efforts to ind a happy medium; they come mostly from the 'middle' class not only by virtue of their socioeconomic status, and self-descriptions, but also by their mediating strategies. The search for balance dominates the lives of all of the people I have described here. Almost without exception, they see yoga as a strategy for helping them cope with the stress of being pulled between the poles of personal happiness and family or other societal responsibilities. Most work in service occupations, where the welfare of others is in their hands; they have chosen to practice yoga primarily because they find that it gives them a way to foster the internal strength necessary to continue helping people around them.").

BOTTOM LINE: PRACTICE YOGA. DEVELOP A SERIOUS PRACTICE. HOWEVER, BE CAUTIOUS IN DRINKING THE MODERN POSTURAL YOGA'S LEMONADE. MUCH OF MODERN POSTURAL YOGA IN THE WEST IS, THOUGH IT NEED NOT BE, CONSUMPTION CAPITALISM WITH A SMILEY FACE. :-) OR TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY, MODERN POSTURAL YOGA MAY NOT BE THE MEANS OR PATH TO THE WAY.