First let’s start with the definition of the word bastard. It should be clear that I’m being proper in my usage of words and not writing this from an emotional place of anger or discontent with the yoga world. Even if that were also to be true. More on that later though.
A bastard is a child born out of wedlock. I consider the practice of yoga to be like a child in that it needs to be nurtured. Wedlock is a union between two people just as yoga is a union with the True Self. So, as I see it in the yoga world the so called creations of new styles of yoga are simply that, bastards. The creation comes not from a union with the True Self but only that of one with the ego.
I had someone trying to sell me on a new one of these so called styles recently. I will not say which one because I do not wish to publicise these things in the slightest. I asked the teacher to tell me more about this new style and what makes it anything other than an existing style of yoga. Her reply was actually regurgitated copy and paste text from the page of its creator and even that didn’t answer my question. It was simply a bio from the creator and how she teaches from the heart, blah blah blah.
In the yoga world you have simple styles based on how the class is practiced i.e.. hatha, vinyasa, kundalini, yin, ashtanga, etc. And if you want to be even more precise all of these fall under hatha yoga anyway. Hatha yoga is yoga of the body and there are many other yogas i.e.. karma, bhakti,raja and jnana.
Basically this new so called style is simply hatha yoga as taught by its namesake. Ego. Done. Finished. The most mainstream persona associated with such a thing is Bikram. Which everyone knows as hot yoga. More on that another time too.
Now that its pretty clear where I’m going with this lets discus beer, rage, bro and the like. If you want to create an exercise social club around a construct that could possibly get more people involved in your exercise, cool. I fully support beer kick boxing. However, if you wish to use one of these to gather people for yoga it is simply an oxymoron. The same goes for other styles with a persons name attached. I could never imagine naming my way of teaching vinyasa Jason Yoga. What kind of nonsense is that?
I’ve been doing this for 20 years and have the consciousness to prove it. My True Self has no desire for such mockery of a tradition that gave me such beautiful insights into what life really is. Yoga is not the final answer, the end all of knowing, but it’s a huge stepping stone along the path and a way to get you there more easily regardless of the path you choose.
Now go find it!
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