Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field.

~ From “The Essential Rumi”

Arianna Huffington the famous conservative turned liberal voice of the liberal political internet, pitched her Oasis of peace on the harsh sands of the Republican Convention offering yoga on the menu. It was an innocent gesture that evoked memories of flowing haired women in granny gowns offering daisies to cops about to lob tear gas bombs into a peaceful resistance of the sixties

I don’t know if she or yoga facilitator Seane Corn was thinking the yoga was anything more than a good will gesture to facilitate relaxation but maybe there was more. During the early days of Bush/Cheney I had a hankering to teach yoga to the highest office with illusions that I could facilitate an awareness that would stop their pesky destructiveness. The key word is “I” because the practice of yoga is a slow and personal unfolding. That was more a symptom of my own ego.

If you hope to reshape politics, deeply scored belief systems ingrained by generations of God and family have to change.  The influence of a teacher might be a shortcut to that natural process but that is putting eggs in a basket that might be full of holes or more specifically; assholes and history warns us to be discriminating about who we follow. I didn’t consider myself that asshole but who knows who might have thought differently. And I wonder if Seane Corn may not be subject to the same ego thinking that I was at that time.

The ongoing discussion of modern yoga has turned from social action to politics.

Social action is an extension of politics where politics is defined by “the interrelationships between the people, groups, or organizations in a particular area of life especially insofar as they involve power and influence or conflict.” When folks extend themselves by sharing, not forcing, the yoga that eased their own burdens it is a social action. There is a distinct need for assistance of some kind and a direct offering. But what does yoga have to do with the clumsy multi-headed beast of American politics

When yoga became a bedfellow of political activism in the sixties it joined a counter culture that was already in place. For some it became the companion guide to disenfranchisement with our capitalist, expansionist way of life. Thanks to consumerism, yoga is now culture. How does mainstream culture affect change in culture? Doesn’t mainstream culture fall to its basest denominator? It would certainly be naïve to assume that all people who practice yoga are nice, good hearted, whatever. Really, there isn’t any generalization you can make about the yoga population. There is not one face or one voice or one belief. Years from now we can look back at what became of Yoga when she was a Cover Girl.

What are we learning in yoga that would change our deepest belief systems? What kind of yoga experience will make someone change deeply held beliefs?

If one is happy with his church, pastor, community or politics what could change any of that? And is it the assumption of yoga activists that liberals will remain open minded and conservatives will see the light? Or perhaps no one is attached to outcomes but doing what they see is their duty as citizens. That would be very Bhagavad-Gita though another lesson there is not to just be unattached to outcome but to waste the enemy who threatens the life of the people you love. Just do it without vengeance in your heart. And who is the enemy? That depends on what you believe is true. That is the complication of politics

Politics reflect our collective beliefs but collective is an anomaly. When there is more than one person, there is more than one impression. Multiply that by a country. In this country there are a few parties and most of us are divided between two of them.  And in yoga there are a few parties also.

Who will appoint themselves speakers in the name of yoga?  Why turn an indefinable experience into a billboard?

I am the author of a piece that indirectly links the calling of the Yamas to the hearts of our founding fathers in presenting restraints to ensure a fair and balanced government. I do think there’s a resonance between the two. But that is not a reason to stand under a yoga banner when it comes to politics. It diminishes yoga and if yoga is not reduced there could be some confusion between the mixing of religion and government as there is often a Bhakti aspect to yoga.

Yoga makes you feel better or you wouldn’t do it—but does yoga make you a better person? What is a better person?

That’s subjective isn’t it?

Are you better if you believe in a woman’s right to choose or a fetus’s right to life? Are you better if you believe marriage is between a man and a woman or some other configuration? Are you better because you get mutts from the pound or you buy designer dogs? Are you better because you are vegan or you’re on some caveman diet? Are you better because you believe you should dedicate time or money to poorer communities or because you believe in survival of the fittest? Are you better because you believe you should own weapons or because you think no one should? Are you better because you believe in capitalism or socialism, expansion or isolationism? Are you better because you are a Christian or something else? I know what I think is best but I also know many people who think differently.

Here in the South the scent of conservatism wafts from church windows with the innocence of peach pie or the acrid breeze of brimstone like a day old plate of “meat and three”.  We are neighborly. Manners, an organized form of kindness, allow us to commune no matter our religion or politics. We are not all conservative but it is pervasive. Minding our own business is requisite to manners.

On the surface we share more than what separates us; a desire to be good and to be liked, dreams for our children, dreams for ourselves. Music, partying, food and fun bring us together. They are great neutralizers to our differences. In the last decade yoga classes have become common ground and neutralizers as well.

What happens when disparate people of indomitable will have different ideas of right and wrong?

We can relate to the call for persistence, confidence and joy in effort heralded by Pattabi Jois and B.K.S. Iyengar and Bikram Choudrey. Classes that encourage resolute spirit are popular. We can relate to the warrior spirit. We don’t back off. Our self exploration is tied to our powerful physicality.

Some people look to yoga for relaxation. Classes encourage us to be good to ourselves. We have too much stress. We should not worry. The future will take care of itself: Bliss. Why worry? Only neurotics worry. Neurotics tend to be overly concerned by unfounded things like climate change according to detractors on the other side of opinion.

Yoga’s philosophical and political underpinnings in the popular teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita and the Yoga Sutras edify that our actions reflect us and affect our community. We have obligations to ourselves and others. Those obligations are an individual choice in this country and what constitutes correct behavior is open to interpretation.

For better or worse, and often worse, I have engaged in heated debates with clients over all manner of politics. I’ve worked with liberals, hippies, yuppies, anarchists, bigots, racists, right wingers, players and posers. I’ve done time with stardom, privilege, sickness, sadness and homeless. I have seen acceptance between the fabricated and often mismatched family members of a yoga group but I have not seen people change the fabric of the beliefs that inform their politics.

What is the common denominator to soften our differences?

If yoga cannot melt all people’s opinions of right and wrong into one can it allow us to understand and be at peace with choices we don’t make?  Does that happen in physical classes where metaphors and will power are defined in the postures? Does it come in revelations of dissolving fears and memories through breath and body? Is it by studies of historical teachings? Does meditation affect our beliefs?

My own feeling is that all this gently changes us and over generations might affect our politics but something earth shaking would have to occur to dissolve emotions that are so tied to our pasts. And then we have to be willing to let go of all we know to be true. And we will not have to define ourselves by our practice, whatever that is.

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