Ruminations on Yoga

Mike Robertson, of Magnificent Mobility, argues that "Yoga is Overrated"

I like his critique. I like that he acknowledges what is good about the system as well as identifies weaknesses. If I were to take it a step further it might be to call into question the entire notion of "Instructors" whatever the movement. Something about our society inspires us to look for systems and teachers rather than being a learner fabricating our own knowledge. Mike talks about one of the weakness being Yoga Instructors simply teaching within the parameters of the system -- cult like -- as it were. We could level the same criticism at other movement systems, martial arts, perhaps, some versions of CrossFit, for examples.



The kind of instruction we see in most dojo's resulted from the massive demand for instruction that service men in Japan placed on the martial arts schools. Standing in ranks and rows, doing calisthenics and basic movements is an industrial model of teaching. It is efficient and economical, but, is it really the best? Yet we see it time and again in our gyms, practice rooms, dojo's because it serves the profit model of these organizations.

So, when I look for workout partners, I'm looking for self-reflective, analytic, curious, skeptical--but open minded, and skeptical of themselves and what they "know". I look for someone who demonstrates that they are serious about learning. I look for persons doing things differently, or doing things with perfect form, and then I ask them about themselves and what they are doing. Now, "You can't always get what you want." So, Mike offers some tips that can help a person be an informed consumer. But, the distinction is that I, or you, have to be in control of our process. If you don't resonate with the "teachers" and "classes" available locally no big deal. With the tonnage of DVD, book, and on-line resources you can if you want it badly enough teach yourself all sorts of techniques and attend to the particular details that interest you, breathing for example.



One of the things I hate about yoga is all the blah,blah,blah. All the new age jargon and twinkly chanting music. Basically, I use the measure that runners do, if you can carry on a conversation you are not working hard enough. Shut up and get to work.

Now, if we went back to the roots of Yoga, if we went to India and sought out some masters, my money says we would have an altogether different experience with the movement system. I think the cultural, and linguistic distance that mapping a system from one culture to another introduces a lot of noise and distortion. That said, the Indian Yogi still has stinky shit and we should be as suspicious of him/her as we are of any other teacher. Being respectful of a tradition is not the same as blindly consuming it, rather, a master worth his/her salt, would despise such a stage in a learner, and would take steps to get them past it -- think of the Zen Master, the stick, and the impossible koan. Figure it out for yourself.