"Why do we practice Yoga?"
I had a teacher once ask that question during a particularly challenging Yoga class, back in New York. We were all bent1 into these exhausting sideways triangles, and the teacher was making us hold the position longer than any of us would have liked.
"Why do we practice Yoga?" he asked again. "Is it so we can become a little bendier than our neighbors? Or is there perhaps some higher purpose?"
Yoga, in Sanskrit, can be translated as "union." It originally comes from the root word yuj, which means "to yoke," to attach yourself to a task at hand with ox-like discipline. And the task at hand in Yoga is to find union--between mind and body, between the individual and her God, between our thoughts and the source of our thoughts, between teacher and student, and even between ourselves and our sometimes hard-to-bend neighbors. In the West, we've mainly come to know Yoga through its now-famous pretzel-like exercises for the body, but this is only Hatha Yoga, one limb of the philosophy. The ancients developed these physical stretches not for personal fitness, but to loosen up their muscles and minds in order to prepare them for meditation2. It is difficult to sit in stillness for many hours, after all, if your hip3 is aching, keeping you from contemplating4 your intrinsic divinity because you are too busy contemplating, "Wow . . . my hip really aches."
But Yoga can also mean trying to find God through meditation, through scholarly study, through the practice of silence, through devotional service or through mantra--the repetition of sacred words in Sanskrit. While some of these practices tend to look rather Hindu in their derivation, Yoga is not synonymous with Hinduism, nor are all Hindus Yogis. True Yoga neither competes with nor precludes5 any other religion. You may use your Yoga--your disciplined practices of sacred union--to get closer to Krishna, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha6 or Yahweh. During my time at the Ashram, I met devotees who identified themselves as practicing Christians7, Jews, Buddhists8, Hindus and even Muslims. I have met others who would rather not talk about their religious affiliation9 at all, for which, in this contentious10 world, you can hardly blame them.
The Yogic path is about disentangling the built-in glitches11 of the human condition, which I'm going to over-simply define here as the heartbreaking inability to sustain contentment. Different schools of thought over the centuries have found different explanations for man's apparently12 inherently flawed state. Taoists call it imbalance, Buddism calls it ignorance, Islam blames our misery13 on rebellion against God, and the Judeo-Christian tradition attributes all our suffering to original sin. Freudians say that unhappiness is the inevitable14 result of the clash between our natural drives and civilization's needs. (As my friend Deborah the psychologist explains it: "Desire is the design flaw.") The Yogis, however, say that human discontentment is a simple case of mistaken identity. We're miserable15 because we think that we are mere16 individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentments17 and mortality. We wrongly believe that our limited little egos18 constitute our whole entire nature. We have failed to recognize our deeper divine character. We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme19 Self who is eternally at peace. That supreme Self is our true identity, universal and divine. Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated20 line from the Greek stoic21 philosopher Epictetus: "You bear God within you, poor wretch22, and know it not."
Yoga is the effort to experience one's divinity personally and then to hold on to that experience forever. Yoga is about self-mastery and the dedicated23 effort to haul your attention away from your endless brooding over the past and your nonstop worrying about the future so that you can seek, instead, a place of eternal presence from which you may regard yourself and your surroundings with poise24. Only from that point of even-mindedness will the true nature of the world (and yourself) be revealed to you. True Yogis, from their seat of equipoise, see all this world as an equal manifestation25 of God's creative energy--men, women, children, turnips26, bedbugs, coral: it's all God in disguise. But the Yogis believe a human life is a very special opportunity, because only in a human form and only with a human mind can God-realization ever occur. The turnips, the bedbugs, the coral--they never get a chance to find out who they really are. But we do have that chance.
"Our whole business therefore in this life," wrote Saint Augustine, rather Yogically, "is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen."
Like all great philosophical27 ideas, this one is simple to understand but virtually impossible to imbibe28. OK--so we are all one, and divinity abides29 within us all equally. No problem. Understood. But now try living from that place. Try putting that understanding into practice twenty-four hours a day. It's not so easy. Which is why in India it is considered a given that you need a teacher for your Yoga. Unless you were born one of those rare shimmering30 saints who come into life already fully31 actualized, you're going to need some guidance along your journey toward enlightenment. If you're lucky enough, you will find a living Guru. This is what pilgrims have been coming to India to seek for ages. Alexander the Great sent an ambassador to India in the fourth century BC, with a request to find one of these famous Yogis and return with him to court. (The ambassador did report finding a Yogi, but couldn't convince the gentleman to travel.) In the first century AD, Apollonius of Tyrana, another Greek ambassador, wrote of his journey through India: "I saw Indian Brahmans living upon the earth and yet not on it, and fortified32 without fortifications, and possessing nothing, yet having the richness of all men." Gandhi himself always wanted to study with a Guru, but never, to his regret, had the time or opportunity to find one. "I think there is a great deal of truth," he wrote, "in the doctrine33 that true knowledge is impossible without a Guru."
A great Yogi is anyone who has achieved the permanent state of enlightened bliss34. A Guru is a great Yogi who can actually pass that state on to others. The word Guru is composed of two Sanskrit syllables35. The first means "darkness," the second means "light." Out of the darkness and into the light. What passes from the master into the disciple36 is something called mantravirya: "The potency37 of the enlightened consciousness." You come to your Guru, then, not only to receive lessons, as from any teacher, but to actually receive the Guru's state of grace.
Such transfers of grace can occur in even the most fleeting38 of encounters with a great being. I once went to see the great Vietnamese monk39, poet and peacemaker Thich Nhat Hanh speak in New York. It was a characteristically hectic40 weeknight in the city, and as the crowd pushed and shoved its way into the auditorium41, the very air in the place was whisked into a nerve-racking urgency of everyone's collective stress. Then the monk came on stage. He sat in stillness for a good while before he began to speak, and the audience--you could feel it happening, one row of high-strung New Yorkers at a time--became colonized42 by his stillness. Soon, there was not a flutter in the place. In the space of maybe ten minutes, this small Vietnamese man had drawn43 every single one of us into his silence. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that he drew us each into our own silence, into that peace which we each inherently possessed44, but had not yet discovered or claimed. His ability to bring forth45 this state in all of us, merely by his presence in the room--this is divine power. And this is why you come to a Guru: with the hope that the merits of your master will reveal to you your own hidden greatness.
The classical Indian sages46 wrote that there are three factors which indicate whether a soul has been blessed with the highest and most auspicious47 luck in the universe:
2. To have been born with--or to have developed--a yearning49 to understand the nature of the universe.
3. To have found a living spiritual master.
There is a theory that if you yearn50 sincerely enough for a Guru, you will find one. The universe will shift, destiny's molecules51 will get themselves organized and your path will soon intersect with the path of the master you need. It was only one month after my first night of desperate prayer on my bathroom floor--a night spent tearfully begging God for answers--that I found mine, having walked into David's apartment and encountered a photograph of this stunning52 Indian woman. Of course, I was more than a bit ambivalent53 about the concept of having a Guru. As a general rule, Westerners aren't comfortable with that word. We have a kind of sketchy54 recent history with it. In the 1970s a number of wealthy, eager, susceptible55 young Western seekers collided with a handful of charismatic but dubious56 Indian Gurus. Most of the chaos57 has settled down now, but the echoes of mistrust still resonate. Even for me, even after all this time, I still find myself sometimes balking58 at the word Guru. This is not a problem for my friends in India; they grew up with the Guru principle, they're relaxed with it. As one young Indian girl told me, "Everybody in India almost has a Guru!" I know what she meant to say (that almost everyone in India has a Guru) but I related more to her unintentional statement, because that's how I feel sometimes--like I almost have a Guru. Sometimes I just can't seem to admit it because, as a good New Englander, skepticism and pragmatism are my intellectual heritage. Anyhow, it's not like I consciously went shopping for a Guru. She just arrived. And the first time I saw her, it was as though she looked at me through her photograph--those dark eyes smoldering59 with intelligent compassion--and she said, "You called for me and now I'm here. So do you want to do this thing, or not?"
Setting aside all nervous jokes and cross-cultural discomforts60, I must always remember what I replied that night: a straightforward61 and bottomless YES.
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1
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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precludes
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| v.阻止( preclude的第三人称单数 )；排除；妨碍；使…行不通 | |
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Buddha
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| n.佛；佛像；佛陀 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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Buddhists
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| n.佛教徒( Buddhist的名词复数 ) | |
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affiliation
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| n.联系，联合 | |
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contentious
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| adj.好辩的，善争吵的 | |
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glitches
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| n.小过失，差错( glitch的名词复数 ) | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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13
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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resentments
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| （因受虐待而）愤恨，不满，怨恨( resentment的名词复数 ) | |
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egos
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| 自我，自尊，自负( ego的名词复数 ) | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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stoic
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| n.坚忍克己之人，禁欲主义者 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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imbibe
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| v.喝，饮；吸入，吸收 | |
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abides
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| 容忍( abide的第三人称单数 )； 等候； 逗留； 停留 | |
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shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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32
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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syllables
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| n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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36
disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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potency
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| n. 效力，潜能 | |
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fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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hectic
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| adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的 | |
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auditorium
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| n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂 | |
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colonized
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| 开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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46
sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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47
auspicious
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| adj.吉利的；幸运的，吉兆的 | |
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48
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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49
yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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50
yearn
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| v.想念；怀念；渴望 | |
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51
molecules
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| 分子( molecule的名词复数 ) | |
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52
stunning
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| adj.极好的；使人晕倒的 | |
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53
ambivalent
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| adj.含糊不定的；(态度等)矛盾的 | |
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54
sketchy
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| adj.写生的，写生风格的，概略的 | |
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55
susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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57
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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58
balking
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| n.慢行，阻行v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的现在分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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59
smoldering
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| v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的现在分词 ) | |
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discomforts
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| n.不舒适( discomfort的名词复数 )；不愉快，苦恼 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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