Inside Yoga 167 (16/5/2016)

Last week I came across a comment by a yoga student who was complaining about his teacher, he was annoyed that he was not getting the best he could from his workout. It was these two last words that caught my eye, regardless of rights and wrongs about the class, all I had in my head were the words – “yoga is not a workout”!

Complaining about his workout put me off anything else he had to say, because if he is practising yoga for a workout he is in the wrong place with the wrong attitude – in fact he is not practising yoga! Perhaps, for him this is a workout, but the point I wish to make is that yoga is not a workout.

Yes, there is a physical aspect to yoga and, at times and for certain practitioners, this can include a lot of physical use of the body. The key factor in my criticism of the above complainant is that the practice is about our intention and attitude when it comes to the use of the body. We do not practice yoga because it is an exercise regime.

We practice yoga with the intention of establishing a sense of union, with ourselves and the environment around us, and those around us. It is focussed on bringing the body, mind and breath into union. It is about our well-being on a day-to-day level, and on a deeper level it is about realising who we are, and the truth about our existence – call this enlightenment if you wish. But even if enlightenment is achieved – on any level – we still keep on practising as this is what keeps us sane and happy.

Whatever we do with our body the goal of the practice is a clear and quiet mind – a still mind, a steady breath and heartbeat, and a body which is not upsetting this sense of balance and stillness through tiredness, aches and pains and so forth.

The second verse of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali refers to yoga being the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. It is does not refer to the body or a workout. When things are tough it feels like we are being tossed about by huge waves. Yoga aims to reduce the size of these waves or fluctuations and bring them under control (and perhaps cessation as said above).

There is, however, a simple reason why yoga is seen as a workout. The body is a doorway to what yoga aims for because our body is the first material object preventing us from accessing the stillness and all those things yoga offers. A healthy body is a healthy mind as the saying goes. It starts with a body and some exercise.

The extreme practices in India by the sadhus, the holy men and women, are seen as demonstrations of their ability to go beyond the body. They put the body into all manner of twists and contortions yet maintain a still mind and steady breath. We don’t need to go to such lengths and extremes, but we do what we can to find “union” yoga offers, but as said above we do not do this because we want a good workout.

Many people who start out in yoga with the goal of a workout do find after a while of practising that there is more to yoga than a workout and start to change their approach to the practice, by taking on board the main principles of yoga, and dropping idea that it is a workout, yet still asking the body to be very physical. As said above, yoga is also asking us to look at our intentions and attitude.

And this is a journey I encourage, because if a good workout gets one into yoga and takes them where yoga can take you, then that’s fine. Paradoxical I admit, but then yoga teachings are filled with paradoxes. But what I do advise against is an attachment, as shown by our complainant above, to “his or her” workout.

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