Yoga and the ego

Category : Asanas (Postures), General advice, Philosophy 16th July 2018

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Inside Yoga 238 (16/7/2018)

According to research by Southampton University “neither yoga nor meditation quiet the ego; instead, they boost self-enhancement.” This research might appear to blow the lid on the credibility of yoga but like many things in life this is not as straight forward as it appears.

Yoga is a practice which guides us and teaches us how to understand our own self or ego, and this can mean we become more in touch with who we are, and in many cases learn to feel more confident in who we are, but this does not mean we are automatically go on to use our enhanced sense of self in a negative way – though some do. The original texts ask us to become more selfless and more altruistic, more connected to everything around us in a positive way.
Many of us will feel this is not why we practice yoga, because we just do it because it helps us feel better in ourselves. There is a saying which states to “heal others we first heal ourselves”. Yoga is a self-healing process, bringing ourselves back to a balance and teaching us the methods to keep re-balancing ourselves. There is nothing wrong with this if we are doing this for the right intentions.
The crucial point to understand is the importance of intention. What do we plan to do with our greater sense of who we are and feeling better in our self?
In the teachings there is a lot of reference to removing the ego, but this can only be done if we first learn and understand the ego. More importantly, we train how to control the negative effects of our ego and guide it towards something more wholesome and healthier.
So the above study which noticed an increased “self-enhancement” does not paint the full picture, though I would add I have not read the full report, but what has happened now is that the general public have seen the headline.
The Guardian newspaper has an article with the headline, “It’s official – yoga makes you smug. I think I’ll stick to being lazy”. Yes, this caught my eye, so headline works, and though I didn’t agree with most of what is said, the author does make the correct point right at the end: “Of course what we’re talking about here are western yoga courses undertaken by western students. If practised daily, under the supervision of a dedicated and enlightened teacher, with corresponding and concurrent study, and a genuine desire to relinquish human conceit, I have no doubt that yoga and meditation can “quiet” the ego. Sadly, in Britain, examples of that kind of practice number relatively few compared with the heaving ranks of wellness-touting narcissists keen to use a bit of cod-spirituality as yet another excuse for rank self-indulgence. You know who I mean: the image-obsessed neo-hippies keen to purchase, pose and Instagram their way to paper-thin self-esteem, shored up on all sides by the kind of cynical marketing that somehow turns neurosis into commodity.”
Cutting comments by the author but also true in many respects: too much of yoga has become about how we look and what we can show others, when the original intentions of this practice is more private and yes, selfless and ego-less.
When I was in South Asia, one of my meditation teachers told his Western students when they return to Europe excited by what they had learnt – do not try to tell your friends and family all about it in the effort to get them also to practice, instead, let them see how you are in yourself, and when they see that you appear a happier person these days they might then ask, how and why?
You can read the article and see extract from the university report via these links:
Guardian story:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/19/yoga-smug-lazy-scientists-ego
Southampton University report: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/420273/
Any questions or comments contact me via the blog reply panel below or email gary@yogabristol.co.uk
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