The Layers of Yoga: How yoga can transform your life
“We can excavate from the depths of the material deeper meaning, or we could take it as it presents itself on the surface.”
Whenever I write about yoga ideas it even discuss them in a yoga class, I’m sharply aware of hyperbolic and esoteric it all sounds. Truthfully, I have glimpsed moments and stages of life where I see what the old sages say about interconnected and bliss body living. I’ve seen it, but it fades quickly, and I’m back living in this hairy body that craves Kettle salt and vinegar chips and wants to nap incessantly. I live most days this way, and the best way I’ve found to create space is through my yoga practice.
I’m an English teacher. My students are reading Lord of the Flies (highly recommend). Each time I read that novel, I’m reminded that there are layers of depth within literature that echo life. When we say, “Wow, that was deep,” or “That show is a bit shallow,” we mean something very specific, but we don’t tend to know what it means technically. Deep and shallow mean what they say. Literature, movies, or a methodology that we characterize as deep means that it can be seen at many different levels. We can excavate from the depths of the material deeper meaning, or we could take it as it presents itself on the surface. Both are fine, but the excavation is what the yoga practice offers. If we continue to dig into the practices, we’ll find a deeper sense of meaning within them, even if some of the language is esoteric or too hippy-dippy for our disposition. There’s richness within that hippy-dippy stuff that we can harvest, if only we can let go of how we think the world is supposed to make sense.
For example, the yoga world talks about chakras.
You’ve heard the term before, but here’s what it means: chakras are energy centers in the body where the two main channels of energy intersect as they serpentine their way from the base of your spine to the crown of your head. Each chakra is a swirl of energy where the masculine and feminine energies intertwine up the spinal column. You might read that and think, “Sounds about right.” But I reckon most people who read that will get side-tracked being critical of talking about energies and chakras, dismissing it all as bunk. I’m not here to convince you that you should live your life based on chakras, or astrology, or any other methodology that seems wonky. But what I am saying is that there’s wisdom in how these traditions came to be. Keep in mind, 5,000 years ago in India, they didn’t have microscopes or fMRI. They were using the best tool they had at their disposal: attention. And if you pay really close attention, you’ll notice that you feel sensations in your body that align with this chakra system. For example, manipura is the chakra at your naval, and it’s associated with courage and self-will. Have you ever had butterflies in your stomach when you needed to make a speech or have a challenging conversation? Anahata is the chakra at the center of your chest. As you may guess, the energy there is identified with love and compassion. Where do you feel love, if not there? When grief strikes our life, we clutch our chests and feel that loss. So the yogis came up with the best system they could without modern technology.
They accessed this understanding, divergent as it may or may not be from modern medicine, through the layers of yoga. Enabling the body, disciplining the mind, cleansing the cycles of the body. All of this creates a clarity of attention for one to notice what’s going on in the body and in the world. Fundamentally, you can go to a yoga class and get some good stretches and strengthen areas of the body that modern culture neglects. That’s fine. You don’t need to do anything else. Read the book and write the essay. But if you’re interested in finding a deeper dimension, it’s there waiting for you.