On Teaching Yoga & Politics
Sri. Ramana Maharshi once asked the following: “Which is better: to preach loudly without effect or to sit silently sending forth intuitive force to act on others?”
Recently, I was tagged in a Facebook thread re: why most yoga teachers don’t engage in political discussions or speak up against social injustice.
Yoga teachers tend to have followers (both in real life and on social media). As a teacher, I can say that it is an absolute privilege to have these people listen to me and learn from me, one that I don’t take lightly. And while my students respect me and some even want to emulate me in their lives, it is not my job as a yoga teacher to stand on a pulpit and engage in political discourse simply because I’m being offered a spotlight of admiration and respect.
That said, I (as a human being) wholeheartedly believe that #blacklivesmatter. I believe that gay rights, like women’s rights, are undeniable human rights, and that gay marriage is simply marriage. I am saddened by and mourn the loss in my heart of innocent, beautiful lives to horrible, senseless acts of terrorism, violence, and wars around the world. And I am beyond appalled that someone who holds and publicly shares racist and sexist views can be and actually is the Republican presidential nominee. Sigh.
But what is more important to me than engaging in discussion on all of these worthy, noble causes is making a change in myself. When I see stories in the media that make me cringe in fear or anger or disgust, I look within and ask: what is within me that mirrors that? Because the more I engage in self-inquiry, the more I am able to see that these horrible, appalling tendencies that we point to as “other” live within each of us. We are all darkness and light; we are all good and bad; we are all monsters and angels and sinners and saints.
I feel called to dig deeper within myself. To work harder to expose the dark parts of myself to light so that my true nature, the Self that is within, is realized. And through that path to realization, I can open my heart and lovingly plant the seeds of change in others. So that instead of pointing the finger at all of the wrongs on the outside, we each work to be more compassionate, understanding, and loving human beings. It is our true nature to love; it is our true nature to be compassionate; it is our true nature to be joyful and kind. It is in discovering one’s own true nature, and in sharing that with the world, that we are able to effect change.
Yoga is about union. It’s about connectedness. To self. To others. To God. I am not here to offer you my views on politics or how you should live your life or how injustices should be remedied. I am here, instead, to love every being that comes into my life with my whole heart open. And where I find resistance to that — when someone or something outside me incites anger or discomfort — I have to ask myself: what is within me that is creating that resistance?
The less we look outside ourselves for answers or justice or peace, the more we can see that all of that — and more — lies within.
Teaching yoga, for me, isn’t about having my views heard. It’s not about me at all. Teaching yoga is about meeting my students where they are, engaging them with my heart open, and planting the seeds of change in their lives. But first, I must look within. So when I am silent in the wake of the latest tragedy that befalls us as a society, it’s not because I don’t care. It’s because I know it is not my place, right now, to speak. Right now, it is my place to silently pray from my whole heart that we as a society, one by one, can lift each other up.
