What is Yoga?

 

 

To answer the question you should really begin at the other end; with the questioner - with you, because yoga is really all about you. If you want to do an empirical study of the science of yoga you can do so with research. You’ll find a lot and you can spend years doing such research. Afterwards you’ll have a good intellectual idea about the science. You can do the same, for the most part, with the philosophy of yoga. You can study the time and culture from which it came and get to understand some of the general philosophies driving the science. In the end you will have a good idea of it all, or at least those domains of yoga. Unfortunately, most people when hearing the word “yoga” conjure for themselves imagery and concepts which, for the most part, do not reflect the actual meaning of Yoga.  Because of these ideas it is said that the worst thing about Yoga is its name.

But on a deeper level the question of what yoga is for you is a different question altogether, because the most correct answer, and so the correct yoga for you, will be determined by what you want it to be and what the reasons are for your desire to pursue it. For example, if you want better-looking, healthier and more flexible body and a tight butt you should probably investigate the bendy-stretchy yoga you see on TV. If you want a great way to de-stress and relax, the more meditative, flowing yogas would suit you better. If you are given to deep contemplation of the major issues in your life and your world and you are given to intellectualism there is a yoga for you, too. There is a yoga for whatever you want, so really, it depends on what you want, and according to that want is what yoga will become for you. In short, yoga is what you make it. But in the end, regardless of your orientation or choice or desire for any yoga, at its core yoga is simply the science of the self, and it is all about you.

Now, how you define this thing you refer to as “self” is very important, and hearing that yoga is a science of the self can be confusing to many, especially if you start asking questions like “whose self?” If I have a self then whose self is it? What is the thing that makes me refer to “me”?

When thinking in these ways people are mostly at a loss, because immediately, there is a reference to their selves, and a strange little turn is made with the mind to try and grasp what this “thing” is that they call themselves.  But most of us don’t want to say it publicly and most people quickly dismiss any further investigation and revert to the more established definitions they have of who they are.  “I am so-and-so, I work here or there, I do this or that", and so on.  But this is the “public you”, and this public you definition or concept, which is a self-concept because you made it, is then settled upon as a reasonable and acceptable definition of who you are. Most people then are generally at rest with their self-concept throughout their entire lives. 

Some individuals dig a little deeper and enter onto a path of questioning their self-definition. They quickly find themselves in a bit of deep water.  First, there seems a certain logical absurdity in you asking yourself “who am I?” because the questioner and the question is seemingly the same thing – the seeker and the sought are the same thing. And besides, who would not know who they are?  So much of this investigation is done a little more privately.  If, however, you persist and get more serious about it all – about you - you find the usual tools of investigation do not really help you much in the search and you become stuck and at some loss to find a way to get yourself unstuck. It is difficult to admit to others and even more so to yourself.  At this point some abandon the search completely lest they may doubt who they are, which seems totally absurd and is also a really weird and uncomfortable feeling.

But life can be difficult. You know this yourself, and even if not, one look at others will clearly show this.  And so you and many others get a trapped feeling from time to time – a stuckness - and you begin to look for a way out.  Even though it takes a lot of courage, one way to proceed is to dig a little deeper into life and life concepts and even your definition of "self’. 

That is what we will be doing here on this site; a little digging.  How do you dig and where do you start?  What are the tools available to you and what are their natures and uses and how do you apply them?  Which tool is good for doing what?  Here we will take a look at some of these things, because it can be confusing otherwise, as you might very well know.

 

Some people do make attempts to get to know themselves a little better with whatever they have at hand, but it still does not seem to be a very successful process because the troubles and confusion and the stuckness feeling continue unabatedly.  Also, the intricacy of the dilemma of the self investigating the self is daunting even as a concept. Life’s lack of meaning at times then drives people into a deeper search and they hang on.  Besides, ultimately, who would not want to know what this thing is that one calls ‘me’? 

Eventually these persistent seekers of self come to or are led to the domain of Yoga - the “Science of the Self” - and this Science immediately makes a few very interesting suggestions to you, foremost of which is that you may not really be who you think you are. 

So who are you?  What is this entity you call "I" or "me"? Who does the searching? What is searched for?

 

On this site we will take a closer look at all these things. 

Namaste.