Faith in the Mystery

Despite our reliance on scientific data and reasoning to keep us safe, there is nothing naive or misguided about having a devotional practice of yoga. Rationalism that supposes to provide answers to life’s uncertainty is grossly insufficient in helping people manage themselves through a pandemic that has stoked new levels of fear and reflection. Listening for messages that come from a felt sense of both the unknown and the empirical, may well provide the best insight and wisdom available.

Before covid changed everything, yoga was trending away from anything that was not “evidence-based.” The guru-held founts of wisdom were discredited, or at least called into question, in light of revelations of abuse. A combination of cultural upheaval and conversation around appropriation, along with the emergence of social media activism, created a climate in which things like chanting and philosophy were frowned upon and being set aside to better meet the demands of the marketplace. Now that the terrestrial industry has all but vanished in an instant, the same calculus no longer holds.

When the pillars of our societies are crumbling before our eyes, does understanding fascia really matter?

The human body is a wonder beyond full comprehension. An exploration into human anatomy can certainly be a valuable inquiry that leads to yoga. Greater awareness and understanding into our physical make-up can enable us to more fully experience ourselves and life. Not to mention, human physiology is just incredibly interesting and inspiring to ponder in and of itself. Yet, the push to funnel yoga through a scientific lens not only lends itself to a presentation of anatomy as a fixed knowledge, but also obscures the subtleties that a randomized double blind placebo control study is incapable of measuring.

It is generally assumed that “evidence-based” presentations of yoga are more pragmatic than contemplative inquiries into intangible concepts. Also, science provides enticing titles and descriptions that are effective at selling expert “content.” To embrace an idea about yoga that is not concerned with meeting the dictates of academia, that seeks not to reduce or explain the nuanced whole, means also challenging the underpinnings of a growth model that is at the heart of so much of the worlds’ suffering. At this moment when trust in our institutions of knowledge is breaking down, for many, yoga represents the evolution of humanity beyond the limited frameworks that have governed us and seem to be failing.

Letting the mystery be does not mean burying your head in the sand.

I do not consider myself religious but I have deep faith in yoga. Having observed countless people receiving benefit over my adult life, I no longer have any doubt in the transformational properties that yoga inspires. However, I have downplayed the more esoteric aspects of my practice in my teaching for fear that it would be considered too weird. Or worse, that I might be written off or canceled. I can see how a number of my choices were made in reaction to the take-down culture that emerged instead of my truest expression. Now that life has arbitrarily interceded to raise the stakes on everything, I will no longer allow other worldviews to shame me into doubting what my heart feels called to sing.

Respecting and allowing for the unknown is fundamental to clearly perceiving the world around us because so much of what we are experiencing cannot be explained through scientific method. One thing the pandemic has laid bare is the fallacy of applying binary answers to complex issues. Regardless of the political bent, those who speak in certainties when there are clearly none, are essentially peddling in propaganda. In order to make informed choices, we have to be aware that the information we are receiving is all being syphoned through a capitalistic machine and we must be capable of balancing what we are being told with that which we are able to observe through our own senses and instincts.

As the old worldview disintegrates, a welcome committee awaits.

Lots of people feel something to be true in themselves but rarely say it out loud because they don’t have the evidence to prove it, or for fear that they will be ridiculed. When like minds come together in what feels like a safe space they will often open up and learn that they are not alone in this. The suggestion here is not that we should disavow the expertise of scientists, but rather that individuals throughout history and culture have arrived at many of the same conclusions about the nature of interconnectedness and its implications on attitudes and actions. Statistics are as easily manipulated as feelings and thoughts, so it is disingenuous to assert that data is to be trusted above all else.

My gut says that the universe is more akin to an intricate sacred geometry than an existential pinball machine. When I look at my life in retrospect, it seems obvious to me there is an intelligence of sorts at work in the way events unfold that is often imperceptible in the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I do not mean to suggest that anything is predestined, or to belittle any of the terrible suffering that is being wrought. Only that, despite it all, I trust in life playing out however it does, and understand that when faced with individual and collective mortality, there is value in believing poetry and movement can heal.