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Pure Yoga By Another Name--Chopra, Tolle, and Easwaran

Over on the "it's all yoga, baby" blog we're having a spirited in-depth debate about the commercialization of Yoga, and when it ceases to be Yoga.  It's very similar to the great debates we've had right here on the same topic.

The immediate trigger for this debate was the sponsorship of Rainbeau Mars by adidas and the "adidas yoga" session at the Yoga Journal Conference in Estes Park, Colorado.

In the process of thinking about it, I came up with a startling idea. We are talking in this blog about the term “Yoga” being used where some people feel it doesn’t belong.

How do we deal with the huge movements that are almost pure Yoga philosophy, but which don’t choose to use the term “Yoga” to describe themselves?

I’ll give three examples here, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, and Eknath Easwaran, but there are many more.

I know Chopra pretty well, having read some of his books, seen his website, and watched his lectures on TV. Most of Chopra’s teachings come directly out of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.

If you ignore his huge celebrity following and just look at his work, you could argue that Chopra is the modern sage of pure original Yoga, predating even asana and hatha. One of Chopra’s most recent books is a modern interpretation of reincarnation. And he wrote the book Rod Stryker uses in his teacher training for Ayurveda.

I’m less familiar with Tolle. He is certainly less engaging and convincing than Chopra as a speaker. But his teachings about nondualism also seem to also emanate directly out of the Upanishads and the Gita.

Easwaran was one of the world’s foremost translators of the Upanishads and the Gita. But he saw them as too universal to be restricted to the term Yoga, so to bring their message to the world he created a meditation center with little reference to Yoga, and he brought in meditation sources from a variety of religions. His web site doesn’t call itself a Yoga site, but his teachings and philosophy are pure pre-asana Yoga.

I don’t know what to do with this insight. What do you think? Here we have non-Yoga movements that are rapidly spreading Yogic meditation and spirituality with no association with asana at all, and very little explicit reference to Yoga!

I guess it makes me even less worried about the diversity of Yoga. Perhaps these movements and those like them will help offset the stretching of the definition of Yoga on the asana side of the spectrum.

Bob Weisenberg (www.YogaDemystified.com)

Comments




  • Hi Bob


    I have just been away on our autumn vacation, but now I am back ready to face the autumn, winter and dark.


    I will with pleasure take part in a conversation about your book and will get on to it right away. I am , though, a slow thinker and it will take me a little while to process your texts, so please have patience, I will be moving on it.


    Looking forward to our discussion.


     


    Karen

    snuller, 3 years ago | Flag

  • Hi, Karen.  No problem!


    Most people have trouble with Yoga philosophy at first.  I went through that same confusion myself. That's exactly why I've made it my mission try to help people with it whenever I can. Yoga has been so richly rewarding to me I want to share it with others, while continuing to learn more myself.


    That is the sole purpose of my website, too.  I'd like to refine it so it speaks directly to people like you.  Would you be willing to read through my short online book at www.YogaDemystified.com and ask me questions that come to mind? 


    If it's acceptable to you I'd like to do it as a discussion thread right here so others could join in, too.  But the core of the discussion would be our talking about my book chapter by chapter.  This would be very helpful to me and hopefully to you, too.


    (By the way, Tolle doesn't call his stuff Yoga.  I did, or at least I implied it was Yoga.  My actual terminology was much more precise: "...his teachings about nondualism also seem to...emanate directly out of the Upanishads and the Gita.")


    Let me know about the discussion group.


    Thanks.


    Bob Weisenberg (www.YogaDemystified.com)


     

    reweis, 3 years ago | Flag

  • So sorry Bob it took me so long to get back here but one of my excuses is that I actually don't know what to say. I cannot understand and get to terms with a definition of what yoga is. What I do know is that it is not an all inclusive term . Not everything is yoga and if people choose to call it yoga or not will have no bearing om that.  There are so many elements to juggle with here, scripture, enlightenment, moksha, is there a god in all this, what about samsara, how do asanas fit in etc etc.


    There is definitely a non asana yoga tradition but does that mean that Eckhart Tolle is yoga and can anybody call a philosophical system that include yoga texts for yoga?


    I find it very difficult to understand yoga philosophy and the goal of doing yoga ( as a separate practice and more valuable than eg kong fu or aerobics) if one does not involve enlightenment and samsara.


    I have just been to a lecture with Michael Stone who was in Copenhagen, and he  emphasizes the interconnectedness and the escape from moksha as the big themes in yoga.


    One day I might understand what is going on, so until then I will enjoy your blogs and the many thoughts they provoke in me.


     


    Thank you


     


    Karen 

    snuller, 3 years ago | Flag

  • Thanks for your excellent questions, Karen.


    Yoga began at least 5,000 years ago as a spiritual practice.  It was defined by three major Sanskrit texts, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Yoga Sutra.  (These three works are still powerful and inspiring today.  See Recommended Reading.)


    There is very little about asana, or Yoga poses, in these early texts.  Over time Yoga people developed the system of asana we recognize today as Yoga.  But it was still considered just a way to prepare the body for the spiritual and meditative practice of Yoga. 


    Only relatively recently have forms of Yoga developed that emphasize the poses alone, sometimes to the exclusion of meditation, breathing, and spirituality altogether.


    So pre-asana Yoga is that which goes back to Yoga's roots before asana was emphasized.  We really don't know how much asana they did back then.  There are some poses in paintings, but they didn't write about it much.


    A non-Yoga movement is one that has its roots in the ancient texts above, but chooses not to call itself Yoga, like the three examples in my blog.


    Bhakti Yoga is part of the ancient spiritual tradition described in the ancient texts and is the practice of devotional service, usually chanting and reciting devotional prayers.


    Yoga grew up within the Hindu tradition, but was from the beginning a rebellion against the overly ritualized, superstitious and priest-driven ancient Indian religion.  It has always emphasized direct experience over ceremonies and religious dogma.  In that sense it has always set itself apart from the Hindu establishment.


    I'll stop there and see if that helps.  Please ask some followup questions and I'll continue wherever it's most helpful to you.


    Bob Weisenberg (www.YogaDemystified.com)


     

    reweis, 3 years ago | Flag

  • Hi Bob


     


    What is pre-asana yoga? What is a non-yoga movement? I only think we are adding to the confusion about what yoga is, by not defining the term when we discuss it.  Is yoga the physical practice, and is the physical practice in itself yoga? Is a meditative practice in itself yoga and is Hinduism yoga? Do you think of Bhakti yoga as yoga, what about the Tantric movement?


    I have trouble enough figuring out if what I do is yoga and why it is different from other physical systems so trying to figure out if Eckhart Tolle is yoga just seems to obfuscate the issues.


     


    Karen

    snuller, 3 years ago | Flag

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