Tag Archives: unity

Just Because It’s Called the Universe Doesn’t Mean It’s All About U

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You know how, when you are having an argument, occasionally the other person will say “I don’t think you are really seeing this from my perspective.”? Well, he/she is correct. You are not seeing things from his/her perspective. Because, as a human, the only perspective you can fully “see things” from is your own. The only way a person can experience the world of stimuli is with the self as center. Sure, you can try to take the perspective of the other, but ultimately, in doing so you are using your standpoint through which to attempt to replicate the standpoint of the other. The only eyes you can see with are yours. The only ears you can hear with are yours. The only brain you can process stimuli with is yours. The only set of experiences through which you can understand what you encounter is yours. Functionally then, you are the center of your perceptual world. Everything else radiates out from you.

However, that perceptual reality leads us to, sometimes, feel that we really are the center of the universe. And by “we” I definitely mean me. Think about the small situations that happen in life where someone – maybe the boss at work – announces that _____ has been occurring and must stop. The first response most people experience, “It wasn’t me!” Or when we flip the channel and catch the weather report and realize it’s going to be really cold tomorrow, it’s pretty rare for our first thought to not be about how that impacts us individually, even though it’s likely a far more serious issue for someone who is living on the streets.

In online communication, it seems like this can become even more heightened. When the conversation with the boss happens, if there are other people in the room, perhaps that reduces the immediate need for self-defensiveness, because it leaves a small window of possibility that maybe the boss isn’t really talking to you. But, if you are sitting at home, alone, reading that facebook message or blog post that seems to be talking directly to you, it’s easy to forget that there are many many readers and that the writer may not have intended it for you at all.

This might explain, to some degree, the level of defensiveness that happens in online discussions, even on sites that are ostensibly about building community. A writer talks about overly self-righteous yogis and individual readers feel accused and respond from that perspective – even if the writer does not know them and doesn’t seem to be saying that ALL yogis are that way. A mother who is using formula feeding for her infant reads an article about the cognitive/emotional benefits of nursing and feels personally attacked. A man who eats based on a Paleo diet reads a blog post about research on health impacts of animal protein and feels that the author is somehow saying he has made a poorly reasoned choice and responds with anger to the post. And the examples go on and on. I can certainly admit that there are times when I’ve read things online that are positions contradictory to mine and immediately had a defensive or angry response about that claims being made “about me,” and yet the claims really aren’t about me as an individual.

Right about now you might be thinking, “So, what, Lorin? This is all very philosophically interesting (or not), but why should I care?” The underlying point here is that, while the individual-centeredness of our perceptual experience may encourage us to slide into this view of self as the center of everything, when we can’t see it happening, and we respond to messages that contradict our own viewpoints with defensiveness and anger, we lose the opportunity to even approach limited understanding the perspective of the other. And without that, we reduce our potential to grow and change, and the ability to create connection.

The Internet gives us an amazing wealth of opportunity to open our mind’s eye to the experiences of others. We can, however partially, get a glimpse of other ways of being in the world that are vastly different from our own. It’s one of the biggest advantages of this worldwide participatory communication medium. Through online conversation, on discussion forums and blogs and community sites, we have a crazily wonderful potential to widen our perspectives through communication with the diverse other. But, it requires us to be open to “hearing” things that challenge us.

Confirmation of our own viewpoints is a nice thing. And, sometimes we need it. But, without experiencing some non-confirming information, and some alternative perspectives, we stagnate. We can’t develop as individuals or as a community. We risk forgetting that at the end of it all, the universe is about the unity, not about the u.

Human Systems Theory and Yoga Philosophy

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In my interpersonal and family communication classes, I always teach about human systems theory.  I’m a fan of this approach, because it resonates with  me and because it makes sense in the context of communication.  It’s been very interesting, as I’m reading more and more about yoga philosophy, to see how connected the two sets of ideas are.  Really, they say largely the same thing, just with a different set of foci and different terminology.  In this post, I consider the five basic principles of human systems theory and relate them to what I have been reading about the philosophy and theory of yoga.

The basic idea behind human systems theory is that when considering humans, individually or in relationships, all combinations and relationships can be understood using the same overarching theoretical lens, because they are all systems.  Regardless of whether we are talking about one individual, a couple, a family, a classroom, a workplace, etc., each will exhibit the characteristics of a human system, and can be understood in that way.  The five primary features of human systems are:

Wholeness – This is the notion that when parts of a system come together, they take on a “being” that goes beyond any individual and characterizes the whole.  A family is a nice example of this idea in systems theory.  You can think about the individuals in your family, but you can also think about the family as a whole, a thing in and of itself.  It may change with the addition or subtraction of members, but it remains the family.  This concept certainly relates to the idea of the universal being or universal connectedness that is often spoken of in yoga philosophy.  While we may think about each person individually, we are all connected in this overarching oneness that is always there.  It also relates to the connections between the mind, body, and spirit, which may be easily separated in our logic, but are really so interwoven as to be functionally inseparable.

Image by Sweet Little Lies

Interdependence –  In systems theory, the idea of interdependence refers to the fact that a change in any part of the system impacts other parts.  These impacts can be big or small, but they are there.  Again, looking at the example of a family, if I have a bad day at work and go home in a grouchy mood, this is going to impact the other members of my family, even though my work life is not theirs.  Oh my gosh! How connected is this to what many writers about yogic thought have to say?  I don’t even know where to begin!  Everything I do is connected to that universal.  Every action I take impacts the world, like a pebble dropped into a pond that ripples far into the distance.  Even within the body, the breath affects the heart affects the muscles affects the tendons affects the joints and so on.  It’s all connected – it’s all related.

Non-summativity – The most basic way this could be defined is that, when it comes to humans, simple addition will not work to understand a system.  We are right now in the middle of a crazy sports season in Philadephia.  Sports teams are a wonderful example of this principle at work.  You can put 9 “ok” baseball players on the field at once and instead of getting just an “ok” team, somehow you get an amazing team.  Or, you can put 9 outstanding players on the field and somehow end up with just an “ok” team.  At the most basic level, you + me ≠ 2.  We are at least = 3 (you, me, and our relationship).  This is so true from the perspective of yoga philosophy as well.  Think about the eight limbs of yoga.  If we add those things together, we get more than the simple sum of them.  We get something that goes far beyond.  As we sit in a yoga class and OM together, the energy that occurs in that space can take us somewhere that is different than simply a group of people who happen to be practicing yoga in the same place.

Equifinality – This concept of systems theory pretty much means that the path of a human system is not predictable.  Two systems can “begin” in the same place, but “end up” somewhere different and the reverse is true as well.  While we are certainly impacted by our history, we are not bound by it.  While we may be able to make some predictions about the future, they are as likely to be wrong as they are to be right.  Imagine two happy newlywed couples getting married today.  If we check in on them a year from now, their situations are likely to be quite different from one another.  Yogic thought tells us to focus on the now.  The past – it is past.  There is naught that we can do about it (and in all likelihood we are recreating it as we remember it anyway).  The future does not yet exist and to attempt to predict it is futile.  Now is where our attention belongs – in this moment, in this time, in this place – mindfulness of what is going on right now.  A review of all of the different paths and practices of yoga also shows us that there are multiple paths one can trod to move toward an ultimate goal of enlightenment/liberation/unification.

Praxis – And last, but not least, comes praxis.  Praxis is the idea that we are both the subject and object of our own actions.  Everything we do comes back to us in some way.  Every choice we make impacts the future choices available to us.  Praxis also encompasses the idea that through our actions we create the situations that then become our reality – so we create the reality that exists for us.  Karma!  This is karma (though I suppose I wouldn’t be so likely to teach it to my university students with that term).  The idea behind karma is that all that we send into the world – good, bad, or in-between – comes back to us in some form.  Dig it?

I could go on, because I’m really grooving on this connection, but I suppose this post has gotten quite long enough.  It’s just very cool to see another example of two completely distinct areas of study of human experience have come to similar conclusions through different paths.  Nice!

Food for thought, eh?

Namaste,

L

What is Yoga?

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For our second paper in yoga teacher training, we had to answer the following questions: What is yoga? What resonates for you? What challenges you? Are there examples of liberation in our culture that inspire you? How would you explain yoga to a brand new student? Here, I share my answer with you.

Atha yoganusasanam. The question of exactly what yoga is depends upon the particular school of thought from which you approach yoga. However, I would argue that all of these definitions share a common view of yoga as a uniting, and this is what yoga represents for me (more on that shortly). Some perspectives of yoga, for example Jivamukti, posit the unity as one between the practitioner and God. The practices of yoga serve as a vehicle through which one might achieve the yoking of the individual to the divine. Some perspectives, for example Ananda, focus on the increased unification with the wider spiritual consciousness. Iyengar yoga (and some might say Bikram and Power Yoga) address the union of the mind and body, such that they become one. The differences between styles, perspectives, and practices range from subtle to extreme, but it seems to me that the thread of unification is woven through all, and it is this that yoga represents to me.

If asked to explain yoga to a beginner, I would likely say that yoga is a process by which we achieve unity – unity of body and mind, unity of intellect and spirit, and unity with the universal life force. I first began yoga as a physical practice, to ease RA joint pain and develop the muscles around the joints for greater support. As I practiced, following the directions of instructors (on videos at that time), I didn’t consciously pay much attention to any information about the spiritual or meditative aspects of yoga. But, over time, I noticed that when I practiced regularly, I felt more calm, more able to “go with the flow,” and less stressed about myself or others. Eventually, this caused me to start really thinking about what it was in the yoga practice that created these changes for me. Around that same time, I started to attend classes “in real life.” Instructors of those classes spoke more about the spiritual and meditative aspects of yoga, and this, in combination with the changes I was seeing in my own being, encouraged me to read and study more of the philosophy of yoga, and to begin develop my own understandings of it. This view of yoga is something that I have come to gradually over the last few years, and I cannot say that I don’t still find parts of it challenging, as well as compelling.

The ideas of unity with others, connection between all life forms, and a universal life force that flows through us all resonate strongly for me. When I consider, read about, or discuss these ideas, I feel a sense of calm and connection that is wonderful. I am strongly compelled by the idea of liberation – liberation of all voices, all beings, all realities. I believe that we must respect, accept, and protect the lives around us, as we seek to grow in our connections with the universal. The Dalai Lama says: “Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life”

Buddha

Photo by EverydayBalance

While some ideas of yogic philosophy and thought resonate strongly for me, I find that I am still challenged by ideas of the essential self, or the divine expressed as a god/goddess. I’ve spent many years of my life being philosophically trained that there is no essential self. If we were to strip away the veils of culture and belief, there would be nothing left but perhaps the physical. So, when I am in a class and the instructor addresses the notion of breaking through the layers to reach the “real” self, I get sort of… antsy. I’ve also spent much of my adult life working through my understandings of divinity, realizing over time that I experience discomfort in any “embodiment” of divinity in a God (or gods) of any form. Working through how this belief relates to the philosophies and histories of yoga will, I think, continue to be a challenge for me.

That which resonate and that which creates dissonance are not opposites. They are part and parcel of the same (like light and dark, or joy and sorrow). In my own path, I look forward to continuing to examine these issues. And, I look forward to sharing this experience of examination, reflection, and unification with my students some day.