02/07/2019
Douglas Brooks will be in Des Moines in late-March at Shakti Yoga Des Moines A DB short then longish missive follows in response to, "What is yoga philosophy?"
It is the description and explanation of deep engagement with our human potential---as described in a continuing body of evolving conversation and literature.
The slightly longer version explained goes like this:
My current definition of yoga: deep human engagement committed to evolving our human potential. Yoga philosophy is the conversation devoted to that subject, particularly as it evolves with respect to the word "yoga." Such conversation continues to expand beyond the "traditional" canons, which have always developed in their own social, cultural, and historical contexts.
The basic exegesis of the definition is this: “deep” means it will take effort, time, seriousness; “engagement” is yoga as body, speech, mind, emotion, etc.; “committed” means it requires measures of discipline, love, emotional focus, desire, care; “human potential” allows into the conversation the usual supernormal claims (which I prefer to ignore in Rajanaka but for analysis of them, which means we study them but don't teach them.) This project of the evolving human is a process, not a goal and so we must _learn_ about ourselves to be more of what we can be as human beings. Yoga often resides in the space, the midline, the _disparity or incongruity between_ who we are and who we can imagine ourselves to be. This idea provides sufficient room to (1) problem solve, (2) embrace the paradox as a method itself that defines yoga, and (3) include the integration of the irresolvable (and incomplete, including the shadow). That yoga is “described in a continuing body of conversation” means that the discussion is not limited but that it has provenance, history, contours, and canons---all of which change, evolve, and offer diverse understandings.
