Paradox is everywhere and life is confusing. Sometimes we replace one paradox with another paradox and feel like we’ve grown or changed. We tend to do this all the time: new person, but same relationship dynamics. New diet, but same wrestling with our feelings via food. New job, same attitude.
“What is the difference between going down a rabbit hole and a spiritual journey? ”
When it comes to yoga, the apparent paradoxes are all over the place, and the ability to pick up a new thread or new idea is tempting. But I don’t think yoga is about paradoxes so much as it is about resolving paradox. What’s more important, I think humans are capable of change, rather than merely reshuffling the deck. How now and what?!, you should be wondering.
The Bhagavad Gita can often feel like a mystery: a compendium of paradoxes. How can we do our work but not care about outcome? How can self realization end suffering in the world? How can fighting our fight lead to inner peace? How can there be something eternal and unchanging in us, if everything is literally change? Reading it independently leaves folks - as it left me - with a sense of oh that is so beautiful, but I don’t understand it.
Here is one such paradox: I think it’s enough to think something beautiful and not understand, because beauty itself is healing, AND I think misunderstanding can lead to projection if we’re not careful. This is how religion becomes harmful.
Resolution here is a fine and subtle distinction, mostly in keeping our misunderstanding in front of us and being willing to reduce it.
AKA, ongoing learning.
Here’s the next paradox: the Gita is so rich, there are so many possible discoveries in every tiny passage and backstory, that we could spend years ‘exploring’ but not really learn anything at all.
Resolution is possible there, too. Again, it has something to do with right relationship to beauty and humility. It also has something to do with consistency (accountability? Stability? Growth?) in a student teacher relationship and a consequent personal practice. But the 4 years, then 6 years, then 3 years, then starting all over again method of study I’ve done personally (rabbit hole or spiritual journey, depending on how you look at it) is not something realistic for most folks at this time in this world.
Years and details aren’t required for healing and understanding, either.
I’m trying to present the Gita in a way that meets the great pain and confusion of our current world. Very come as you are, no commitment required, there is something valuable to even a little. To uplift the beauty and keep the humility in front of us, while creating a frame for folks to be consistant in self care and soul work.
My motive is largely to help discern the context so that folks don’t get lost in the details or detours. To point out the big picture that folks often can’t see for the wealth of details.
Book Two, Sankhya Yoga, for example, has a narrative thread:
Initiation and asking for help. The beginning of yoga.
Presentation of the yoga philosophy: you have a soul. The end.
Insistence that philosophy has to be applied in life: Yoga is skill in action.
Which lays the foundation for book three: karma yoga or yoga in action (Monday June 2, join us!).
Of course, each one of my bullet points can be a pandora’s box. It is supposed to raise personal questions and make us think. It’s supposed to prompt furtherness, rather than a final answer.
It’s book three, the introduction to yoga, that drops words and questions about ‘karma yoga’, ‘jñana yoga, ‘bhakti yoga’. At first, this discernment of different ‘kinds’ of yoga feels exhilarating. It affirms different aspects of who we are. But I also think we can miss the point, there: there is only one yoga. Action, knowledge, and devotion are different aspects of the same thing.
What is the difference between going down a rabbit hole and a spiritual journey?
I have some ideas. A rabbit hole is preyas (that which satisfies or relieves immediate need for distraction or numbs us out) while a spiritual journey is shreyas (that which might be uncomfortable or difficult in the moment but inclines us toward truth, like doing ten minutes of studying a language is tedious but required for mastery, or doing the dishes is unpleasant but leaves a clean feeling and us better prepared for the next meal or day).
But I think it’s just a useful question to ask yourself: is this a rabbit hole? Ask today, but ask yourself tomorrow too. Thus: learning rather than mere distraction. Self as the common denominator.
You can, if you like, catch up on the first three videos. But you don’t have to ‘catch up’. You are welcome to join us at any time, and I will catch you up in real time. That’s my job, not yours.
All the recordings and info are here.