Aren't Tic Tocs really just another word for Front and Back Limbers?

So, as I was saying, can practicing yoga still be practicing yoga if the person practicing it is fixated on the asanas and what his or her body is doing? Or to put it another way, can gymnastics/calisthenics be yoga if they are "done" on a mat?

Not long ago, and I am talking, weeks, I might have said "no way". And before that, I would have said, "Way." And once again, I am back to that. Kind of.

Here is my thinking. If becoming one with a physical action - or set of physical actions - takes you into that zone where your mind no longer speaks loudly enough for you to attach to your thoughts, then THAT, I believe, is yoga, as yoga is defined by Patanjali. Yoga is the quieting of the mind so that the Self can emerge.

The Self is who we really are - unchanged by time, by external events, by that which happens to our body. The Self is within all of us (of course), but some of us never even get close to perceiving what the Self might be. Some who practice yoga have caught glimpses of what it is to feel the Self emerging from the abyss created by the cling and clatter of the Mind. I believe that what it might feel like is a momentary sense of pure perception. Of complete connection with another human being or a part of nature, a wordless sense of wonder.

But most of the time, the Self is almost entirely obscured by the chatter produced by the mind. The methods prescribed by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras - the Eight Limbs of Yoga - are just route to getting to that quieting of the clatter, or, in other words, to yoga. I believe that other methods may get some of us there as well. At least some of the time. And at least temporarily.

See, if a yoga student is fixated on the postures, the effects of the practice may be quite profound while the student is on the mat. But at the same time, the effects may be short-lived, confined solely to the time spent on the mat even. For example, a student whose mind becomes entirely absorbed in the practice while on the mat may indeed come out of practice noticing that there are no thoughts that can be remembered or identified from the immediately preceding 90 or so minutes. That sounds like yoga to me.

However, if upon rolling up is or her mat after practice, that student looks around the room and sees another student (or two or four) practicing, postures that he or she has not yet been "given", then what happens if that student is not practicing the limbs of yoga other than "Asana"? What happens if his or her yoga practice is all about the Asana practice, and not at all about "Asteya", "Satya", "Ahimsa" or any of the other Yamas (or Niyamas)? In that case, the student may find that the thoughts that obscure the Self, that disturb the sense of calm, come bombarding back just as soon as he or she steps off the mat. Once the body is no longer fully engaged in the practice, the mind finds its voice again, and thoughts reflecting competitiveness, greed, desire, aversion can once again be heard.

That is why although some sports are known to be meditative (for example, running, swimming and golf), they aren't exactly "yoga". They provide temporary fixes. In order to acheive longer, more permanent shifts in the balance of Self and Chattering Mind, something more than the engagement of the body seems to be necessary.

For those who practice Asthanga - the Eight Limbed path, we have our road map. What we choose to do with it, that's another story for another day, which might or might not involve a confession of my having called someone an "F-ing Bitch" at the dog run yesterday at a particularly tense moment involving a beagle, a Bagle, two very hungry boys and my naivte regarding the ferociousness of food aggression a hungry hound might direct toward another hound in the presence of two slices of barbecued-chicken-pizza being eaten by his human brothers.

Trust me when I tell you, it's not a nice image. Therefore, I opt neither to confirm nor to deny anyting at this time.

YC

YC