Accessibility of Yoga - History’s Intersection with Current Issues
I love to geek out about the history and philosophy of yoga, and I’m also diving into what accessibility of yoga looks like in a modern context - and what it might mean to balance tradition with inclusivity in today’s Westernized version of the practice. Yesterday I attended an excellent panel discussion hosted by SOAS at University of London called “Yoga, Accessibility and Disability.” Seth Powell of Yogic Studies talked about who yoga is “for,” according to the texts, and presented a few examples of yogis in the texts who were not able-bodied. Melanie Klein of the Yoga & Body Image Coalition added some very important layers of modern context to the conversation, considering the issues of the current moment and what has led us to this point over the past few decades.
While some of the yogic texts indicate that the fruits of yoga are available to anyone willing to dedicate themselves to the practice, many organize the tools into a hierarchy in which some of the more accessible practices (such as chanting mantras) are seen as inferior. Some of them even suggest that enlightenment is only for celibate male practitioners, or that women’s involvement in the practice should be to facilitate a man’s enlightenment. Although many of the true authors are unknown, it’s likely that many of these writings came from the upper castes and should be considered within that context too.
This doesn’t mean we can’t consider how to adapt the practice to be available to a broader audience in our modern world - in fact, we should absolutely be considering this issue from an intersectional perspective. We can study, understand and appreciate a historical text both in its original context and as a way to inform our modern practice. In turn, we should also study, understand and appreciate the ancient practices in a modern context. For example, the aim of yoga practice, according to the texts, is to reach enlightenment and transcend the body and the physical world - but that’s likely not the goal we have in mind when we practice today. For me, the objective is to experience the full depth and breadth of the present moment, merging our body, mind and spirit. It’s an experience not of transcending this world but being completely and totally immersed in it. Is it wrong to use the same tools to reach a different objective than what was originally intended for the practice? (And actually, is it really that different?)
And if you really want to stick to tradition, I find it particularly interesting that the authors of the yogic texts are focused on transcending the physical body, but the collective “we,” modern yogis, seem to be obsessed instead with perfection and purification of our physical form. It seems to me that what’s now become mainstream Western yoga is actually the antithesis of what the tradition intends. (Don’t get me started on how late asana actually shows up in the texts, and when it does, it’s a meditation seat, not an arm balance.) We’re obsessed with the physical body - in a way, we can become trapped by it, the opposite of the liberation we’re supposedly trying to experience through yoga.
But maybe we can find liberation WITHIN the body, not by manipulating it into a certain condition, but by making peace with it, making friends with it, accepting it exactly as it is - no matter what abilities we have or don’t have, no matter what practices are supposed to be acceptable for our social level and race and gender and belief system and whatever else allegedly determines our rightful place in the social strata. Maybe yoga really can be for everyone.
This panel was such a great representation of why we need to study yoga from multiple perspectives. I’m not just a practitioner of yoga, learning through experience, but also a student, a detective, an explorer - examining and analyzing yoga through the various lenses of history, philosophy, anthropology, anatomy, Western medicine, ancient healing traditions, and complex social hierarchies. None of these perspectives are complete on their own, and our knowledge and understanding of yoga only benefits from learning from all these diverse points of view. We can’t ignore our current cultural context and insist on following traditions that perpetuate oppression of some groups, but we also have to be careful not to deviate too far from tradition to be appropriative.
This article was first posted on Instagram on January 28, 2021.
