Yoga! And Women! Of course!

According to my sister, today is the 333'd day of the year and we have 33 days left.  So I guess there are 366 days this year? Anyway, this has very little to do with the following post but it is interesting!

Chris and I just finished dinner and retired to "the gold couch",  our living room couch where we work out all the great problems and joys of the "world according to Karen and Chris".

As usual, Yoga was one of the subjects of discussion. And not for the first time, I was twisting around in my mind, trying to negotiate - as a studio owner and teacher trainer - my responsibility to teachers I have trained and my relationship to the "Branding of Yoga" (Iyengar, Ashtanga Vinyasa, Bikram, Anusara, etc.). Once again I was trying to locate myself in this relationship as well as within the greater context of the deep and ongoing lineage of grace and wisdom that IS Yoga.

And then Chris said something that just blew me away:

"Yoga is to the emergence of the human spirit as midwifery is to the emergence of new life. 
And Yoga is to Brand  as Midwifery is to the medicalization of birth".

That is it EXACTLY!

There is so much power and potential and pure raw shakti in the bringing forth of new life, that a practice like midwifery (which involves itself with this great work) can become a  target for any sort of entity that would like a steady inflow of energy, power and money.

In a similar way, there is so much power and potential and pure raw shakti in Yoga - a method designed to birth Consciousness -  that it has become a great target for any sort of entity that would like a steady inflow of energy, power and money.

Midwifery has always been brought forward by women, many of whom were burned at the stake or driven out of business. Now, and for the first time in it's history, Yoga is being brought forward by women. What women have to say - and the Consciousness and Life that they are bringing forward - has come to a point in history where it cannot NOT be heard.  Its a watershed moment....critical mass.

Relevant to this: peopel have worried or wondered out loud to me - if being outside of a "brand of Yoga" will mean that one can no longer teach the way they have been teaching.

Well!  Listen! (and here's another analogy). If I were a midwife, I would be SO very dedicated to the support and safety and love of the mother as well as the new life coming through, that I would use the most intelligent and graceful and proven of principles in service to bringing that life through.  And nobody would own those principles. How could they?!

"The great midwife of Consciousness" - the great Mystery - is SO very dedicated to the support and safety and love of every sentient being - each of us a mother to the birth of Consciousness - that She uses the most skilful of techniques: Yoga in all its intelligence and grace and proven principles to bring that life through.  And nobody owns that. How could they possibly?!

Thank you Chris. Behind this particular Yoga woman is a very good man.