‘Please don’t confuse it with Yoga’

Our Ashtanga teacher in Los Angeles, Jörgen Christiansson, posted an update on Facebook on Sunday that caught our attention (and that of a couple dozen other people).

If you’ve been reading the Countdown for a little while, you will know that we agree whole-heartedly with this:

Wine, Chocolate and Lingerie Yoga?
To all you people who might be just starting out your journey on the path of Yoga. There’s a lot of confusing information these days, where “yoga teachers” are marketing Yoga in all kinds of strange ways.
Yoga is a practice that teaches us to gradually still the mind.
It teaches us to break free from our continued dependence on stimulation from our sense organs.
Sense stimulation will always ultimately end up being a painful experience, since we develop a dependence on it. If we could view life as one single moment and experience, without any attachment to it, or any expectations of anything being repeated, it would be a different story.
By gradually learning to turn ourselves inward instead of outward, we will allow our minds to become quiet. In that stillness we can realize our true “self” (Atman), and Its connection with the Divine.
That state, is YOGA.
Drinking wine, eating chocolate or posing naked or in your underwear might sell and be fun sense stimulation, but please don’t confuse it with Yoga
Thank you for your time,
Jörgen

Hari Om

There’s no doubt Jörgen is doing with us what he can to turn us inward. I’m sure he feels like he’s got a frustratingly long distance still to go (or doesn’t feel frustrated, since he does yoga, but knows he’s got a long ways to go).

Posted by Steve