Hierarchy and Yoga

You will never be good enough.

Hierarchical Yoga | Rise Up and Out!
About 25 years ago I figured out I had bought into a hierarchical philosophy and practice called yoga. I suddenly saw it to be a non life-supportive, body-shaming and at least for me, a very top heavy framework. Something or someone else was always perfect. The doctrine or the person held power and knowledge that was always out of reach. There was a lot of talk about purity. How does one mange to be “pure” while raising 4 children?

Any engagement and involvement in living was questionable and even very problematic. Where was the lived experience in this, and why was it not included?  The feminine, the mess of nature, the crying baby and the fighting siblings. The dishes! If I cried and mourned, I was not good enough. If I muttered to myself as I did the second load of wash in a day or managed to check out at the grocery store with two crying children. Why was it wrong for me to feel so down?

If there is pain there is also beauty. Sorrow / joy. Love and anger. Passion / rage. All of it was not okay and there I was living in it. When would it be enough?

I found yoga philosophy was riddled with shaming anyone who was not on the direct elevator to the divine “up and out”. Getting caught in the field of action and form was a sure prescription for suffering and was reserved for the less able. The teachings put up a wall, you either retreat and purify or you can wait for your next life. Then maybe you will be worthy of attaining a larger vision.

Its hierarchical and patriarchal form would never incorporate nature’s feminine aspect, the messiness, the sorrows…or the joys. It seemed to me to be all about the “pure” and I knew I must have a lot of “impure”.

And those postures! Where was the feminine-nature in that?
I practiced the postures as if I had to control life—create linear and perfect representations. Strict rules. “Contain yourself! Stop that! Do this! No! Do it better. You will learn. Currently you are not quite good enough, but you will learn. I will teach you. I am smart.” My realization was very stark. I almost quit anything that would be called yoga. But, with four children to raise and support, I still needed to make a living.
Truth.

Body and Nature Friendly, Inclusive, and Non-Hierarchical Yoga | Journey Inward to Engagement and Love
50 years on I finally finally feel the journey into an inclusive, non-hierarchical body and nature loving practice is possible within the framework of yoga. We do need to be careful! There are lots of superficial voices and forces telling us things that are antithetical to life-supportive practice.

What is going on in the wild sprawl of western yoga? What is positive about its influence and what has simply taken on many of the destructive and non-life-supporting aspects of our own western culture?

I know many of us are going to say those days are past. We believe those old oppressive and coercive models are no longer dominant. We think we have evolved past that. Yoga now embraces the feminine…practitioners are mostly women after all!

I would strongly suggest that we delve a little bit further into our motivations.

We have been part of a hierarchical culture for so long it it part of our DNA. It takes bravery and curiosity to go underneath it. Granted I am 71 years old. Granted the culture of oppression was more when I was a girl than it is for you, perhaps. That’s why we are ready to go further. That’s also why I see that the process isn’t done yet. I am talking about how we STILL bring this culture of hierarchy into our thinking and our practices.

I would like us to ask ourselves how our misguided excessive need to be the best and maybe even perfect is a disservice to our entire lives lived in form.
—How this unreasonable aim actually limits our usefulness, our ability to love, and to engage with others in meaningful ways.
—By hoping or pretending to be something none of us—any human will ever be—we completely miss the point.
—How we, the hopeful keepers the feminine aspect’s wisdom, perpetuate the continued dominance of our own internal hierarchy.
—How we waste valuable time ricocheting back and forth between self-loathing and grandiosity.
—How our misconceptions limit our sense of awe and the deep abiding sensitivity to life that underlies our very existence.

Do we inadvertently shun the universal feminine perspective because we have bought into the masculine view of a hierarchical universe? Are you sure?

Okay…you’re right! We do need both!
We still desperately need to learn to deepen our understanding and experience that in fact we are the active arms of the universal.
—That in fact, nothing exists without us.
—That we are the interstitial fluid that supports the sea of life within and without!
—That every particle of body, mind, and nature is nowhere without us.
—We are the substance and the nourishment.
—We are awake, alive and self-aware in every nook, cranny, and cell of our being.

Is that not enough?

You are perfect as you are…and there is always room for improvement.—Shunyru Suzuki

Not better, not worse / not perfect, and not lacking. The planet needs the rising feminine. Let’s insist and raise our voices.