{"id":4463,"date":"2007-05-25T14:32:31","date_gmt":"2007-05-25T19:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=4463"},"modified":"2007-05-25T11:35:39","modified_gmt":"2007-05-25T16:35:39","slug":"warrior_pose_co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/25\/warrior_pose_co\/","title":{"rendered":"Warrior pose, corpse pose"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back when I took yoga classes regularly there was one teacher whose classes were too early on a Saturday morning for me, but who was one of the best teachers around. She was great at explaining things, had really excellent form, was really present in the moment … oh yeah, and she was really hot. <\/p>\n\n

Given how incredibly healthy she seemed, I was surprised to find out that she was 8 years HIV+ . There are a number of reasons for her health – she was an athlete before she was infected, she was on ARVs, but she gave a lot of credit to her yoga practice. She taught a class for the HIV+ which probably increased the quality and also possibly the quantity of their lives.<\/p>\n\n

I concede up front that Yoga can be a very important thing for people whose lives have great challenges<\/em> (as American PC-speak would put it). <\/p>\n\n

Still, there’s a time and a place for everything. I’m a bit weirded out by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar<\/a>‘s proposal to bring Yoga to the war torn Iraqi city of Najaf<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

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That does look like Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I) to me<\/p><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n\n

Maybe I’m reacting a bit harshly. The Art of Living<\/a> foundation does work in a number of different war zones<\/a> teaching yoga as part of their “peace work.” It’s just that people’s needs are so large, and given the opportunity costs involved I would rather see efforts directed towards the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs<\/a>. In short, I can’t imagine teaching corpse pose to people whose main worry is avoiding becoming a corpse themselves, teaching the Art of Living to those whose worry is the Art of Dying. <\/p>\n\n

On the other hand, I’m far more favorably inclined towards the Indian Army’s yoga classes in Lebanon:<\/p>\n\n

In the village of Ebel es-Saqi, in the farm country of Southern Lebanon, a new subject is being taught at the local middle school: yoga. The instructors are from the Indian army, members of the U.N. peacekeeping force. Three times a week, Lt. Col. Rajesh Kumar of the 1st Battalion Punjab Regiment instructs about 50 students and their teachers at the school. [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p>There’s no substitution here – you have peacekeepers providing security already, so yoga classes are a bonus, a way to win over hearts and minds. They’re also teaching yoga in a post-conflict situation rather than a hot war.<\/p>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p>The philosophic impulse behind these two programs seems very similar:<\/p>\n\n

Kumar pioneered the popular classes based on exercises he requires for his troops. “The man who is eternally at peace can contribute to peacekeeping much more,” he says. [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p>but the execution is far better in the second case. I’m happy to learn warrior pose from a warrior. Especially if they bring Mithai afterwards .\n

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Winning hearts, minds and stomachs Punjabi style<\/p><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n

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p><\/p>\n\n

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Back when I took yoga classes regularly there was one teacher whose classes were too early on a Saturday morning for me, but who was one of the best teachers around. She was great at explaining things, had really excellent … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4463"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}