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Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Dialogue between philosophers and I, who is doing yoga.

              Last summer, I’ve gotten a license of yoga instructor.

              What is the meaning of “having a license” of yoga?

Certificate of RYT200
              I think license is the farthest from the heart of yoga. The existence itself is full of contradiction.  

              The license gives us a kind of “guarantee”. Guarantee that you can teach yoga.

              However, yoga is not what we can get such a guarantee.

              Guarantee that we can feel at ease with specific thing is farthest from yoga.

              Yoga is an only process that we care about our “own” body and mind.

             For good or for evil, yoga has too many methodologies including variety of poses, breathing techniques, meditations, cleansing processes…

              This is, in a sense, a kind characteristic of yoga. If you go to Zen temple, you will be just told “just sit in silence”. This “unkindness” is very different from yoga.

              This “kindness” of yoga, however, is plenty of traps in another way. We usually misunderstand that yoga gives us a way that we can follow.

              In reality, we have no choice but to make the way by ourselves. Practicing yoga is not following a methodology named yoga. Practicing yoga is not wearing shoes named yoga, but making shoes suitable for each of us.

              If you are bound the rules of yoga, it is farthest from yoga.

              Therefore, we cannot be qualified by license. Even if you find a specific methodology, you cannot feel at ease by it. Strictly speaking, it is impossible to teach yoga.

              Imannuel Kant, a famous philosopher said,

We cannot learn philosophy. We can only learn to philosophize.

              Similarly, we can say like this,

We cannot learn yoga. We can only learn to do yoga.

Formally, I can stand a position to teach yoga thanks to the license, but I cannot teach yoga. I cannot “learn yoga” by others as well.

              If anything, we can learn the “attitude” to do yoga humbly.

              We usually seek some methodologies so that we can feel at ease by following it. However, this attitude is an abandonment of liberty and becoming “slavery” of methodology that someone else made.

              Friedrich Nietzsche may say like this,

Discard methodologies and live by yourself!
Overcome “weakness” to seek something to follow and be strong!

I practice yoga to make me free.

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