An education in Yoga that erases its roots and sets up a curriculum for secularized sale
- In History & Culture
- 01:24 PM, Dec 26, 2016
- Kathleen Reynolds
The California Supreme Court of the Court of Appeal’s ruling: summary and highlights from the full appellate opinion[1] |
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“...the Sedlocks alleged that the District's implementation of an Ashtanga yoga program as a component of its physical education curriculum violated various religious freedom...The Sedlocks' initial petition/complaint did not expressly name the Encinitas Union School District as a defendant. However, in April 2013, the Sedlocks filed an amendment to their petition/complaint adding the Encinitas Union School District as a named defendant… An entity called Yes! Yoga for Encinitas Students...filed a motion to intervene in support of the District and its yoga program. |
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...Ashtanga yoga is a form of yoga developed and popularized by K. Pattabhi Jois. According to Jois, the meaning of yoga is explained in a series of Hindu texts, including the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and Yoga Sutras. Jois first established an institute for the teaching of Ashtanga yoga in India in the 1940s, and introduced Ashtanga yoga in the United States after traveling to Encinitas in 1974. As developed and popularized by Jois, Ashtanga yoga prescribes eight limbs. The limbs are referred to as yamas (moral codes), niyamas (self-purification), asanas(postures), pranayana (breath control), pratyahara (withdrawing the mind from the senses), dharana (concentration), and samadhi (union with the divine). Ashtanga yoga prescribes approximately 100 yoga poses, including two series of opening poses, two series of poses characterized as either primary or intermediate, and a series of finishing poses... ...According to the trial court, the Foundation...is a foundation with a ‘mission to establish and teach Ashtanga yoga in the community, at minimum, the physical postures, breathing, and relaxation…
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Author’s note: in this part of the court document, there is an egregious error -- the description of “Ashtanga yoga” herein conflates Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga -- a system of modern postural yoga popularized by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, a discipline of Sri Krishnamacharya -- with Ashtanga, the eight-limbed path codified in The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. In fact, Dr. Mark Singleton in his declaration describes the development of the system of Ashtanga Vinyasa.[2] However, the two -- Ashtanga Vinyasa (and its postural sequences as a part of that system) and Ashtanga, the eight-limbed path -- are not distinguished from one another in this part of the court document. The record notes that it was Jois who “developed and popularized” the “eight limbs.” No, Sri K. Pattahbi Jois popularized Ashtanga Vinyasa. The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali codified the eight-limbed path. One other error that should be noted is that the court record here leaves out one (the seventh) of the eight-limbs: dhyāna (meditation). While this may seem like an insignificant omission in the record, it actually points to something much bigger: that is, that within the The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, “when dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi are performed together, ekatra, on an object, the act of concentration is called saṁyama. Vyāsa [commentator on The Yoga Sūtras] uses the term tāntrika to describe his, and, certainly, the tantras are a body of texts that, among other things, deal with the types of mystic powers that occupy the bulk of [chapter III]” (E. Bryant).[3] The linking of these three points to two significant things: (1) that any one of all eight-limbs cannot simply be de-linked from the others; and (2) that the limbs prior to the final three are considered preparatory to saṁyama. And here is where the significance of how the physical practice of āsana needs to be considered in context of the other limbs, not to mention the significance of considering The Yoga Sūtras in the context of other Yogic texts: “Although the entirety of yoga is typically understood and presented as āsana, physical posture, in the popular representations of the term in the West, it is actually only the third limb of yoga, not an end or goal unto itself...Patañjali has relatively little to say about āsana, leaving us with only three sūtras on the topic consisting of a total of eight words...However, we should not conclude that this limb is irrelevant. That Patañjali does not give more detail about specific āsanas does not mean he considers them unimportant practices for yogīs. One could also suppose that other extant texts concerned themselves with the specifics of āsanas...An elaboration of āsana is not undertaken here, because our subject matter is rāja-yoga and a full and detailed treatment of this subject is to be found in works on haṭha-yoga. Essentially, posture is a limb of the actual goal of yoga to the extent that it allows the meditator to sit firmly, sthira, and comfortably, sukha, for meditation...āsana’s relevance and function for the classical Yoga tradition are to train the body so that it does not disturb or distract the mind of the yogī in any way when sitting in meditation...The point is that yogic postures are useful only to the extent to which they facilitate fixing the mind completely.” (E. Bryant)[4] |
...In July 2012, the District presented the Foundation with a grant proposal....that stated in part: ‘The following puts into place a partnership between the . . . Foundation and the . . . District . . . to deliver a world class mind/body wellness program at all nine Encinitas elementary schools. The core foundation of this program will be built around providing students, staff, and families access to Ashtanga Yoga on a regular basis throughout the year.’ The grant proposal further specified that...classes would be taught by ‘certified yoga instructors, selected and hired by District staff and trained by . . . Foundation teachers.’ The grant proposal also provided that the District would develop a yoga curriculum that would be ‘scalable and transferable to other settings.’... |
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As the District began implementing the program, some parents complained that the program was religious…The District responded by [:]
remov[ing] anything considered [a] cultural component [b] or that could be arguably deemed religious. Jennifer Brown's Ashtanga tree poster was removed almost immediately...[10] All Sanskrit language was removed. Jenn Brown took down . . . postcards from India. The names of the poses were changed to kid-friendly, kid-familiar poses. The so called 'lotus' position, was renamed 'criss-cross applesauce.' There was something called a mudra, which is where you put your thumb and your forefinger together. That was eliminated, and instead what was substituted was something called ‘brain highway’ where students tap alternate fingers with their thumbs. And there was no namaste or chanting 'om.'
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“The philosophy not just in schools but in the educational systems in general, when they do any kind of cultural work, you can either take an anti-racist or anti-oppression viewpoint on it, or a multicultural approach to it. Most schools and districts take a much more multicultural approach and just sort of blend things and bland things...but you’ll get some groups of teachers and educators that take a more anti-racist/anti-oppression, justice-focused approach to working with [issues of cultural diversity]. And that’s a whole different take because you’re actually working with human right’s issues. I think if Yoga is brought into a school and the teacher or the group of people who are bringing it in have that social justice perspective, then I think it would have a different way of being presented, maybe more authentic.”[5] - Joanna Krop, interviewee |
C. The District's yoga program passes the Lemon test 1. The religion at issue It is undisputed that Hinduism is a religion. We assume, without deciding, that Ashtanga yoga, insofar as it prescribes the practice of an eight-limbed form of yoga in which the eighth and final limb is ‘union with the universal or the divine,’ is a religion...Accordingly, we apply the Lemon test to determine whether the District's yoga program advances Hinduism or Ashtanga Yoga…
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“Yoga is essentially Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) in practice.” [and] “Westernized Yoga has basically plucked the Asana/Pranayama activities due to their utilitarian value and calls them Yoga. While not totally inaccurate, it is an incomplete definition -- and leads to many essential parts of Yoga being rendered 'irrelevant' or marginalized, except where the teacher has enough rigor and commitment to insist on a holistic treatment/teaching. From a Patanjali Ashtanga perspective: of the Bahirangas (outer limbs 1-4), only 3 and 4 are emphasized -- since the 1st (Yama) & 2nd (Niyama) won't fly easily with the paying student/client in the western model. The Antarangas (limbs 5-8: Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi) are mostly ignored, or trivialized -- with their inherent subjectivity turned into an 'anything goes,’ 'feel good' pop psychology. There are also many sincere attempts to recast them in western garb for easy consumption, but most seem to change the original entity beyond recognition.” - Karigar Medha, interviewee |
2. The District's yoga program has a secular purpose. The Sedlocks do not contest that the District's yoga program has a secular purpose. Further, the record contains overwhelming evidence demonstrating that the District instituted the yoga program for a secular purpose, namely, to implement a physical fitness program that promotes physical and mental health... ...The court summarized a typical lesson plan as follows: ‘There is a physical component . . . and there is a character component. And there is a famous person and quote that is to be focused on. The quotes are not religious. As examples, one of the famous persons is Babe Ruth and his quote was, 'Every strike brings me closer to my next home run,' and that's for the subject of 'Perseverance.'... Then the curriculum indicates a breathing exercise. The teacher can choose a couple. Dragon breath, belly breathing, floating arms, connect breath with movement, kite, cat, cow. And then the posture is 20 minutes...The curriculum suggests to the teacher, 'Before the closing sequence, take a moment to check in with your students.'...And then the closing sequence: Telephone, pretzel, butterfly, flower, turtle, criss-cross applesauce, and rest. |
“I believe that most severe departure [between ‘traditional’ Yoga and contemporary, Westernized Yoga] we often see, is the ego-driven assumption that is made when someone decides ‘I can make up my own rules, my own teachings, my own ‘principles’, and can package it with a new perhaps clever label and sell it as “yoga’. A subtle but more insidious version of this is when someone decides they can make up their own meaning to existing yogic terms, and promote it within their yoga teachings. Any indication that a yoga teacher, with or without several hundred hours of certification training, can partially dismantle then reassemble teachings of asanas or make up their own variations of pranayama, should be a red flag of caution to students.” - Bill Francis Barry, interviewee ---------- “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter [if people want to do all of these different things without going back to the traditional sources], you just need to change the name of what you are doing. It’s fine...But it needs to be disassociated from traditional Yoga. It’s not Yoga.” - Tony Wilmot, interviewee |
** italics, bold and highlighting added by author |
** Update: In June of 2016, following the conclusion of this case and all that was set as precedent insofar as the secular definition of Yoga and the erasure of its dharmic roots,The Encinitas school board “approved a plan to spend $416,000 in the next school year on a health and wellness program that must include at least one day of yoga instruction per week.” (source: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-yoga-school-20160622-snap-story.html). That which is left out of this announcement is the bigger backstory as to the Encinitas case that effectively secularized Yoga and which also carried the orchestrated offshoot which guaranteed the stripped-down curriculum would also require Yoga teachers to be “certified.” Yoga Alliance, of course, played this perfectly so that their name was the only one recognized as authentic with regards to certification (and by those with deep pockets who could deal out contracts in the hundreds of thousands that mandated Yoga instruction in the schools) … very convenient for Y.A., of course -- and more than a little ironic, given that YA’s advocacy efforts depend on them denying that there is any one source of authenticity in Yoga.
This is part 2 of series on Challenges faced by Yoga in modern world. You can read part 1 here https://www.myind.net/adharmic-alliance-how-ivory-tower-helped-yoga-alliance-certify-yoga-secular-and-detach-hindu-roots
[3] Excerpt From: Edwin F. Bryant. “The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014-12-17. iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/L7cN4.l
[4] Excerpt From: Edwin F. Bryant. “The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014-12-17. iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/L7cN4.l
[5] Vamadev Shastri’s (David Frawley’s) article “The New Masks Of Colonialism : India’s Final Conflict” on Hindu Human Rights is a must-read on the topic of http://www.hinduhumanrights.info/the-new-masks-of-colonialism/
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