Can Yoga Help?



August 11th, 2008, a Monday

It's all so complicated.  There's a universe, our world, our country, our state, our neighborhood, our personal lives.  There's a moon, the sun, the stars.  There's water, air and land.  Maybe rather than worrying about all the little things in our tiny world (which can seem bigger than life), we should recognize what a little speck we are in the scheme of things.  That would be a start.  And then we have to figure out where we came from and where we are going when our life here is no longer.  Or do we have to figure it out?  Really smart people have been trying to do that for millions of years.  And for now, we really don't know if any of them got it right.  Some of them sure think they have.  It's all a mystery and maybe that is the way it is supposed to be. 

What I think is hard to figure out is how we are supposed to figure out how to exist within our speckdom.  You need money to survive, for food and shelter and clothing and utilities and cable and cell phones and cars and vacations to get away from how you make this increasingly demanding living that pays for all the above.  That seems to be a circular problem, with one thing feeding another.  It's hard to get off that merry-go-round. 

If you decide the merry-go-round makes you dizzy and isn't good for you, then you can choose the simple life.  I saw on CBS Sunday Morning about how former high powered executives are taking up residence in this northern California Buddhist commune where they don't need money.  They tend the land, eat together, have small dorm type rooms, and wear clothes that, believe me, have absolutely nothing to do with fashion.  They love to talk about how stressed out they used to be and how they don't miss so many e-mails that you can't get to all of them and long commutes and credit cards and materialistic goals.  We can all look at that and say, wouldn't that be great and quiet and peaceful and oh, so simple????  But seriously, would any of us actually do that and feel satisfied?  Not likely.  Wouldn't you miss stuff?  A lot? 

So is it bad to be a modern person, chasing the dream that does have some basis in materialism?  I guess that would depend on what is inside of you.  Take for example, Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.  He made his fortune destroying companies by piecing them out, costing people their jobs and their pride.  Obviously that's not all that honorable.  (Julia Roberts helped him see the light.  Who would have thought a good hooker could lead the way to redemption?)  But if you can see good in how you make your living, or if you do it with honor and treat those around you with respect, then can there be any harm in getting paid for that?  Take Bill Gates, for example.  His professional contribution to the world cannot be measured and he made more money that any of us can imagine.  And now he has retired to put that money to good use around the world, sharing it with others who have nothing.  Now that is a good story.  But how can we compete with that?  We are not Bill Gates. 

I recently saw the new movie, Brideshead Revisited.  For the record, I thought it was one long English bore.  The characters were all either very rich and self absorbed, or very not rich but desperately wanting to be, more than anything.  Lots of blah, blah, blah with English accents.  Lines like "did I want too much?".  As I was watching the elaborate balls and parties with the huge mansions with the big staff and the enormous amount of money that it took to live that way, I was thinking that when they were dead, it wasn't going to matter one bit about what they wore to the ball or who was there and who had the most money.  In fact, as the lady of the house was dying, all she really cared about was getting her son back who was also sick, mostly of the way he was raised with all that crap.  He never did come back before she died.  She should have thought of that, of the love that was overpowered by the crap, when they were both well.  Now that is the important stuff.

Do you think a child would like to have a bigger house in a neighborhood full of bigger houses with two parents who work and commute and are stressed out all the time leaving that child in day care so between school and after school care they are just as tired and stressed out as the mom and dad?  Or would a child rather have a smaller house with a mom who stays home most of the time and sees the child off to school and is waiting at home when that child returns to hear about his or her day?  The truth is actually, that sometimes the child raised mostly by the stay at home mom can turn out really messed up just as the child who learned to love and respect two hard working parents can be a great person.  Think of all those professional athletes who rave about their great moms who worked two jobs and still made loving, decent and devoted single parents. 

So I guess what I am saying is the questions just keep coming and the answers don't seem to keep up.  But that's ok.  It is good to seek the answers.  Sometimes just asking the question is enough.  It shows you get that these are things worth thinking about. 

I was talking about yoga with a friend of mine the other day.  I said that yoga was a workout for the outside and inside of your body.  It was like a massage for your organs.  He said he thought it was a silly scam.  And then I realized that he was such a young person.  His organs aren't really that worn out yet and are doing just fine still under warranty.  And he has a job he loves with no one besides himself to support and can kinda do what he wants when he wants.  So what stress does he really need to manage at this point?  Maybe one day he will just wake up and remember that lone yoga class he took long ago and dismissed so easily.  Suddenly he may get it.  He doesn't have to rush it.  Life gets more complicated as it goes along.  We are supposed to get wiser as it goes and develop more skills as the problems become more challenging.  I didn't try to convince him of his innocence.  Why should I?  We sure don't want him to lose it before it disappears all by itself. 

GR