Disrupting Capitalism with What?

our team is being criticized on instagram for hosting a webinar this saturday on yoga, capitalism, and race. you can see the thread here. i decided to chime in and ended up writing a short essay. hope this helps!

A BIPOC-led and centered discussion open to all  Saturday, 29 August 2020, 15:00-17:00 EDT
Community Gift: $5-$50 Preregistration https://forms.gle/b5ptpreeCab9Lir37

The 84 billion dollar yoga industry is in its most fragile position at the moment. Studios are closed, teaching contractors are out of work, and no sustainable plan has been proposed. We witness daily the ravages of the dysfunctional dog-eat-dog economic structure of the yoga industrial complex. Simultaneously, the racism that undergirds our society has never been more glaring. Are there more ethical and sustainable alternatives? How do we correct the intertwined racial and economic inequity in our yoga communities as the pandemic rages on? Can we come out of the pandemic stronger, more equitable, and more sustainable?

Curated by Iyengar Yoga Detroit Collective (IYDC), this online discussion with Hong Gwi-seok, Osiris Feliz, Deidra Demens, Claudia de la Cruz, and Ava Ansari holds space for yoga practitioners, healing justice organizers, somatic artists, teachers, and studio owners to reflect on these critical questions; exchange survival tactics to maneuver the difficulties of the current situation; and speculate on yoga and its role in disrupting capitalism and building toward a better future. We will discuss specific approaches to yoga teaching rooted in yoga as a “public good.” Participants will leave with new visions and tools for assessing and adjusting economic, moral, and communal models for yoga teaching, embracing yoga’s potential to disrupt racist, capitalist structures.

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in the bhagavad gita, lord krishna convinces arjuna to enter into battle in response to the grave injustice committed by the kauravas, who refuse to designate even a handful of villages for their kin, the pandavas. in other words, the kauravas are oppressing the pandavas by hoarding resources. krishna convinces arjuna that it is his duty to enter this fight, regardless of the outcome.

 

unfortunately we see this everyday in the usa and worldwide, and the extreme wealth disparity is only getting worse. all of this is thoroughly documented and can easily be researched. what is our duty as yoga practitioners to this grave injustice?

 

I devote myself to the profound spiritual practice of iyengar yoga. as I awaken parts of my mind and body through āsana, prāṇāyāma, and svādhāya, I become more sensitized to my social mind and my social body as well. this path has led me to become not only more self-aware, but also aware of the collective. for instance, as I am teaching, I cannot help but feel the pain of my students. one has a headache, one has back pain, one is stressed because they are out of work, one lost an uncle to covid19, etc. I cannot cure their suffering, but I can offer a few suggestions: “try this, try that, let me look closer, what about this or that…. “ this is what Guruji modeled for us.

 

after a while I start to connect the dots, and understand the roots of the suffering. for instance the back pain may originate from a trauma, maybe years back. and guess what, their mother had chronic back pain too, and their mother’s mother. I listen to the struggles of my students, friends, and neighbors, and start to see patterns. like the rate of childhood asthma in certain zipcodes, corresponding to heavy industry and the incinerator.

 

so much of the injustice and problems in our cities go back to corporate greed. we have structured our entire nation on the accrual of wealth for a few, and oppression of millions. BIPOC have suffered disproportionately in the usa, starting with our inception as a nation based on genocide of our indigenous population and centuries of slavery. my body experiences injustice as an extreme imbalance, like not being able to balance in Śīrṣāsana when my legs are thrown too far back, and I cannot help but want to correct the imbalance.

 

I cannot overthrow an entire economic system ingrained so deeply in the american psyche that it’s practically invisible, like the air we breathe. but I can find ways in my daily life to resist an abusive system, and share those practices with my community. inch by inch I can extricate myself from participation in corporate greed. I am no purist or extremist. I compromise daily, and this battle will not likely be won in my lifetime. but my dharma is clear. I must do what I can.

 

the yoga industry is not exempt from corporate greed. in fact it is rife with it. we must open our eyes, and stand tall in our strongest Tāḍāsana, and speak out. at the same time, we must create the alternatives. geetaji said we can hold a candle and light the way for ourselves, or we can carry a torch, and take 10 people with us.

 

will you join me? you may well choose not to. we can choose to be ahead of the curve (front line, forging ahead), on the curve (status quo), or behind the curve (lagging back). Guruji was so far ahead of the curve in his life journey, as prashantji reminds us in the punyatiithi, that I know I will never approach such a level of faith, courage, and devotion, but it is the iyengar way to stay in the sacred struggle.