So i woke up this morning to a barred of drivel on FB about "stealing the heritage of another culture to satisfy our unbridled greed and arrogance." because your white. That white people in the west are narcissistic, charlatans and spiritual materialists. (Im sorry i cant even keep a straight face while writing that). And yeah. like everything... you will find these aspects in people in the west teaching yoga. But you will also find these in india.
Being a white woman, a practicing yogini, as well as all the other labels you could accurately impose upon me only ever reaches to a very superficial understanding of my existence. To say that someone who is white, and therefore will make a lousy shaman at best. Has never met, nor explored the teachings/life of Tom Brown Jr and Grandfather. Anyone who says that white people who practice yoga are stealing the indian culture. Do not understand the difference between a spiritual lineage of teachings/ a philosophy, and culture. They do not understand that both shamanism and yoga (tantra/vedanta) do not belong to the colour of your skin., Or the place where you were born. They were held safe from distortion in a part of the world, in a heart of the people there but they belong to the heart of the Divine.
And thats what we as humans are trying to reconnect to. Our own hearts that beat in time with the great mother. Shamanism and Yoga are airily/comfortingly similar. They may have different techniques. Mind based or Nature based. But really the intention for mastery is identical. Many paths, One truth. To understand the whole. To dissolve every part of us that feels separate from the whole. To eventually dissolve into the whole.
Sri Swamiji Satyananda Saraswati foretold that Yoga will be the culture of tomorrow. I pretty sure he didnt think we were all going to be running around in saris with the "shiva's tramp stamp" on our heads. (yes. an indian man actually wrote that in an article while dissing how white women had no place wearing a sari) Not as a culture that is based on skin colour, on caste, on wealth, on creed or geographical birth. But a culture, the human culture.
Do I believe that north america has got it all wrong when it comes to yoga? In short i would say, yes. But lets not through out the baby with the bath-water. We are in the Kali Yuga people. Where people justify wiping out whole races to promote superiority. Things are pretty screwed up. But at least people are trying. Do i like hot yoga? No. I think it really missis the yoga boat. But people have to start someone where. And eventually (maybe not in this lifetime) they will make it to a place where they can really strip down to focus on the actual teachings that will lead them into their highest potential.
Cause really, thats what Yoga, Shamanisim, Druidism or any of the other spiritualities are for... to give us a road map to step into our highest potentials. Not as humans, but as souls. Using this human experience as a testing ground, a launching pad.
So lets talk about spirituality, and the lineages of these ancient traditions not from the human 3D, you/me, black/white, here/there perspectives. But from the perspectives that the teachings actually emanate from, come back to, and embody. The Spirit.
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