Friday, September 23, 2022

Culture of Critique

I had some obstacles to overcome to do yoga. The centre I went to taught very traditional Sivananda Yoga. Sivananda himself was a medical doctor who lived in India. Then when he moved on to his yogic path, he spent a few years doing Tapas. Living a simple life off the generosity of strangers, while wandering and thinking. He then he started an Ashram and mixed his medical life with yoga. He took on some disciples and started a community called the Divine Life Society. 

Now growing up, I had my own experiences with what we called the Hari Krishnas. I remembered people wearing orange who kind of give you a flower or a book ”for free”. Then you feel reciprocal obligation to give them some money in return. I honestly didn't know a lot about the Hari Krishna movements. But what I did know came from a place of fear. The belief that it was almost culty. 

I grew up in a religious Christian environment and I mainly went to the Methodist and Baptist Church. I had a difficult relationship with religion, because it was very much a part of my life growing up. It was my received truth, but received truth with a culture of critique. You can see how the philosophy of western science developed out of a belief in a single truth, because it meant that you could go quite hard at it. It meant that if you did not understand, the fault lay with you. That the truth was true. It does not matter how hard you go because you are not going to dislodge it. And I did go hard.



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