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Hi there all,
Fantastic articles on how homophobia and sexism in religion don't make sense:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/not-another-word-on-gay-m_b_152282.html
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/losing-my-religion-for-equality-20090714-dk0v.html?page=-1
Sexism hurts all of us. Respecting the rights of women and girls will enrich our livess so much more:
It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.
Racism and cultural appropriation. Fascinating info and a gentle look on how Indians see yoga:
http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/680
Some passages from the article above I found to be interesting eye openers:
India, to me, is not spiritual; it is a raucous, exhausting, intense, and yes, at times, violent experience.
Yet I was also curious about the particular form of yoga she was studying, a layer of India with which I am not familiar. I had never met an Indian who went to an ashram; most I knew thought of it as a white person's paradise that cost too much, or it just hadn't crossed their minds to go. At the same time, I knew that yoga was practiced in India, but in subtler, less obvious ways.
Yet yoga was not altogether lost or forgotten; rather it was latent in the culture, sometimes woven into daily and religious life. Yoga, to an Indian, might mean meditation and breathing as part of a morning puja, a practice done quietly at home and without a name. Nearly everyone I spoke with told me the same thing: Yoga was something unremarkable...
The problem he sees--and it's by far the most significant-- is its effect of countering hatha yoga's aim: The heart rate and breath rate are actually increased rather than reduced. All of the teachers I spoke with were concerned about the Westerners misunderstanding yoga. Geeta Iyengar, B. K. S.'s daughter, states bluntly, "Popularity becomes a curse. Popularity introduces dilution. To maintain the purity of the original science and art of yoga is a difficult task. The careful balance between orthodoxy and modernity has to be maintained. However, dilution for the sake of convenience and popularity is not pardonable." Adds Ramanand Patel: "The objection is when these Western influences completely disregard what yoga has to say."
Fantastic articles on how homophobia and sexism in religion don't make sense:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/not-another-word-on-gay-m_b_152282.html
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/losing-my-religion-for-equality-20090714-dk0v.html?page=-1
Sexism hurts all of us. Respecting the rights of women and girls will enrich our livess so much more:
It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.
Racism and cultural appropriation. Fascinating info and a gentle look on how Indians see yoga:
http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/680
Some passages from the article above I found to be interesting eye openers:
India, to me, is not spiritual; it is a raucous, exhausting, intense, and yes, at times, violent experience.
Yet I was also curious about the particular form of yoga she was studying, a layer of India with which I am not familiar. I had never met an Indian who went to an ashram; most I knew thought of it as a white person's paradise that cost too much, or it just hadn't crossed their minds to go. At the same time, I knew that yoga was practiced in India, but in subtler, less obvious ways.
Yet yoga was not altogether lost or forgotten; rather it was latent in the culture, sometimes woven into daily and religious life. Yoga, to an Indian, might mean meditation and breathing as part of a morning puja, a practice done quietly at home and without a name. Nearly everyone I spoke with told me the same thing: Yoga was something unremarkable...
The problem he sees--and it's by far the most significant-- is its effect of countering hatha yoga's aim: The heart rate and breath rate are actually increased rather than reduced. All of the teachers I spoke with were concerned about the Westerners misunderstanding yoga. Geeta Iyengar, B. K. S.'s daughter, states bluntly, "Popularity becomes a curse. Popularity introduces dilution. To maintain the purity of the original science and art of yoga is a difficult task. The careful balance between orthodoxy and modernity has to be maintained. However, dilution for the sake of convenience and popularity is not pardonable." Adds Ramanand Patel: "The objection is when these Western influences completely disregard what yoga has to say."
