Is yoga just about manipulating your spine?

Recently someone said something to me and I immediately noticed something shifted in how my body was feeling. I felt uncomfortable. A “felt sense” of dis-comfort. First I felt embarrassed, then insecure and then anxious. I realized later, that someone was trying to manipulate me. Can “I” be manipulated?

I have been giving this quite a bit of thought for several reasons. First, I am often in a position in my job where I am trying to help people understand how to change (or is it manipulate?) the systems they have set up in their school building for kids. Secondly, what on earth does this have to do with our yoga asana (posture) practice? Thirdly, I am wondering if we truly know who “we” are if it is even possible for “us” to be manipulated.

At work, I often find myself at a table full of people challenging belief systems about what is the best course of action to support kids. I know, especially on a Sunday afternoon when I am NOT at work, all of these people, the ones I adore and the ones I don’t adore, each want what is best for kids. Am I trying to manipulate them into believing what I believe? Am I trying to convince them I have the answer? I have come to the conclusion if I am at the table offering what I know to be true, without any expectation of people changing their minds or agreeing with me, then I am not manipulating. Not manipulating comes with a sense of equanimity, a sense of calmness, dispassion and peace. When I am trying to manipulate, knowingly or not, I am at the table with an “I have the answer” belief lurking under the surface of my squeaky voice. When I am trying to manipulate, I have a sense of conviction, I am passionate, and I present with a sense of cockiness lurking underneath a face of cool collectedness. In addition, when I am trying to manipulate, my dislike for certain individuals is way to apparent. Wow. Who wants to work with the manipulator? Ick! We don’t have to study the Bhagavad Gita or the Yoga Sutra much to know the importance of giving up the fruits of our actions. Apparently, living our yoga practice means not manipulating and giving up the fruits of our actions, even at work! So, this means at work there would not be the effort to convince, or manipulate…rather, just offering what I believe to be true and useful and then letting go…offering up the work that has been done (the fruits of the labor) to something bigger than myself.

Manipulation is somehow connected to our asana practice? Really? We can get on our mats and manipulate the spine, we can stretch it and we can twist it. However, how can this connect to our minds? Well, it seems that the more we are on our mats, the more we are in tune with what our physical body is telling us. The body is always talking, but are we listening? I know I watch people practice who push their bodies and let their minds guide their practice. In my observation, these people either injure themselves, they get bored with the practice and/or they stop getting on their mat. I also have the opportunity to watch people practice who listen to their body and not their minds. It is a practice guided by the body that ultimately leads us to have the ability to hear and follow our “felt sense” off the mat. I believe if we are in tune, if we have been practicing listening to our bodies on the mat, we will know when our body is telling us someone is trying to manipulate us when we are off the mat. It’s quite a gift if we choose to accept it.

Having said all of that, there is another road to take as we look at this question of manipulation. As I always find when I take the time to dive a bit deeper, we need to come back to inquire about who this “me” is…who this “I” is. As we read in the sutras, this “I” can not be affected, cannot be changed, is ever present. Then how could “I” ever be manipulated? We can’t escape this part of the equation. And, honestly, why would anyone ever want to escape it? It is the bottom line that we can come back to-this realization that “I” cannot be manipulated is what takes us beyond our little pea brains and beyond our petty indifferences, beyond our worries and concerns to realize who we are at our core. More importantly, it brings to the surface that who we are cannot be manipulated.



REFERENCE
If you are interested in referring to the Yoga Sutra, you might want to check out:
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: Based on the Teaching of SRIVATSTA RAMASWAMI by Pamela Hoxsey.
The text she has put together also includes a CD of her chanting the entire Yoga Sutra.
SriVatsa Ramaswami was Sri Krisnamacarya’s longest standing student outside of his own family. Pamela has studied extensively with Srivatsa Ramaswami. She can be contacted through her address: 1503 Seward Street, Evanston Illinois 60202.