yoga as activism
for as long as i can remember, i have always been a peace-loving, music-worshipping, freedom-fighting wild and rebellious hippie … when i was fifteen, i first learned about buddhism and began practicing yoga … when i was seventeen, inspired by these eastern philosophies, i stopped eating “anything that had a mother” (meat, poultry and seafood), adhering to the mutual belief that both of these practices professed to ahimsa — a commitment to non-harming and non-violence … even though today i will quite occasionally eat seafood, i still value the tenet of ahimsa as the foundational establishment of my spirituality : non-violence … non-harming … peace …
when i reflect on the world as it is right now, my heart absolutely shatters … as someone who is literally crying for peace in the world, i join the ranks of others like me who society at large deems to be extremist … when crying for peace is extremist or radical, there is a real problem … houston — new york — tel aviv — gaza city — paris — london — tokyo — sydney — rio de janeiro — mexico city — jakarta — bogota — vancouver — shanghai — bhagdad — world, we have a problem …
our world is so direly sick right now … and when someone is sick, they need medicine … i am certainly not talking about western medicine here … there is no prescription, there is no amount of any drug or quantity of any pills that can heal — or help us escape from — this dis-ease … there is nothing that any pharmaceutical company can offer or sell to fix what is broken (in fact, the pharmaceutical companies sustain themselves through the profitization of dis-ease) … the only medicine that can heal our world is love …
hate spreads like a virus … right now, this virus has become a raging pandemic … this is a virus’ very purpose and necessity : to keep spreading and — subsequently — to breed destruction through violence and division … sadly, tragically — it is working … hatred keeps spreading through violence and destruction, furthering great division … it thusly sustains itself … it is the very sickness that i am writing about … only love can stop it; only love can save us …
the word that keeps coming up in these conversations regarding israel, hamas and palestine is : complex … yes, the situation in the middle east is extraordinarily complex … yes, humanity itself is deeply and intricately complex … yes, all of the world’s many problems and injustices are unfathomably complex … and, yes, the solution is actually remarkably simple : love, peace, ahimsa … this is where and how a yoga practice is activism …
yoga, as a practice, ultimately leads toward liberation (moksha) … philosophically, yoga leads one’s soul to liberate from samsara — the endless cycle of suffering embodied through the processes of birth ~ life ~ death ~ rebirth … the endless cycle of suffering (samsara) remains in sustenance by karma … through the creation of any karma (good or bad), we remain imprisoned in the cycle of samsara … to break this cycle — to stop creating karma — requires action …this is where the philosophy of yoga transforms into a practice — it becomes embodied … and this embodiment through action — this practice — is the path towards liberation (moksha) … therefore, the path of liberation is, in itself, activism …
to engage in this practice is to awaken … this awakening happens by elevating our consciousness so that we can untangle ourselves from the karmic cycles of samsara … in the process of raising our consciousness we begin to really see ourselves, we begin to really see the world that we live in, and we begin to really see ourselves in the world that we live in, which leads to the ultimate realization that everything is connected : we are all connected; we are all one …
to contextualize it in the view of the esteemed buddhist monk thich nat hanh : community is the guru … to reference the timeless quote from the jewish american poet emma lazarus, which has inspired essential civil rights leaders including martin luther king, jr and maya angelou : until we are all free, we are none of us free … there is a reason why this profoundly singular message resonates across many different cultural movements through many different eras : we are all connected … ultimately, this is the universal message of yoga, which derives from the root sanskrit word yuj — to join, to yoke, or to unite …
having a yoga practice, then, means to come together … and just as in this endeavor to liberate ourselves from the perpetual cycles of suffering (samsara) we need to stop creating karma, in order for us to come together we need to stop the division that continues to spread the virus of hatred, which right now has spiralled into an out-of-control pandemic … this, too, takes action … to be a yogi is to be an activist …
for as long as i can remember, i have always been a peace-loving, music-worshipping, freedom-fighting wild and rebellious hippie … as a yogi, my practice has naturally led me towards activism the more i have continued to deepen my practice of it … the message of my activism, just as the message of my yoga practice is simple and crystalline clear : peace and love will save the world … only, humanity is not simple, and the world that we live in is incredibly complex … we humans are so extraordinarily talented at complicating and overcomplicating everything to the point where the savage pandemic of hatred is threatening to bomb and shoot our very existence into extinction …
however, love is eternal … hate can never completely eviscerate love … we are only foolishly creating such horrible karma, forcing ourselves into many more lifetimes and generations of perpetual suffering, when — instead — we could be choosing to forge a collective path of peace and love for this world and for the future of humanity …
this has always been obviously clear to me, only, the atrocities from 7 october 2023 and onward have exacerbated the necessity to do something to spread this message … what is the solution ??? … it is actually simple … every living being needs to begin and to commit to always searching for peace within themselves — only then can there be the possibility of experiencing peace in the world that we live in and share together, as one …
until that happens, though, it is our responsibility to take action towards healing our broken world by battling the pandemic that currently rages and continues to destroy us … the only medicine to cure this dis-ease is love …
#loveismedicine 💖✨️🕊✨️💖✨️🕊✨️💖
~ inspired by and dedicated to my dearest, debby hymowitz
