I once almost beat that man to death after he groped a good friend of mine.
Everyone at the time thought I was way out of line. I guess I should have; he is a pile of shit. I hope he gets it back - in prison. Puns intended.
Hot Yoga is about as spiritual as a gym. Oh my gosh, a douche at the gym who thinks heās deep and has fooled some people into believing it? And he turns out to be a rapist? Predators man, they like followers.
I hope his karma catches up with him.
Iāve always disliked yoga as a concept. All the woo-woo spiritualism-for-profit is a hugs turnoff for me. Still it falls under the umbrella of there being no accounting for taste. The problem is that like any quasi-religious structure, be it a yoga studio or the US presidency, is ripe for abuse and will generate underlings and followers eternally willing to look the other way. The article made me dislike yoga even more. All of its cultish idiosyncrasies make me sincerely wonder what it adds to stretching.
To be clear, Iām not blaming yoga for the guy being a shit, Iām blaming it for breeding a safe place for him.
Prison rape jokes are part of the problem. Youāre not helping. Youāre furthering rape culture. There are other ways to punish people. More rape and violence is not one of them. As someone who has been sexually assaulted and raped herself, I implore you to consider your words more carefully. I do not want this kind of āsupportā. It is not at all helpful and indeed it just makes it worse.
Iām curious: have you ever tried yoga?
Yes, and Iāve practiced martial arts for years. The latter is kind of bullshit too, but itās decidedly less ā¦ woo, for lack of a better word. (Though I have visited a school or two thatās heavy on the Bullshido.) Iām not saying yoga doesnāt feel nice, but itās like chiropractic. Its origins and to a certain extent, its current practice is tied to decidedly supernatural notions. Thatās just a giant turnoff. Hell, even if you drop whatever spiritual element there is, tell me youāre hosting stretching, exercise, and relaxation classes, and Iām not going to show up as it is. I know how to stretch, exercise, and relax.
Have you ever tried Zoomba? Not that there is -any- overlap in the studio attendance.
Huh, OK. De gustibus, I guess. Or maybe Iām going to yoga classes with a whole lot less incense and chanting than you were.
They come in all kinds. You can definitely find yoga classes that are all about breathing, stretching and balance. You can also find ones where the person doing it thinks it is a deep spiritual experience.
Unsurprisingly, you can find some that are an excuse for the instructor to find rape victims.
But if Bikram Choudhury is facing, ānew claimsā of rape and sexual assault, this reminds me of a recent brilliant remark by Jay Leno (of all people) on Bill Cosby: āIn Saudi Arabia you need two women to testify against a man, apparently in America you need 25.ā How many āclaimsā of rape and sexual assault is it going to take?
Yoga is a spiritual and physical practice.
American yoga is zoomba.
the Beatles classic Sexy Sadie being about a guru, who was given trust, and took advantage.
This paradigm is not uncommon.
My now young adult daughter is very very good at martial arts. Twice now in two different schools in a town in England she has found the male leaders of the ādojosā have a real problem with her personally. The first one actually physically attacked her, after the Master of the entire discipline they were learning, at the central dojo in Japan, favoured her over him, bestowing her with a special name - a rare privilege.
Her visiting āschoolā leader completely lost it with her back at the hotel room. She defended herself and prevented the situation from escalating then left and had to adapt to spending the rest of the visit alone in Japan.
Back in England - no apologies, no remorse. And now she had nowhere to train.
Recently she found another school. And the same shit is happening. The āleaderā of this school has already singled her out in an utterly unprofessional way and itās obvious he has a problem with her.
This is the danger of people who are not spiritually developed adopting disciplines that are associated with spirituality, personal moral development and, well, discipline. Any person with low motives can do the moves, then completely misuse that power.
Itās so frustrating for her. I asked her if maybe she could start her own school, because it seems there isnāt actually one that is run by someone who is personally or morally equipped to handle such a responsibility.
Generalize much?
I donāt even know what you mean by āAmerican yogaā since so many different variants are practiced both here and in other countries including India. Come to think of it, when you say āyogaā are you referring to all eight limbs of Patanjaliās system, or are you just referring to asana, which is how most people use the term?
Iāll certainly grant you that some of the variants taught here in the U.S. arenāt much different from aerobics or stretching, but this is not universal. IMO it is not a requirement to embrace all the āsupernatural notionsā that ActionAbe is so offended by in order to have a yoga practice thatās something other than aerobics and stretching. Itās also not necessary to dwell on the āspiritualā aspect, and indeed in my limited experience teachers who lay it on too thick (what I parodied as āincense and chantingā) donāt do all that great of a job with the actual practice (by which I mean asana and to a lesser extent the other seven limbs).
Zoomba is aerobic dancing to music. Itās pretty much the opposite of yoga.
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