If you practice yoga and have a sense of humor and/or if you read Yoga Journal and other such mags, or if you live anywhere in California (and maybe in Portland, Seattle, New York City, the Twin Cities, and a few other yoga-studio-saturated places) you'll love My Third Eye Itches, written by a character called YogaDawg. I've been reading him for a while but I am now adding him to my blogroll, not that anyone ever looks at my blogroll. (Well, SiteMeter tells me a few people have clicked out to the websites, more so than to the blogs, interestingly. Never looked at the interesting stuff in the right-hand column? Have a look. All kinds of resources, just for YOU.)
I have let my subscription to Yoga Journal lapse both to save money and because the commodification of yoga was just getting a little too much. There are some very helpful things in the magazine (the actual postures of hatha yoga and related tips) but the whole commercialization- upscale-yoga scene was getting really, really irritating along with the pop spirituality and watered-down Buddhism. So now I read YogaDawg instead at his hilarious blog, and I figure if I really made use of all my old Yoga Journals (I never throw one out) I'd learn plenty, and there's always the Yoga Journal website. (I had eliminated it from the list of publications listed on the right when I got all huffy about the magazine, but I'm putting it back in there because a free resource is a free resource.) And nothing beats a class with a good teacher.
Now go laugh with YogaDawg. Hysterical. His series on Yoga styles (mostly in May) and the one on yoga mats (mostly in April) had me howling.
His latest post is on someone trademarking the word "OM."
If you're not prepared to have a sense of humor about yoga and some of the advanced ridiculousness on the U.S.A. yoga scene, don't read it.
(And yes, I do a little yoga every morning, but NOT on a sandalwood-scented yoga-star-trademarked mat wearing designer yoga clothes that cost the price of my food budget for two weeks.)
Hi Jane:
ReplyDeleteThank you for the nice write-up on the YogaDawg blog. You definitely get the intent of it. I'm a fairly serious Yogi but so much of the Yoga scene has become pretty laughable to me. I think a lot of other Yogis are feeling the same way because I got an amazing amount of people thanking me for the laughs.
Anyway check out the www.yogadawg.com website as it is the full blown version of the YogaDawg experience. I also put a link to your blog on the YogaDawg Buzz page there.
All the best
I haven't done any in months; I must start, or soon my body will break down entirely. I was doing pretty good, then tore something and "rested" for a little too long with the help of a nasty cold/ flu; evil habits did the rest.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bare beginner, but even a little is so good! " I can will what is right, but I cannot do it." Surely there have been comments on this snippet of Romans somewhere among Christians (7:18b, in the NRSV)
Yup, and Krister Stendahl, my beloved mentor, says we have all psychologized this passage to death and that is not at all what Paul meant. Nevertheless, it is a good one to use in the way you just did (I just said that, KS didn't)...
ReplyDeleteYogaDawg -- I'm honored you stopped by! And thanks for telling us about the website; I saw it was there but hadn't really looked at it in depth. Since I just got a little, er, blemish right where my Third Eye is supposed to be, perhaps it is the influence of your blog? But it doesn't itch. Maybe that's a good letter to YogaDawg for your letters section of the website: "Dear YogaDawg, my Third Eye has broken out; am I doing the wrong kind of Yoga? Should I change my incense brand? Will tattooing that place give me bad karma?" (I note you spell Yoga with a capital Y. Then again, the benighted zit-ridden person who writes in may not do that. And no, I do not plan to get a tattoo between my eyes.)
Thanks again for the laughs, and for engaging in serious practice (while skewering the Iyengar people and not just the "hot yoga" folks; your Iyengar take-off reminded me of one of my recent teachers...).