The 3rd Perspective & Yoga - Bringing East & West Together (Page 2)
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The suppression of violence and negativity through ideology has never done away with suffering and violence. The East intellectually values non-violence (ahimsa), yet has not eradicated violence from its culture. Violence can easily occur even in spiritual practices and in yoga itself: when, for example, teachers attempt to force students into regimented molds, or students try to force their bodies into postures without listening to what the body is saying.

The "point of view of the one" tends to deny the importance and even reality of the individual - of his personality, his body, relationships, thoughts and feelings. This makes people try to renounce their own self-interest, which creates conflict, as self-interest is repressed and operates unconsciously. When self-interest is denied, it is done in the hope that more can be gotten. For whom? Why, of course, for one's self.

There are many "yogas" in the East, but Hatha Yoga is often considered the least important. This is because the body itself is not valued. ("Too much emphasis on the body is narcissistic and keeps you stuck on the material plane.") At best, Hatha Yoga is presented as a stepping stone to higher spiritual states. The body is acknowledged as the "temple" of spirit, but since the body ages and decays, spirit, which is eternal, must live independently of it.

THE WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
I call the basic framework of the West the "point of view of the many." Here, the universe is looked upon as containing separate entities that live in relationship to each other but are fundamentally distinct. The most basic division is between the "me" (the skin and everything inside it) and the "not-me" (everything else). Consequently, "looking within" has had little meaning for most of the West. If I, the individual, am just one point of life among countless others,the important truths and meanings can only be found outside, by "looking without." Should I try to look within, I find merely a jumble of subjectivity. I am created by my experiences, since what take in from the outside becomes my inside.

In order to understand the world and myself, I must look at how separate entities affect each other. This I can only do by looking "out there" as objectively as I can. Science, which is interested in "hard facts," exemplifies this point of view. Truth is found by piercing through the veils of another kind of illusion, that created by our personal subjective viewpoints. As it is the senses that connect us with the world, we value experience and we have built an empirical tradition that uses public agreement and shared perceptions as the ultimate test. This, of course, tends to make us materialistic, since we feel that the external world we perceive is the ultimate reality.

The West conceives of God as being separate - "out there." Meaning and truth are also "out there" to be found. We are very practical, immersed in a pragmatic approach to life. ("It's true if it works.") If belief in a religion or God makes me feel better, I give it more credence. If I can control my environment, I'm on to something. In fact, control - as opposed to surrender - is a key value in the West. We want to have the ultimate say in what direction our lives go. As we are interested in control, we emphasize "becoming," since you can only control what changes. The East, on the other hand, emphasizes "being" and values non-attachment. We, however, value goals, achievement, progress and the fruits of competition. As we saw with the East, the West also creates values that live in opposition to each other. For although we are always "looking without," we are also very self-absorbed. We want to enhance our lives, realize our full potential, become Promethean as we wrest fire from the gods. We want to create our own life, taking responsibility for everything that happens. We value independence, self-exploration, and being a self-made person. Our choices create our future, and so we want the freedom to choose. Freedom here has within it aspects of resistance, resistance to "what is," in order to make life something else, something better, through choice. Freedom for the East is letting go of resistance and surrendering oneself to the whole.

When the West does go within, it analyzes subjective experience - thoughts, memories, emotions, sensations. Going within for the East involves either negating subjective experience - saying "I am not this, I am not that" - or allowing its flow while detaching from it, so that ultimately a silence comes. The silence or emptiness behind experience is the reality, while for the West the experience itself is the reality.

For the sake of contrast, I have presented two different world views that are abstractions, in that neither is purely one way or the other. The West has greatly influenced Eastern culture, and especially in the last 15 years, Eastern perspectives have permeated our Western viewpoints. For example, in athletics and even in business, there are books that emphasize "being in the present" and letting go. However, in true Western fashion, we become interested in the inner approach to, say, tennis, in order to improve our game. We value non-attachment if it brings results. We use“being” in order to “become.”

Although yoga came from the East, the West brings its own flavor to it. The way we approach yoga shows our tendencies toward “becoming” and achieving material instance, most of us here are interested in yoga insofar as it enhances the quality of our lives. We look for benefits in regards to health, aging and energy. We want our teachers to help us change and progress, and to give us some sort of experience, whether it be relaxation or a heavy workout. As we are enamored with control, we tend to use our minds to order our bodies around. The danger with this is that yoga can so easily become mechanical, like calisthenics. When the mind uses the body or puts it  on “automatic,” separation on between the physical and the mental increases.

Of the many different schools of yoga and spirituality that have come from the East, the ones that have rooted most deeply in our culture acknowledge to some extent the importance of the individual and of self-improvement. In fact, the most popular schools of Hatha Yoga do emphasize the body and the well being yoga brings.