Third Deep Breath
Yogis of the world unite and take your yoga off the mat and into the wider world!!
To be clear, in my own earlier decades, I did my share of travelling to far places to find “the true yoga.” I spent loads of time and money on studies at home and abroad. At the same time, I taught Iyengar yoga, Vipassana meditation and ayurveda in the Travis County, Texas, Drug Court program, the Christopher Project (working with people with HIV/AIDS), in the Community College, and for the University of Texas Informal Classes program.. For twenty years I also worked as a public defender for people of low income in Travis County—and for maybe ten taught composition, rhetoric and literature (Canadian and American) in Texas and Canada.
So this new work in activist yoga can take many different forms. Some of us are temperamentally suited to teaching yoga to underserved populations. Others are happy in the kitchen, our own or a soup kitchen, preparing food for family, friends and the hungry. Still others thrive on climate activism—helping communities solve the puzzle of recycling, alternative sources of energy, and finding a path to a truly regenerative society where all materials are re-used, not simply recycled.
Still others are contented (and contentment is one of the precepts we practice on the path) with a home practice, home cooking, fine arts—painting, sculpture, writing, playing music, dancing, etc. Chacun son goût—each to their taste, each to their dharma.
Please share your discoveries about resisting consumerism, finding ways to live with less plastic, less food waste, less of everything! Pegasus Balance will post some useful recipes in coming installments to the Humanifesto.
“Live simply that others may simply live.” – Mother Theresa
…to be continued, please weigh in.
