Only Nothing

I've been attending Bikram yoga lately. This is some hard shit, let me tell you. It's more strenuous than racquetball, and provides me with another outlet for very nearly hitting my maximum heart rate without risk of blowing out a knee. It is a fantastic compliment to the bicycle commute.

I do want to point out a couple of observations, however, regarding yoga in the U.S.

While it's a practice that requires nothing and can be practiced by someone with nothing, my Bikram yoga class is filled with non-working Elk Grovian housewives driving Mercedes sedans and Lexus SUVs to the studio. I am also amazed -- flipping through any copy of any yoga magazine -- the number of yoga "retreats" that are offered throughout the world; for example, offering 6-12 week uninterrupted yoga seminars at the marvelous base of the Himalayas, spas in Aspen, --stuff like that.

Yoga reeks of wealth. I want to understand why this repulses me; perhaps it shouldn't, but it does. It gets to my personal contempt for public displays of wealth. It usually isn't a function of the people themselves. I can very well find the joy of interacting with any individual regardless of their status, position, wealth, etc., but as they align themselves with the American group mentality of excess consumption and an open display of the latest yoga wear, electronic device, starter mansion, luxury vehicle, what have you...this I detest.

I suppose only in America can we take a 5,000 year old tradition of humility and introspection and fucker it up into an exclusive realm for the pampered and privileged. Even Bikram, a Beverley Hills resident driving Rolls Royces, epitomizes the public display of wealth.

I cannot resolve my personal discontent with this. Why should I give a shit? Why not just let it go? What's not to admire about success -- they would tell you they worked their asses off to get where they are. Is it envy? I revel in Schadenfreude, is this not just the opposite? Am I the one with the problem?

Perhaps not. I think it's because these actions fall to the core of our American ethos of profligate consumption. These are not representative of humility, something I think is too often lacking. And it's in line with other American cultural establishments that I find abominable, such as wealth without risk (foreclosure bailouts), unearned riches (exploding #s of Indian casinos), a degradation of our public realm for the private (walled subdivisions and theme parks, why we're fine with speeding in our private vehicle on a public road)...you get my point. All these lead to a culture I don't want to be a part of, with values that aren't in line with a correct obligation to our environment, our sociology, our species. I believe we won't advance under such a value system.

Let me tell you the one thing, the very most important thing I've discovered about yoga -- during every minute you are engaged in your own practice, all these things are gone -- the stress of work or unemployment, wealth or poverty, young or old, public or private, solar or fossil, blogging, politics, religion -- everything is passed away. There is only nothing, by yourself, and this has value all its own.