Wednesday, March 1, 2017

A Few More Words About the "Meaning" of Yoga

With more than 150 uses of the verb /yuj that gives us the word "yoga" just in the Bhagavadgītā, let's start with YMMV, that your definition of yoga is just as "true" as any in the history of its usage. So just a few words more here to provide some fodder.
We might start with a notion that yoga is a process of "integration." And take that a bit further.
Integration, the sense of a proper fit or mixing in, assimilation or even a well-tuned juxtaposition is not always possible or desired. Sometimes the seams and incongruities, the disequilibrium and asymmetry is just as vital and what serves us better. Yoga isn't even necessarily about making connection as much as it is about creating relationships. Yoga is how we direct every kind of relationship to serve a noteworthy purpose or goal. Sometimes those relationships invite us to integrate or juxtapose, sometimes they invite us to demur and objects so that we _don't_ make the connection but they always invite us to fathom the kinds of relationships that serve us best. If "yoga" means relationships than connection or integration are just other kinds of relationships that serves us.