Another Look at Yoga

In March of this year, the staff association at BowlingWidow’s place of employment organized a weekly yoga session. I agreed to attend with her thinking full well that I’d participate for a couple of weeks and go back to watching Monday Night Football. Truth be told, I even blogged about the experience and poked more than a little bit of fun about it.

Well, eight months later I’m still a regular on Monday nights, having learned far more about yoga than I ever thought I would. It’s hard to articulate but suffice it to say that I feel really good both physically and mentally after the sessions, and it’s now an essential ingredient in a portfolio of activities that are contributing to better overall health.

Our outstanding instructor, Paul MacNaughton, recently answered some questions I had about yoga and his approach to it. So here it is, my first ever interview on the BowlingJoe blog. Now if only Paul could do something to cure my sagging bowling average.....

BowlingJoe: In your words, what is yoga?

Paul MacNaughton: Yoga is a re-discovery of things we already know, in the present moment.

The yoga principles, including not harming, not stealing, not being greedy, and so on, are nothing new in themselves. What is new is how we can follow them in this moment. That is never the same twice.

The asanas (postures) remind us of what the physical body is capable, perhaps shapes and movements which we have not explored since we were children, at least not intentionally. In class we re-awaken to our own physical nature. The result is a greater range of awareness and health for both mind and body.

There are also breath disciplines/expansions, and internal focus techniques such as meditation. These are maps and practice guides for exploring the mysteries of living, such as the question "Who am I?", and "What is the source of suffering in the world?", among countless others. Except for a few rather fundamentalist sects of yoga, which try to provide the "answers" to these questions for us, the responses to these questions are newly re-discovered by the practitioner. In other words, rather than a dogma, yoga is experience in the present moment, first and foremost.

Just a few words concerning what I feel yoga is not. Of course, this could be controversial. Yoga is not a religion or a belief system. Some of the terminology and the sanskrit come from the Vedas, but clear lines between categories of things such as religion vs. science vs. philosophy vs. art did not seem to exist uniformly at all times in human history. So, we can say modern yoga is not a religion or belief system. It is a practice.
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Paul MacNaughton

BJ: How long have you been practicing yoga and what was your original inspiration for doing so?

PM: A friend of mine, Jeff Scott, took a TM course when we were in college, and said, "You have got to try this!" The Beatles had been to India recently to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and I figured that if it was good enough for them and Jeff, I should give it a try. With a few lapses, I have been practicing meditation in some form since that time. There were a few very simple postures and breath exercises as part of the TM training, but it was mainly about meditation. For the last 9 years I have had a much-augmented postures and breath exercise routine, and still continue the meditation practice on a regular basis, though I now mostly practice using techniques other than TM.

BJ: There are many different types of yoga styles being taught and practiced today. Which one (or ones) resonate the most with you and why?

PM: The style that I practice most of the time currently is the karuna yoga which I teach. It is a blend of Iyengar-like hatha yoga postures, kundalini yoga, which emphasizes reliance on the power of the core and the breath rather than the muscles, and some aspects of John Friend's anusara yoga, especially the alignment-opening-stabilizing work with loops and spirals, and the 5 elements.

While all styles of yoga have their advantages, and perhaps pitfalls, I tend to recommend the gentle styles. I believe that compassion for our limitations, and the limitations of others, is an essential part of the yogic process. I have heard very famous teachers speak to the contrary. Ultimately, it is matter of exploration and personal choice.

BJ: How has practicing yoga made a difference in the quality of your life?

PM: It is hard to say exactly what is causal in life, there are so many influencing factors. But, I was 50 pounds heavier 10 years ago. I also don't eat carbs or sugar very much, and I try to walk 4 or 5 miles per week. I cannot imagine life without daily yoga. I believe yoga has increased my strength and general health, including mental/emotional stability and equanimity.

Also, yoga has led me to discoveries which help me to see life more clearly. Perhaps that has been its greatest gift for me.

BJ: Prior to becoming involved in practicing yoga I had a rather oversimplified view of what yoga is. What are some common misconceptions about yoga in American society and popular culture?

PM: When we use the term yoga today, most of us are speaking about the postures (asanas). I fall into that trap myself quite often. When I catch myself and say "asanas" instead, most people look at me as if either I have misspoken, or am trying to get technical with them. So I don't usually fight it, unless I am trying to intentionally make a point.

Many still adamantly believe that all yoga is a religion, and some call it a tool of the devil. Of course, for these people, there is no satisfactory response--their minds are made up. Any "open-minded discussion" is really an attempt to paint an inaccurate and unbecoming portrait, and then protest the ugliness. It is about dominance/submission.

There are certain forms of yoga where worship and devotion are involved. That is true. But, in this country, is it not a right to practice one's religion within the confines of the law? Does it say somewhere that others can determine our choice in the matter? A person of any faith or belief system can practice yoga without interference. Almost all yogas do not tell us which God to worship, or any at all, including the forms I practice.

Yoga is about disentangling our body, heart, and mind, from the automatic patterns of behavior which rule us in our daily lives, and opening to our truest, deepest nature, which is always already free, compassionate, awake, and kind.
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Paul MacNaughton

BJ: For those who are interested in initially learning about or starting to practice yoga, where would you suggest they start?

PM: Locally, Kindred Spirit Learning Center, a branch of Sound Holistic Health, above the Sno-Isle Food Co-op in downtown Everett, has 3 yoga teachers on staff. Go to http://www.soundholistichealth.com/ for the schedule. My website, http://creativesourcealliance.com/ also has information. http://yogacirclestudio.com/ is another good source.

Generally-speaking, my recommendation is anusara yoga. But, there are many excellent teachers on almost all of the paths. Trust your own experience, listen to your body, and follow your heart!

They Might Be In Concert

(Note: I have BowlingWidow proofread most of my blogs before I actually post them. She thought that this one had kind of a negative vibe to it. Maybe it does, but it's not because They Might Be Giants were disappointing. Quite the opposite in fact. They were great. I'd love to see them in concert again, as it's one of the best plugged-in band concerts I've been to in years. I can't possibly be turning into a curmudgeon at age 48, can I???)

As time marches on, I tend to not go to nearly as many rock, jazz, blues, folk (or whatever) concerts anymore. After thinking about this briefly, I can boil the reasons for this down to a few:

1. There aren’t that many new acts that interest me. The acts that do interest me are often retired, deceased, or simply no fun anymore since they quit using drugs and alcohol. Some are all three.

2. My bedtime is usually at about the time the featured performers take the stage.

3. Large audiences annoy me. Nothing personal, but the bigger the crowd, the higher the likelihood that there will be some idiot(s) who think that the event is strictly for and about them, and will proceed to misbehave in any manner they see fit.

4. It irritates me to no end that Ticketmaster adds around 25% to the so-called “face value” of the ticket.

But as with most things, we made an exception to this last Tuesday night. The next day was a holiday for much of the country, so Muffinheadedboy and his girlfriend were able to join us in seeing the band They Might Be Giants at The SoDo Showbox in Seattle. This is a small sparse venue with no seats and a concrete floor. It’s kind of like seeing a concert in a wing of Costco or something, but with decidedly better acoustics.
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I won’t blather on with a concert review here since there’s plenty of information on They Might Be Giants and their long careers to be found online. But suffice it to say that their music is fun, witty, and they have quite a following. If you’ve seen the old Fox Network show “Malcolm in the Middle” you may know that the opening theme (“Boss of Me”) was performed by TMBG. BowlingWidow and I discovered them some 15 years ago but this was the first time we’ve had a chance to see them live.


We all stood in line in the rain for over a half hour but were rewarded by being among the first to get into the building. We made it to the 6th row of humanity and were approximately 15 feet from the stage. Nice. Unfortunately the Showbox camera Nazis were out in full force so I wasn’t able to get even a poorly executed picture of the band (I stole the ones for this blog post shamelessly).

At 9 pm sharp the opening act, The Guggenheim Grotto (a worthy but unmemorable acoustical duo), took the stage with TMBG arriving at 10 pm. 10 pm! That’s insane. But we soon forgot about the time and the fact that my back was tightening up like a rope tow after standing for so long. Before we knew it, the second encore had ended and it was 12:15 am.

And, yes, being up way too late I made the wise choice of letting Muffinheadedboy drive home. He’s a college student and hits his stride at oh……1 am or so. I seem to vaguely remember those days.

Halloween: Holiday Lost?

This past Saturday was Halloween. When BowlingJoe was growing up in Port Angeles, Halloween was always a special look-forward-to and must-do event. Twice the urgency when it happened to fall on a Friday or Saturday night. Rain or shine, the neighborhood kids would get together donning white sheets or those cheap plastic masks that became moist from the condensation of your breath after two minutes.

We’d canvass virtually the entire town with pillow cases (they made the best candy bags as opposed to the disintegrating paper grocery bags), returning home only to dump the haul from the first load and go back for more. Guaranteed cavities by the pound.

The really good houses were the ones that gave out full-sized candy bars. None of those unfortunately named “Fun Size” things that they give out today. And every now and then there would be a resident that had the audacity to give out something healthy, such as an orange. Scandalous!

Ah, but that was then and this is now. Some people still speak of brisk crowds of candy-gathering youth on October 31st. But there has been a steady decline in the numbers of them who are ambitious enough to head down our long, dark but accessibile driveway. In fact, let the record state that in 2009 we had just three trick or treaters show up at our door. That’s right, three. And they all came in one group with a watchful parent standing 30 feet back.

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Now THAT'S how big I remember the candy bars being

Assuming that my hypothesis is correct and there are fewer active doorbelling ghosts and goblins, I’m interested in the underlying reason(s) that this is so. Does our society have a collective case of "stranger danger"? We all listen to the news and every now and then a crazy person or two captures the headlines, getting his (or her these days) fifteen minutes of fame and then some. That's gotta enter the craniums of a lot of Gen X-er parents.

Then there are the parties tied to places of employment. Sifting through Facebook entries I learned that there are more than a few parents who transported their offspring to places such as Microsoft who had a party in waiting.

Or is there just so much going on these days that Halloween is on its way to becoming as obsolete as a television antennae? Has it evolved into an adult holiday in which half the neighborhood has gone to a party, leaving the lights out and nobody home to hand out candy?

Maybe someday, somebody will write a book in which all of this is figured out. In the meantime, we have two extra large bags of candy sitting around if anyone is interested. We don't touch the stuff anymore.