Yoga Loves Opposites
Yoga loves opposites. When the point is to unify, you can’t do any better than a good ole battle of oppositional forces. In our lives this translates as conflicted feelings, struggles to reconcile the inner and outer worlds, protagonist and antagonist muscles, contentious relationships, and competitive experiences. In a weird and challenging way, these experiences are what Yoga is all about, these conflicts are where Yoga thrives, why? Because Yoga isn’t about winning or losing, it’s about playing the game, and experiencing the possibility of joining together with what we ignorantly thought was irreconcilable.
Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutra, speaks to this struggle by naming five main afflictions of the human condition. These afflictions are called Klesha and are listed as follows: Avidya: ignorance, Ashmita, ego; Ragas, attachment; Dvesha, aversion; and Abinivesha, fear of annihilation. He outlines that built into our mainframe is the struggle of opposites (Ragas & Dwesha). We will always have things we like and are drawn toward, as well as things we dislike and feel an aversion too. The YOGA is to understand them both as a part of the whole, and not attempt to eliminate either part of the whole. When we understand this, our lives become a grand experiment. We discover a willingness to endure so that we may observe the nature of the struggle, and we become interested in why we are so divided, and curious about ways we can “cross the divide” in our understanding to feel more integrated and whole.
Most Yogis translate this crossing the divide in these terms: peace, love, oneness, joy, happiness, ease, and presence. Such admirable aims, and such difficult goals. Is it possible that we cannot see the truth that is laid bare in front of our eyes? That the very act of desiring only what we want, and pushing away, avoiding, or condemning what we don’t want is the exact act that is creating the affliction that so many humans are feeling right now? Is it possible that the practice of Yoga actually acquaints us as much with our aversions as it does with our attachments?
The beauty of Yoga is that it is the whole coin, both sides. It is the heads and tails of every situation, experience, ideal, disappointment, relationship, and achievement, all at once. Somewhere along the way, we were taught that to unify with goodness, we must reject its opposite. This primary misunderstanding may be why we keep bumping up against our aversions with such regularity. As a result, an interesting thing begins to happen. We begin to develop an identity (Ashmita) that is powerfully tied to our attachments and aversions. What do I mean by that? I mean that we become driven to strengthen, sustain, protect, even control our attachments (desires, wants, goals, etc.), and we become equally driven to strengthen, sustain, protect, and even control our aversions to things we don’t want. It’s almost as if we become attached to avoiding or eliminating what we don’t want! Such an interesting Yoga!!
Aversion has taken center stage in the world right now. And perhaps, the relationship with what we don’t like or want is impacting our capacity to move in the world fully. There is so much not to like right now. So many things in our current era to NOT WANT. Anger, fear, uncertainty, etc. are all things that many of us have an aversion to. We don’t like or want to be angry, to feel fear, to have uncertainty. And yet, our culture finds itself swimming in the soup of aversion. It doesn’t really matter the political affiliation or belief system that is applied, every side is afraid of every other, and for good reason. All facets have fully committed to the destruction (abhinivesha) of the other, and in doing so are, knowingly or unknowingly (avidya), continuing the cycles that they claim to want liberation from.
Luckily, the Yoga of attachment and aversion can be approached skillfully using the tools of self accountability and responsibility. When we choose to inquire about what we hold dear by asking ourselves what we are avoiding through attachment, AND by asking about what we are really wanting to hold on to by pushing things away, we will begin to understand how we are seeking (and often finding) the opposite of what we want. We might not like the process, and we might like the answers to the inquiry even less, but the practice of Yoga is often centered around learning how to be with our discomforts, our tightness, our resistance, our tensions, and striving to liberate ourselves from them rather than fix or correct them. It is difficult, if not impossible, to surrender to that which we cannot see, so the real and powerful practice of Yoga puts us squarely in the middle of things, and challenges us to find resolution without demanding opposition (or annihilation). It’s the highest level of practice, to be sure, one that has no markers of achievement or success, but can completely shift your relationship with how you live your life. As a student recently said to me, “doing this work helped me to understand that freedom doesn't feel like happiness. It’s so much better.”
Luckily, the Yogis have a festival that invites us to step into this play (Lila) mythologically, and bear witness to the challenges of reconciling our attachments and aversions through myth.
In mid-October, the festival of Navaratri explores nine different incarnations of the Goddess Durga who battles the demons (asuras) and finally emerges victorious. The word Navaratri translates to the nine nights of the Goddess the tenth day, Vijayadashami, is the day of Victory where we celebrate liberation from ignorance. Each day of the nine night festival calls forth a different expression of the Goddess and the demons with which she battles. These demons can be understood as our own expressions of attachment and aversion. This night night period can be very activating, churning up all of the necessary opportunities to observe our challenges, our resistances, our wants, and desires. It can call the Yogi into powerful contemplation around how the ways we engage with the unseen opposites within ourselves, and how we express them out into our external world. Because this festival is so powerful, many people from this culture spend the entire 10 day period in practice. Devoting themselves to the liberating power of the Goddess, and requesting the skill to become aware of the forces that are desiring to be seen, expressed, and understood.
In Shakta Tantra, Navaratri is one of the most potent festivals of the year. In support of all of the Yogis who desire to be in Sangha during this powerful and provoking time, Vira Bhava Yoga is hosting a 10 day Shakti Puja practice in Celebration of Navaratri. We will be working with the individual representations of the Goddess as She presents each day, meditating, learning, practicing, chanting, and honoring together. The practices will include a short lecture, meditation practice, chant, and Aarati or offering. We will meet live via Zoom every day (and if you can’t make the meetings, we will be sending out the videos immediately following each class so you can continue your practice on your own). If you desire to experience this time with a community, and learn about the expressions of the Goddess, register HERE to join us.