This time, Mr. Broad is riding the coattails of the John Friend “scandal;” and sharing his expertise about how Yoga’s origins have always been steeped in sexuality.
It’s astounding how this guy thinks that doing sun salutations since the 70’s and book research for a few years makes him an authoritative scholar regarding the history of Yoga. He can’t even keep the science in his book straight, and that’s supposed to be his field.
Yoga Fans Sexual Flames and, Predictably, Plenty of Scandal – NYTimes.com.
What a load of horseshit. The same thing happens with plenty of evangelical Christian leaders, too–is vigorous hymn-singing prone to increased blood flow to the pelvic region? Bible-reading can make plenty of folks hot; think of poor Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, or any recent congressional Christian denouncer of sex, caught with his pants down.
The best discussion of charismatic spiritual leaders and sexual activity I ever heard was from Stephen Cope, at Kripalu, about 5 years after their guru’s expulsion. He recounted the story, which is quite lurid, complete with an aggrieved female acolyte walking onstage in a scarlet robe (oh, New England!) amid a sea of white to hurl accusations. But what Stephen talked about was how yoga and spiritual development must take into account of what Jung called the “shadow” side. It must encompass all the truths of being human–including the part about us liking sex.
When one labels part of human instinct “dark” and tries to deny it, loudly crying chastity, it’s gonna rebound. And probably bite you in the ass, (perhaps literally) as more than one congressional Christian denouncer of homosexuality has found.
William Broad’s sensationalizing of sexual scandal is about as old as yoga in the USA and par for the course for NY newspapers–you could have read much the same about Henry Ward Beecher in 1875.
LOL-by the way, to be clear, it is Broad who’s selling the manure, not the esutra post.
As if sexuality was somehow not a part of spiritual life, and spirituality not an embodiment of joy, fun, play, sensuality. All are part of the attributes of Shakti, the manifest partner, merged in infinity with Shiva, the attribute-less One. What breaks my heart (my mortal one, not my Infinite One) is that so much of what is now called Yoga, passes through the western patriarchal filter, loses its import, and gets packaged in marketing thought–becoming a mere product to reach mass consciousness for the purpose of selling. Poor Yoga. Poor, poor humanity. So many misinformed. And great teachers, powerful acharyas of truth, are by-passed for what? Firmer bottoms? Yoga “science?”