Yoga Values
Below are four value statements about yoga. I wonder if you agree with them. Are these values currently practiced in Yoga as you experience it? Are these values important to your practice of Yoga?
1) Yoga is independent of race, color, creed, or gender. It is essentially international in character, with no artificial boundaries. This makes Yoga essentially a unifying factor among diverse races and creeds.
2) Yoga knowledge is public knowledge, not the exclusive prerogative of any group. Free and frank exchange of information among yogis is valued and open to review by other yogis.
3) Yoga is not influenced by any ego-driven ideology, or manipulated to serve for personal profit. Yoga is honest, objective (methods and results can be observed by others), and impersonal (in the sense of the methods and results being available to all and not under private ownership).
4) Yoga statements are not accepted based only on the word of authority. There is freedom to question such statements. According to Yoga, the test of validity of any statement is experience or observational verification. In other words, just because a Guru says it, it ain’t necessarily so. Yogis are free to find out what works for them through their own experience and observations, and they are free to share those experiences and observations with others.
In my experience, Yoga fits pretty well with the first and second. As for the third and fourth, I would say that it is possible to practice Yoga according to these values, though some don’t. I am not proposing that these form a sufficient value base for yoga, though I think they could be recognized as compatible with a practice of Yoga. I wonder if you see value in practicing Yoga based on these values and whether they actually violate any necessary conditions for doing Yoga?
Where did these values come from? They represent four basic values of science: Universalism (scientific knowledge and methods are independent of artificial separations or boundaries), Communalism (scientific knowledge and methods are shared), Disinterestedness (scientific knowledge and methods are unbiased), Scepticism (scientific knowledge and methods are open to question and verification).
Namaste’
Scott
