The section before this was about the history of Yoga, and I feel the author just had a fucking seizure while watching Fox News, before continuing to write the book. agony-consuming

Like what.

  • LibsEatPoop [any]
    hexagon
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    edit-2
    4 months ago

    As far as I can tell, nothing. It's just another tangent.

    For the purpose of yoga, it is important to understand the myth of Judgment Day. Judgment Day is a concept that is found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It was also found in ancient Egyptian, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Greek mythologies. The idea is that when you die, you are judged on your actions and sent to heaven or hell accordingly. In the case of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, God is the judge. And therefore, God creates the rules one must follow. If one follows the rules, one goes to heaven or hell. Secular nation-states also follow the framework underlying Judgment Day, though they exclude the idea of God. Instead of God, they speak of citizens as a collective, and commandments take the form of a constitution. The citizens are expected to live by the nation’s law; those who don’t are judged and penalized. Structurally, then, the notion of Judgment Day is implicit even in the secular idea of social justice and corporate social responsibility.

    The concept of a judge, Judgment Day, and the binary between heaven and hell are not dominant motifs in Hinduism, Buddhism, or Jainism. In Buddhism, the Buddha is not a judge. The idea of heaven and hell exists, but it’s not quite based on judgment or commandments. Buddhism speaks of the concept of karma and the belief in rebirth based on your actions in this life. The rules of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are restricted to religious ascetic orders and communities, more for functional than metaphysical reasons. You go to heaven not by following rules, but by restraining senses and seeking wisdom. Thus, the Buddhist concept of heaven and hell is not based on following or breaking rules, but on psychological transformation and accumulating karma that either raises us or casts us down in the many-tiered cosmos.

    The concept of judgment comes in a society that believes in equality, and therefore strives toward homogeneity, shunning heterogeneity. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are based on diversity, which is often misread as inequality. Every human being is different, because we all carry different karmic burdens from our previous lives. Each one has different strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So, one rule cannot apply to all. Likewise, different people need different forms of yoga and different kinds of teachers. There is no one yoga for all, no one guru for all. The yoga that works for our particular context and our body is best for us, but it might not work for others. Yoga cannot be benchmarked or indexed or standardized. Nor can gurus, yogis, or yoginis.

    Like, this might be the worst book I've ever read.

    You could've just begun with "different people need different forms of yoga..." You don't need to fucking discuss the difference between Abrahamic and Indic religions for three paragraphs, preceded by four paragraphs of "high school tier" philosophy about money being an illusion and other "myths" agony-consuming

    I just wanna read about Yoga.

    • Ehrmantrout [he/him]
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      edit-2
      4 months ago

      Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are based on diversity, which is often misread as inequality. Every human being is different, because we all carry different karmic burdens from our previous lives. Each one has different strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So, one rule cannot apply to all

      This is just a defence of casteism here. One belief is that people who have good Karma are reborn as Brahmins and those with bad karma are reborn in the "lower" castes. Thus they can justify casteism since those in lower castes deserve it by being evil in the previous birth.

      • LibsEatPoop [any]
        hexagon
        ·
        4 months ago

        I didn't even consider that. I just thought it was a meaningless tangent that should've been edited out. Turns out, it was wholly intentional.

        The amount of brain worms right-wingers transmit in seemingly innocent books, videos etc. that people might stumble onto is legit scary.

      • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
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        edit-2
        4 months ago

        interpreting Hinduism as wholly casteist is like interpreting Christianity based off all the preachers who think Black people are going to hell

        Lingayatism and arguably Shaivism in general doesn't care about caste, and that's like 100 million+ people. Also they invented the protestant reformation 400 years before Martin Luther existed

        • Ehrmantrout [he/him]
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          4 months ago

          You are correct that the thousands of beliefs and sects under Hinduism cannot all be tarred in the same brush as casteist but that specific quote is definitely a nod towards casteism and discrimination against disabled people.

          • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
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            edit-2
            4 months ago

            except it's not "thousands of beliefs and sects", it's literally a couple that cover hundreds of millions of people in South India

            it's like ignoring Evangelicalism or Catholicism

            But North Indian Brahminical Hinduism is a cancer, yes