That yoga thing

For a few years in my twenties, I devoted myself to the practice of zazen and yoga - I recently mentioned it in my Normblog profile. But I've only just realized that someone reading that might get the idea that being "devoted to yoga" involved me spending a lot of time contorted in bizarre postures.

No. When I said "the practice of yoga", I wasn't talking about physical exercise. I know some people dedicate themselves to practicing physical yoga: they teach yoga classes, write books about it and talk up the benefits. But that's not at all the same thing as being "devoted to the practice of yoga".

When people in the West think of yoga, they mostly think of hatha yoga, specifically the asanas (postures). Diligently practicing the asanas might promote good health and emotional well-being, but that's not really the point.

In the West, hatha yoga has been taken out of context and commodified. Isolated from the body of knowledge that gives it sense and purpose, it becomes nothing more than ritual exercise.

And that's not something I've ever been devoted to.