Georg Feuerstein, 1947-2012

by Nina

Doorways by Nina Zolotow

Just the other day in my post Why You Should Study Yoga Philosophy I wrote about how much I valued the work of yoga scholar Dr. Georg Feuerstein. Then yesterday I learned that he died on August 25. Even though I never met him, I consider him to be one of my most important teachers, so I wanted to take a moment to honor him.

It was always the work of Dr. Feuerstein that I turned to (and will continue to turn to) when I wanted answers to questions I had about yoga history and when I wanted a very literal translation—one in which I could see the relationship between the original Sanskrit and the English—of a yoga scripture. I felt I could always rely on him for a relatively unbaised perspective. But the most important single lesson I learned from him is this one:

“Yoga is like an ancient river with countless rapids, eddies, loops, tributaries, and backwaters, extending over a vast, colourful terrain of many different habitats. So, when we speak of Yoga, we speak of a multitude of paths and orientations with contrasting theoretical frameworks and occasionally incompatible goals.” —Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D.

Dr. Feuerstein’s wife, Brenda L. Feuerstein, announced his death on Facebook this way:

It is with great sadness that I announce that my husband and spiritual partner, Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., left his body on August 25, 2012 at 9:10 PM.

At this time, I would like to request prayers from the worldwide community for Georg's transition through the afterlife states and for a swift rebirth.

In lieu of flowers and gifts, Georg had requested a scholarship fund be set up to enable incarcerated people the opportunity to participate in our distance learning courses. More information about the fund will be available this week.

Take Back Yoga!

by Nina

This morning I listened to a short piece on NPR this morning about the “Take Back Yoga” campaigned launched by the Hindu American Foundation (see here). According to this report, some American Hindus are saying yoga is about far more than exercise and breathing techniques, and they want recognition that it comes from a deeper philosophy, one, in their view, with Hindu roots. Sheetal Shah, senior director of the foundation, said, "What we’re trying to say is that the holistic practice of yoga goes beyond just a couple of asanas [postures] on a mat. It is a lifestyle, and it’s a philosophy. How do you lead your life in terms of truthfulness? And nonviolence? And purity? The lifestyle aspect of yoga has been lost."

If you’ve read this blog before, you already realize that none of us are in the “yoga is just a couple of asanas on a mat” camp. I’m even willing to bet that the four of us would agree the philosophy and lifestyle aspects of yoga will be more helpful than the asanas for allowing us to age gracefully. So I definitely agree with the Hindu American Foundation that many Americans have serious misconceptions about yoga. However, while we may agree that yoga is not just asanas, agreeing on exactly what it is, is more difficult than you might think.

In recent years I’ve done a lot of reading about yoga history and philosophy. And I’ve been particularly influenced by Georg Feuerstein’s masterful (and somewhat dry, I admit) The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice. One major insight this book brought me was what a minor part hatha yoga played during the history of yoga. Although yoga may be thousands of years old, for most of that time it had nothing at all to do physical postures. But another major insight for me was how little agreement there was during those thousands of years about what yoga was and how to practice it.

Shadows of Leaves by Brad Gibson

Even though yoga originally evolved as part of Hinduism, it was also adopted by the Sikhs, the Jains, and the Buddhists. And the different religions naturally had their own takes on yoga. But even among the Hindus, there were an enormous variety of interpretations, with a large schism developing between those who worshiped Vishnu and those who believed in Shiva. Then there was the dualism vs. non-dualism conflict, not to mention sex is good/bad, the body is good/bad, and you can achieve liberation in this lifetime/no you can’t. They didn’t even agree on how many “branches” of yoga there are! While classical yoga (the yoga of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras) has the well-known eight branches of yoga, other traditions have ten or twelve or even more.

So where does that leave us? There just is no simple answer. While some of you may find a teacher whose particular take on yoga you can adopt, others, like me, are left to piece something together for themselves. If you’re interested, you can start by reading some of the classic yoga texts, such as The Bhagavad Gita and The Yoga Sutras. Maybe you’ll even be willing to take on Georg Feuerstein’s book. Just be skeptical of anyone who claims there is only one right way to think about yoga.