The Origins of Yoga

It is common to see the many schools of yoga claiming an original and authentic lineage to trace back to the 'true yoga'. Whatever that means. Yes, it is critical that we honor the teachers before us, the great masters and sages who've spent their lives distilling the essence of higher level spiritual truths and practices into a down-to-earth method that we can all take home with us to become enlightened householders in this modern world. Right?! We all want to be able to sit in a YouTube satsang (a spiritual discourse with a 'guru') while drinking tea in our bedroom and feel that we are receiving spiritual transmissions. We want to be a part of something, and we see this big spiritual movement happening where it seems like people are really waking up to their true nature, as everything becomes more and more synchronous and coincidental. With this massive global awakening that is spreading across our generation, the deepest parts of us is not only seeking like-minded individuals to form community with but a true, authentic connection to something real. Something that is older than time itself.

Which is while I believe there is a strong pull from the individual towards falling into the schools and systems and living masters who've established themselves as spiritual giants in this now commercialized business of esotericism and mysticism and shamanism and all the other pieces of the truth we've created to both remove us and simultaneously take us closer to our Self.

What do I mean by that, and where am I going? I thought this was about the 'Origins of Yoga'? Well, it is. Because you are the origin of yoga.

Ultimately, it does not matter if you are part of a yoga lineage worthy of accolade, or if you practice yoga at Lifetime fitness, or even if you don't practice yoga at all yet remain interested in the spiritual aspects of life. We must turn our attention away from the bickering and unnecessary separation that occurs between one faction and the next, which is prevalent even in the places where it would seem most hypocritical.

You know what a true yogi does? They get on with it. They know what their practice is, and they get down and get to work. They look at their path, which might intersect and overlap with the paths of others and maybe even for some time be intertwined in some great system that traces back to the 'original yogis'.... And they love their path, so much, that every other path out there is a compliment to theirs. There is no right or wrong, and no body's way is better than the next. The endless search ends with our Self, that closer than close place within the heart of each individual that simply knows the Truth, beyond all scriptures and yogic techniques and rituals and whatnot.

A true yogi IS the origin of yoga. It begins and ends with them. The true teachings live as a broadcast emitted from within this yogi. Because the Truth escapes space and time. Perhaps it did exist 5000 years ago, maybe even somewhere in Egypt when they were using the pyramids to reach higher states of consciousness through meditation or in the Tibetan plateaus where the yogis were generating heat with their bodies. Yet it exists just as thoroughly and completely today, fully within each individual.

When we stop looking and we get on with it, with great enthusiasm the yogi approaches life, for there is nothing better than right now. There is no spiritual teacher that is greater than the moment. With perseverance towards the goal, a yogi steps out with courage to face what is here. Through this consistent practice of simply getting on with life, they can discriminate between what serves the Self, and what serves the self. An unshakable faith arises from within this yogi, and despite all hullabaloo they remain steadfast in their ultimate objective, which is to love. To fully accept and embrace all of life, everything and every 'one' in it; to be so inclusive in their net of beliefs that not one single individual escapes the warm touch of their heart.

From this place, we become the lineage of masterful yogis. Instead of bowing at their feet, they are in our hearts bowing to us. Saying - "thank you.... now, get on with it."

I'm just a yogi (and please - I use this term universally... male or female, a yogi is a yogi just as a human is a human)... I'm just a yogi intent on getting on with it. Join me if you'd like, or someone else... and do not run from those who claim to know. Find out where the urge to run is coming from. With enough faith in our path, anyone can claim to know anything to us and we can appreciate their wisdom for what it is - a piece of the truth. We might use it, and alchemize it as our own, and move on, or we might not... Either way, one fact remains. The whole Truth is inescapable, as it is who you are. Yet the urge to run or avoid one school of yoga or poo-poo another might just be a deeper message for us to dive into.

Want to know the best way to honor your teachers? You practice! You become what all of them have been saying all along. You live a life of a Christ, without needing to prove to anyone with your words why Christianity is the 'way'. You become the origin of yoga, which just means union anyways. You already are it, it just takes a bit of re-membering to really become it.

Put the pieces together. Be content with where you're at, humbly accept guidance if you need it, yet drop the f***ing resistance. We are all afraid of something, and the sooner we all admit that the sooner we can get on with it. And if reading any of this hurt because there is an attachment some great spiritual teaching or a way of living you've established... awesome. Call that part of you back home. Re-member. You are infinite. You are the origin of all things... including yoga.

Thanks for reading.