I was too far gone into yoga science by then.
After 6 years at Ga Tech, 5 as a student and 1 as a research assistant, I needed a few years with a significant-enough-to-pay-the-bills paycheck and no homework. Got into yoga during those years.
My plan was to obtain a masters in professional counseling using yoga and Eastern methods as part of therapy. It took one semester to realize the enlightened masters of India are light-years ahead of Western psychologists in understanding consciousness.
Wilhelm Reich came closest to the yogic masters. But his work was ridiculed and destroyed. It is now largely ignored by the mainstream.
Reich and Carl Jung were the therapists I was most interested in. Neither was included in the curriculum.
Yoga is yoking the ego to the soul as one yokes a cart to a horse. The soul drives the ego which only has to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Western science mainly considers the existence of a soul unscientific. The fundamental and valid concepts of dharma and karma are missing from Western language and philosophy.
I spent 2 years doing psychological research. I quit. Science, it seemed after those 2 years, is more about seeking funding and publications than it is about seeking true understanding.
The ethics course taught me much about the damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't reality of working under a professional counseling licensure. The ethics course scared me the most.
And 9-11 happened, right before school started. Life as usual was no longer possible. Turning-on with the enlightened masters, tuning-in to myself, and dropping-out of mainstream society seemed a much better way to go.
I studied Ayurveda instead, completing the Ayurvedic Healing course offered by the American Institute of Vedic Studies.
Like so many in the West my journey with yoga began with asana practice. Bodily awareness is the first step. Moshé Feldenkrais also inspired me.
My pleasure books during grad school were Ram Dass-Be Here Now and Paramahansa Yogananda-Autobiography of a Yogi.
Matter is energy. Health is free-flowing life-energy, spontaneous instead of compulsive living.
Holding of the breath is the basic defense mechanism to block unpleasant feelings. No amount of brain-science will heal the consciousness of someone habitually holding his breath.
A healthy person breathes fully. Emotion is energy-in-motion. Emotion is to be felt as it is happening and discharged.
Reich wrote about the emotional-plague affecting most of humanity. I will write about this plague in a future post.
Stay tuned.
