Yoga a Platform for Activism
My yoga teachers and fellow activists David Life and Sharon Gannon share that most people think yoga is an exercise class. They don’t see it as an underground community for activism and a platform for political change. The government just thinks we are all just a bunch of hippies getting together to stretch our bodies and minds, and do not see the growing yoga community as a threat. This is a good thing. Yoga is about shifting perception. What is realized in the attainment of yoga is the interconnectedness to all beings and all things. Yoga is a journey to disentangle self from the material miseries and to come into action of service. The yogi begins to see the soul spark in everyone and everything. The evolution of the practice awakens the devotion and desire to uplift the lives of others, and to do all that we can to serve.
The Bhavagad Gita discusses how we can get so entangled in ignorance to the truth that we start to think that we are the main controllers, creators, and enjoyers of the manifest reality. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Yoga states that although we are part and parcel of the Divine, which resides in each heart, we must stay humble, in devotion, and service.
Being a part of the human community in America it is evident that the well being of our environment and communities are under attack by corporate interest. Corporate desire to create more wealth and the behavior towards creating more wealth has put society, safety, nature, and human health at risk. Government has neglected ethics and values in public policy, and has silenced the community.
There is a current paradigm shift from the Dominant Social Paradigm to the New Environmental Paradigm, which states that we can no longer be bystanders to the environmental, and human health crisis. The New Environmental Paradigm supports the human beliefs that resources are limited, growth needs to be restricted, environment needs to be protected, and nature needs to be respected. Perhaps the most effective means towards positive solution is to support humans in their re-adaptation to Nature and to themselves. We are not separate from Nature. Yoga is a means to this union.
Environmental concern is a multilayered construct. It is however clear that environmental pollution can alter molecular functioning and ultimately lead to illness and disease, and that the government is not concerned.
Why did humans abandon their role to protect Nature? Why do we bend to the regulations, rules, and abuses of false gods?
We are at a critical point. Increasing health disparities, environmental injustice, spatial epidemiology, governmental crime, and pollution are now being observed by everyone. Public used to think that it is up to the government to protect them, but are beginning to see the opposite reality.
Public education on the reality of our current governance is important to decrease mindlessness. We must come together in acceptance towards the ever-changing world, see and admit our roles in creating our problems, and co-create the movement for a better future. The adaptation to new levels of consciousness and collaboration are necessary and the potential solution of our current environmental and health crisis.
WE ARE NOT BYSTANDERS AND OUR CHOICES WILL RIPPLE.
We do not live in a democracy. The system is not failing. It is actually fixed. National elections are predetermined. There is no proportional representation in the US. The current political system of the US operates outside of human and ecological need. It is set up to disenfranchise humans and the environment. The system they are giving activists to approach governance is prescribed with nearly impossible opportunity for community rights and the rights of Nature. All remedies in place set up by the system, send activists into a loophole with no resolution. All the while humans, animals, and Nature are exposed to an increasing toxic world.
Community rights and environmental rights concerning current events such as; fracking, GMOs, GMO labeling, factory farming, minimum wage, rent control, plastic bag bans, pesticides, sludge mining, etc. are all preempted! Preempt law was systematically set up to support corporate gain, with no regard to human and environmental health.
Nature and human life is under threat to physical survival. There is a battle between lifeless corporations versus life itself. We are currently operating in a system that was founded on slavery. Nature is treated as property. Nature is a community. It is not a commodity. Living in balance with Nature is essential for all life. Humans are on the process of destroying life with no regard for the consequence, or as yogis would say no regard for karmic imprints.
There is currently set up only a “small box” for the allowance of activism in the political sphere. We have to get out of the box. Yoga is a practice to take us outside of the box. It is a practice that brings us together. The solution is in our collaboration. Yoga reveals to us what we are not so that we can discover what we truly are.
Home Rule is the concept of communities coming together and creating their own Bill of Rights. We must stop fighting for what we don’t want and start to focus on what it is that we do want, and petition our movements towards that. Rights of Nature and human health need to be adopted into law.
To create fundamental change we have to break the immoral laws. The laws of our Constitution was not set up by God. The Constitution was set up by slave owners! A few men set these laws centuries ago that are now destroying us and our environment. The current laws are set up to keep people suppressed. It is more and more clear with the destruction of our environment for corporate gain that we have no rights as community members. How can we allow the elite few to manipulate and control the whole Earth for all it’s resources? We need to figure out a way back to a social movement. If the courts do not see that we have fundamental rights as humans, then we need to stop listening to the courts. We need to make them hear our voice and the voice of Nature.
It is time to create the new Bill of Rights. Environmental and Human inequality needs to be integrated into research, public policy, and is in need of support and the collaborative efforts of the effected populations (which is becoming evident is any living being), with the understanding that the environmental pollution inequalities are reflections of our current social belief system. There is an interconnection between social systems, technology, environmental pollution, and degradation. Unfortunately industrialization and globalization has been inconsiderate. May we continue to come together to critically think, problem solve, and discuss the concepts of capitalism, continued growth, and consumption for the government’s capital gain with disregard for the well being of the people, and the Earth. Thus, the result of increasing health disparities, environmental injustice, and pollution is now observed. With the same mindless consciousness, and desire for continued economic growth companies are trying to create new technologies to calm the public fear and awakening and to continue with economic growth. This again will support an unsustainable future. If we continue to do what we have always done, we will continue to get what we have always gotten.
In humble service and gratitude, may we be guided and protected. May we come to the practices of mindfulness through systems such as yoga to empty our minds of ignorance, and open our hearts to the interconnection between all beings and all-things. May we become receptive to new ways of being, peaceful solutions, and greater collaboration within our communities. May we no longer be distracted by lust and material entanglements that distract us from the battle for our right to life as human beings on this Earth. May we stand up for those who have no voice such as Nature, and the animals. As human beings alive right now, eating, breathing, living, and participating in our communities, politics is unavoidable. The system of yoga is worth study, for it offers many gems of wisdom to assist us.
As yogis we are activists and must use this platform to gather together for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but, so help us God.
