Subscribe to SYTYCY
| If George Costanza Can Yoga, So Can You! |
*(Click "Watch on YouTube" if you click on this video and it doesn't start right away) Whether he was aware of it or not, good ole’ George Costanza from NBC's hit sit-com Seinfeld seeminly understood what it meant to bring things into balance…at least it appears he understood. In episode 22 of the show’s fifth season, it hit me!!!! Geroge Costanza was practicing yoga without even realizing it. During the episode, George proclaims that as of this very moment he will do the exact opposite of every initial instinct he has ever had because these instincts never led George to accomplish his desired goals. Therefore, doing the exact opposite must be the right thing to do. DISCLAIMER*** George Costanza may have taken his “yoga practice” to the extreme. I’m not endorsing stringent adherence to George Costanza’s advice nor do I think that heeding to George’s Hollywood generated recommendation will suddenly usher you into an era of finally becoming that advanced yoga practitioner you always dreamt of becoming nor will it propel you into a state of enlightenment. But it's certainly an interesting modern world comparision (is 1994 still considered modern?) with respect to yoga philosophy. Watch the above clip—it’s hilarious.Perhaps George Costanza was wiser than we gave him credit for becuase at least in this one episode George apprears to grasp the idea of pratipaksa bhavanam, an idea discussed in Sutra 33, Book II of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Let me try to summerize the idea of pratipaksa bhavanam in the most succinct way I can. Here goes... Because our thoughts give rise to our emotional state, when disturbed by a negative thought one should replace this thought with the opposite thought. Pratipaksa bhavanam is the discipline of first recognizing the negative thought pattern as counterproductive and then replacing that thought with the opposite (positive) thought. Practicing pratipaksa bhavanam allows one to cultivate the opposing attitude and in doing so, brings the psyche and the consciousness into a more balanced state. At the heart of the matter, this balanced and blissful state is precisely what yoga is all about. Mastery of physical asana is totally unnecessary in order to be successful at cultivating the opposing attitude and therefore achieving a balanced emotional state. Practicing pratipaksa bhavanam means letting go of our attachments, also known as raga in Sandskrit. Raga is the third of the five kleshas. The five kleshas include ignorance (avedyia), ego (asmita), attachment to that which is pleasurable and familiar (raga), aversion to the unpleasant and the uncertain (dvesha), and the desire to cling to bodily life (abhinivesa). Raga and dvehsa are opposites. Raga symbolizes our deepest attachmets in life and dveshas symbolizes our deepest aversions to that which we hate or fear. The conscious and consistent application of raga and dvesha into daily life is how the George Constanzas of the world can successfully break some of their old habits (samskaras). Thoughts, negative or positive, give rise to emotions; emotions govern our actions and our reactions. Therefore, Patanjali suggests that if one can change his or her environment from disturbed to undisturbed, from negative to positive, even from lightness to darkness then one can change his or her thought processes from constant negative thoughts to optimistic and favorable ones. Think of it this way: what will happen if you allow yourself to feed into just that one little negative thought? What are the consequences of allowing yourself to continue cruising down Antipathetic Avenue?
|
Comments