SWIHA Blog

The dominant culture would not just separate us from ourselves, it also separates us from each other. This is a way to keep us from being able to realize our collective power. But how do we balance acknowledging our individual lived experiences, with the need to come together to create the necessary shift? We must eventually move beyond our identities to see our cosmic connection to each other, and the Divine Source, and work together to create a world that reflects this cosmic union.

I started my yoga practice at home, when my grandmother gave me Richard Hittleman’s 28-day Exercise Plan. The cover depicted a thin, blonde woman in what looked to me like a contorted shape; an image that has many variations and has become the dominant depiction of what a yogi looks like. I’ve also spent most of my professional, academic and athletic life as one of few (or the only) BIPOC people in the room. So it wasn’t all that surprising that I found myself surrounded by bendy white women in my first studio yoga class. Since this was a normal experience for me — being or perceiving myself as the only BIPOC person surrounded by white people — I didn’t think twice about showing up again.

Early yoga systems were available, accessible and heterogeneous, offering a wide range of philosophies, meditations, and rituals designed to liberate the mind, body, and spirit from suffering. However, over time it became a tool of oppression in India’s caste system under British colonial rule. It was during British rule that the Indian elite were given the power to enforce colonial control, and the upper caste implemented systems that eventually criminalized the practice of yoga altogether.

Yoga mythology is full of stories of love and war, enlightenment and disillusionment, victory and defeat. Like all mythos, the epic tales from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana provide important insights for understanding our cosmic place in the universe, exploring the depth of human experience through a spiritual lens, and what it means to be engaged and connected to the unexplainable.

Yoga means union: The union of oneself and the divine source; the union of mind, body and spirit; the union of your internal Self with the self that manifests in the world. Yoga is not intended to be a passive practice of self-mastery, it’s a system for living that provides us with an ethical framework — the Yamas and Niyamas — for how we should treat ourselves, and how we should treat others.

The first pillar in this framework is Ahimsa (nonviolence or non-harming) which is often used to justify veganism as the standard diet for yogis. Stopping here makes ahimsa a one-dimensional practice focused on reducing violence against some beings (animals), while failing to look at the broader picture of reducing our harmful impact within society.

Editor’s Note: In keeping with SWIHA’s commitment to uplift BIPOC voices in the spiritual community, today’s guest blog is by Kimberlee Morrison, writer, yogi and founder of Love Revolution Yoga. She uses her voice and her yoga to create inclusion, understanding and empowerment. This blog gives insight in to ways that BIPOC folks in spiritual spaces are made to feel uncomfortable when speaking about injustice within their community and the anxieties unique to their experience. Thank you, Kimberlee!