Recently ,I have been asked by someone who does not practice yoga,if my practicing yoga leads me to an agnostic way of thinking or believing.I am not certain that yoga can really answer that question in a generalized fashion .I can only begin to an answer this question based on my own unique personal journey ,belief system. When all is said and done,I am mostly glad when direct questions are posed to me that rattle me some ,as the pursuit of self knowledge by definition should shake us up and question us at the core. In my case,that would be ,getting me off my high horse ,that place that I know makes me seem holier than thou because" I practice yoga" .I ask myself,"really!!!"
The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines an "agnostic"as a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality such as God is unknown and unknowable ,one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or nonexistence of God or god.
On first glance the haughty ,high horse me wants to prove that somehow yoga ,leads me to an awareness and sensitivity to all that which I can not describe in words,that somehow I have the unique privilege of knowing the unknowable ,the unsee-able ,the unexperiencable ,that which can not be known with our limited sensory apparatus.
Yoga is a practical practice .It is about moving through the dense layers of matter t of which we are made by moving,breathing,clearing space ,so to speak.Does this mean we become more spiritual by definition.I think not,we continue to remain in this form of matter, not knowing the unknowable.I delude myself in thinking that I know.Suspended belief is another matter of a more personal nature ,something that we come to on our own,ineffable by it's nature. perhaps an honest answer is that I am an agnostic who believes in mysteries, mysticism,poetry and all that which I hope we will continue to not know and remain in a state of revery about at least some of the time.....
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I'm certainly an agnostic yogi, and I like the "unknowable" definition. Often, I avoid using the term "agnostic" because people take it to mean that I'm wishy washy or just don't like to have to think about that kind of stuff. The reality, though, is that I think about it so much that I see the faults in both belief and non-belief...
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment,yes, this week I am immersed in agnostic ideation and am experiencing a kind of refined enchantment and comfort in realizing how believing and knowing are galaxies apart. We are not alone, I am starting to take interest in the hymns of the Rig Veda an ancient Vedic text in Sanskrit that is embedded in the agnostic tradition. It is comforting and exhilarating to be truthful about the conundrum of not being able to know that which is unknowable. Is in fact liberating....
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