The Yoga of Homelessness
Yoga, of course, is now a word in common usage. Most folks, if thinking of yoga, automatically think of "hatha yoga" -- the cultivation of the body as a vehicle of soul enlightenment. There are, though, a number of other basic yogic disciplines: like jnana (wisdom), karma (service), and kriya (breath and wisdom combination) from among others. But what is the actual meaning of the word "yoga"?
Simply put, "yoga" means to yoke or bind one thing to another: specifically, yoga means to bind the individual soul to the Oversoul: the self to the "Divine Consciousness". In terms of the Perennial Philosophy, yoga serves the intention of Self-Realization...
Looking through the lens of quantum physics, what then might yoga be?
A startling discovery of quantum physics is the essential non-materiality of that which we consider the "material world". Atoms, as we now know if not fully understand, are "now a wave, now a particle". Indeed, the constituent "parts" of an atom exist within a virtual sea of infinite emptiness. In other words, if the atoms that "are every human being currently alive" were to be relieved of their combined "emptiness", all that would remain would be about the size of a cube of sugar. More, the "now a wave, now a particle" nature of atoms (light) vary according to the designs of the observer... one cannot help but wonder is quantum physics a branch of yogic thought?
Niels Bohr in 1926 said that light was both a wave and a particle. Heisenberg in turn said, "The common division of the world into subject and object, inner world and outer world, body and soul, is no longer adequate..." John Wheeler, a student of Bohr's, added and expanded upon Bohr's supposed duality with his own, suggesting that Mind and Universe, like wave and particle, constitute another complimentary pair... (Art & Physics, Pg. 23) Mind, or cosmic consciousness, has long been theorized and experienced by yogis as the unifying force: yoga is the process of the yogi pursuing the Thinker...
As human beings, we exist simultaneously on multiple levels. The first, and most obvious, we are physical bodies which slowly "enter" the mind of self-awareness and exist "separate" from the abstraction of cosmic consciousness... Nevertheless, to one degree or another, every human being comes to "see" an inter-weaving of the life-serving systems provided by the Universe (seed-water-plant-oxygen-food-life...) And for us humans, the life-serving system of family-community is equally fundamental. Philosophy, spirituality, metaphysics, and the arts especially recognize the possibility of living a life, "mind-to-Mind"...
As our self-awareness continues to expand, we (most often?) come to recognize a "connection" between ourselves, other humans, other beings, and the entirety of the earth and physical universe. The "link" of connection is most often called soul: it is that "within" which sparks us with life-passion: with all of our desires for delight, for pleasure, for happiness, for community, and for the altruistic ideas of peace, justice, equality, harmony, and a general sharing of goodness. Likewise, it is that "within" that sparks all of the great arts and all of the great hungers that are the Root Sources of our Earth Spirituality...
More: as living beings of mostly-empty-space, our soul intuits its essential nature of life-without-a-home: everybody exists as a temporary structure of coalesced atoms that will, as a matter of fact, be released from form, later if not sooner... Our bodies are but temporary shelters for that portion of the Universal Consciousness that is "ours"... With this in "mind", yoga then becomes but a humble bow to the temporary. The "Yoga of Homelessness" is the reverence that rises in our mind that we in turn offer to the Thinker of the Thought of "us"... The "Yoga of Homelessness" is the conscious cultivation of an attitude and a way of life that offers the possibility of a "happy homelessness": for home is never a simple rental house. Home is our Place: our Refuge: our Safety, our Rest, and the established Renewal of "us" with "It"...
The heart of yoga is not the downward dog (however beneficial that might be). Rather, it is the yearning, the hunger, and the surging desire that motivates our seemingly separate mind-bodies, to seek, to search out, our Home, our Refuge from our conditioned homelessness. Ultimately, all thought is the process of entering a love-tangle with the Thinker-before-Thought. Home is our Place of Loving: our "bed" is the simplicity of our longing for the Cosmic Beloved: our "food" is the remembrance-practice of "Not two, not two": our "festival" is the Welcome Home of our Remembered Oneness...
[Note: the Reader should, of course, be aware that The Yoga of Homelessness could have been written from any number of "vantage points": some being Creation or Celtic Spirituality, Divine Mother or Goddess, Taoist or Buddhist, or even Sufi or Franciscan Spirituality... apply it or not according to the insights of your heart!]
You the one in all, say who I am. Say I am you. -- Rumi
Simply put, "yoga" means to yoke or bind one thing to another: specifically, yoga means to bind the individual soul to the Oversoul: the self to the "Divine Consciousness". In terms of the Perennial Philosophy, yoga serves the intention of Self-Realization...
Looking through the lens of quantum physics, what then might yoga be?
A startling discovery of quantum physics is the essential non-materiality of that which we consider the "material world". Atoms, as we now know if not fully understand, are "now a wave, now a particle". Indeed, the constituent "parts" of an atom exist within a virtual sea of infinite emptiness. In other words, if the atoms that "are every human being currently alive" were to be relieved of their combined "emptiness", all that would remain would be about the size of a cube of sugar. More, the "now a wave, now a particle" nature of atoms (light) vary according to the designs of the observer... one cannot help but wonder is quantum physics a branch of yogic thought?
Niels Bohr in 1926 said that light was both a wave and a particle. Heisenberg in turn said, "The common division of the world into subject and object, inner world and outer world, body and soul, is no longer adequate..." John Wheeler, a student of Bohr's, added and expanded upon Bohr's supposed duality with his own, suggesting that Mind and Universe, like wave and particle, constitute another complimentary pair... (Art & Physics, Pg. 23) Mind, or cosmic consciousness, has long been theorized and experienced by yogis as the unifying force: yoga is the process of the yogi pursuing the Thinker...
As human beings, we exist simultaneously on multiple levels. The first, and most obvious, we are physical bodies which slowly "enter" the mind of self-awareness and exist "separate" from the abstraction of cosmic consciousness... Nevertheless, to one degree or another, every human being comes to "see" an inter-weaving of the life-serving systems provided by the Universe (seed-water-plant-oxygen-food-life...) And for us humans, the life-serving system of family-community is equally fundamental. Philosophy, spirituality, metaphysics, and the arts especially recognize the possibility of living a life, "mind-to-Mind"...
As our self-awareness continues to expand, we (most often?) come to recognize a "connection" between ourselves, other humans, other beings, and the entirety of the earth and physical universe. The "link" of connection is most often called soul: it is that "within" which sparks us with life-passion: with all of our desires for delight, for pleasure, for happiness, for community, and for the altruistic ideas of peace, justice, equality, harmony, and a general sharing of goodness. Likewise, it is that "within" that sparks all of the great arts and all of the great hungers that are the Root Sources of our Earth Spirituality...
More: as living beings of mostly-empty-space, our soul intuits its essential nature of life-without-a-home: everybody exists as a temporary structure of coalesced atoms that will, as a matter of fact, be released from form, later if not sooner... Our bodies are but temporary shelters for that portion of the Universal Consciousness that is "ours"... With this in "mind", yoga then becomes but a humble bow to the temporary. The "Yoga of Homelessness" is the reverence that rises in our mind that we in turn offer to the Thinker of the Thought of "us"... The "Yoga of Homelessness" is the conscious cultivation of an attitude and a way of life that offers the possibility of a "happy homelessness": for home is never a simple rental house. Home is our Place: our Refuge: our Safety, our Rest, and the established Renewal of "us" with "It"...
The heart of yoga is not the downward dog (however beneficial that might be). Rather, it is the yearning, the hunger, and the surging desire that motivates our seemingly separate mind-bodies, to seek, to search out, our Home, our Refuge from our conditioned homelessness. Ultimately, all thought is the process of entering a love-tangle with the Thinker-before-Thought. Home is our Place of Loving: our "bed" is the simplicity of our longing for the Cosmic Beloved: our "food" is the remembrance-practice of "Not two, not two": our "festival" is the Welcome Home of our Remembered Oneness...
[Note: the Reader should, of course, be aware that The Yoga of Homelessness could have been written from any number of "vantage points": some being Creation or Celtic Spirituality, Divine Mother or Goddess, Taoist or Buddhist, or even Sufi or Franciscan Spirituality... apply it or not according to the insights of your heart!]
You the one in all, say who I am. Say I am you. -- Rumi