Yogic 2

A few weeks ago I was sitting in the studio doing some editing work on various yoga programme recordings when one of the studio guys said “it is important to have a presence in your voice, because that is what is heard”. Your voice should not sound TOO yogic.

 

Too yogic?  What did he mean?

So I asked him “how can a voice be TOO yogic?”. The answer I got was that it would sound too calm and monotonous. Is a calm and monotonous voice really yogic?  Surely it is just calm, monotonous and boring?

 

I often hear people say that he or she is so yogic, this person or that person is so yogic.

How is a person acting when they are yogic? What is being yogic and how can something be TOO yogic?

 

Yogic =

calm?

boring?

unfeeling?

somewhat apathetic?

liking routine?

humourless?

 

If yogic is the above, I for one do not wish to be yogic.

 

Or is it like this?

 

Yogic =

conscious?

empathetic?

understanding?

intuitive?

 

What presence, consciousness and empathy have to do with calm can be open to debate. I agree that someone can be TOO calm, but I find it hard to understand that something/someone can be TOO conscious (yogic).

 

So if I am yogic I am calm verging on boring?

 

Is it the case that the best thing a yogic person can imagine doing is sitting on a mountaintop, alone, half naked and basking in his own consciousness?

If I don’t like sitting on a mountaintop alone, or don’t ONLY like that, does this mean I am not yogic? Am I not then conscious?

 

I love fast cars. Not reading about them or admiring them, but driving them. Sitting behind the wheel and stepping on the gas! Wow, what a feeling, what a craving.
Each spring when the ice and snow have gone and the roads are dry and cleared of grit, I get that craving in my accelerator foot. Every single time!

I have changed many, many habits since I began my journey towards consciousness. I have meditated thousands upon thousands upon thousands of hours and I have spent a fair few of these hours trying to reach an insight where I do NOT like to drive fast. Because you are not supposed to, are you?  Not if you are a conscious yoga teacher, whatever would people think? It cannot be YOGIC?

 

Part of the inner dialogue I had then ran along lines such as “some part of my mind has not calmed down yet. I am a fraud! I am not conscious! That is not judging, that is the truth. Continue meditating!”.

 

But now I have given up and gained other insights that I was not looking to find. I acknowledge with delight that I have given up the search for some kind of insight that is not going to appear. Insights arrive when the time is right, you cannot go looking for them.

 

So I have given up, accepted myself and embrace the joy, the butterflies in my stomach and craving to go on a rapid and invigorating drive, a far too seldom event. This is mostly on account of the climate and access to a fast car, but when this kind of car becomes available and the roads are clear and dry, I do not hesitate. I do not sit down and meditate or think this is something I OUGHT not to enjoy….. What! It would be absolutely crazy to attempt to find a way NOT to have fun, so I like it, accept it and let the feeling be there.

 

Driving like a car thief, is that yogic? Actually, I think it is if it is done with a broad smile and full of joy.