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Punk Rock Yoga
While cruising around on Craigslist, I came across a job listing for a place in Bellevue (outside Seattle proper) called Punk Rock Yoga. They practice Hatha yoga “with a twist” (obviously):
We practice yoga in unconventional spaces using unconventional music, and when we can, live musicians. Our goal is to create peace amidst the urban chaos and embrace the ancient yoga tradition of Do-It-Yourself.
And under their FAQ page, they continue this line of explanation under the heading of “What’s so punk about it?”
Yoga is the ultimate DIY, every principle in yoga says - discover it yourself, interpret it yourself, try it yourself, rely on yourself, etc. All you need for yoga is you (not a designer yoga mat bag). We approach yoga with the attitude of “anyone can do yoga” and we welcome everyone with an open mind.
Now, maybe that’s not just a marketing line to attract a hip young audience and “separate themselves from the pack” of all the other millions of yoga studios out here. But is combining punk rock and yoga really an appropriate or realistic juxtaposition? Does it really fully respect either of the traditions that it’s fusing together?
Being somebody who is often combining things willy-nilly myself, I often get caught in this argument with myself. How much is it okay to strip-mine cultural traditions for your own purposes? Is this a wholly bad thing, or is it something that people simply do naturally as they acquire experiences and knowledge in their lives? Is there a way that we can combine things that doesn’t diminish the original traditions but actually strengthens and builds and adds new life into them? I’m certainly not a purist when it comes to pretty much anything, but I do worry about distorting things that are how they are for a reason. I mean, if we just go around doing this type of cultural re-mixing without questioning it or looking at what we’re doing, are we just going to turn the entire world into one big worldwide idiotic branding nightmare like Yoga Booty Ballet? I certainly hope not. But maybe that’s the wave of the future and maybe we should embrace The First Church of Jesus Christ, Elvis. Long live the King! God save the Queen!
HECK… what’s yoga even about anyways? Does anybody even know anymore?
- What’s Enlightenment Anyway?
- Natya Yoga
- Put this in your download queue and smoke it
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May 16th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
The whole yoga scene is so full of marketing gimmickry you could probably do a lot worse than “punk rock yoga” still once you had done that for awhile I would hope you would seek out something more authentic. This“punk rock vedanta” post on Key 23 was very stimulating when I started learning about dzogchen, though now I see some ways in which its oversimplified.
May 16th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Congrats, Tim, you win the prize! There’s a line in The Yoga of Power where Evola points out that “Hatha” is a tantric practice and that one translation is, literally, “violent” path. He wrote that in the first half of this century. If he were still in this world he’d probably have polished the jackboots and started kicking major raw-foodist yoga-pilates ass right now. (though he was a vegetarian himself)
May 17th, 2006 at 4:31 am
a culture gets what it asks for. if we let marketing people shape our cultural landscape then we will get these juxtapositions that suggest a different thing, when the core of the thing, in this case yoga, remains the same. for the uninitiated, punk rock yoga or surf yoga or or nude yoga may be appealing, but for the person practicing and understanding the benifits that yoga provides will want purity.
like soccer or baseball or fish and chips. if you put cheese on it, it`s not going to be fish and chips anymore.
but……….punk rock yoga might be fun and if it provides entertainment for enough people eventually nobody willl be able to remember a time when the two things were seperate.
judgementally speaking though, if you need punk rock adrenalization you aren`t looking for the yogic experience. i have noticed that yoga is being marketed as a “workout” and a such will become prey to trivialisation. it`s also a form of entertainment and socialisation for many who aren`t necessarily ever going to become aware of internal energetic states but are going to fixate on attire and designer mats. and swastika tattoos. i heard someone recently saying that the “new” thing is to do yoga in a sauna………because sting is doing it. he`s drinking pee too.
May 17th, 2006 at 8:20 am
Yoga has help me balance much of my internal turmoil and that has been reflected in an external calm and peace as well. As someone who germinated in the punk rock culture of the late 70’s — all through the 80’s — and still have many lingering vestiges of that development lingering in my soul, I appreciate a “punk rock” approach to yoga.
No, my yoga classes are not like that. I might check it out, but I don’t think it would be where I would feel most comfortable today. Then again, I’m 35 now and most of my “inner chaos” has resolved itself. Would I be more open to TRY yoga if something like this happened to me when I was 15? Hells yes!
To me, it’s about broadening the base. Opening up the gates to the unwashed masses. Maybe….just maybe…if the exposure to Yoga happens young and in an unorthodox setting, it might be remembered later or integrated into the self as a viable option.
I know that my DharmaPunx group (Noah Levine) has been instrumental in allowing me to be “me” and also to be still. Noah always says that the Buddha was the original Rebel Saint.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
If it leads to liberation, it is a good thing, right?
Which brings up another question: Does it lead to liberation? Though I doubt any of us could ever know, IMHO the answer is probably a resounding: it depends.
The idea of purity is a joke, like the idea of authenticity in food. If I go to a Mexican restaurant does it need to be authentic? Fuck no. It just needs to be good.
In conclusion, punk rock yoga is what it is, nothing more and nothing less.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
I no longer accept that as a given. What’s liberation, anyway? Why should that be the end all be all?
May 17th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
[…] Good post at Pop Occulture about punk rock yoga, some yoga class somewhere that combines hatha yoga with punk tunes and a DIY aesthetic. Tim raises interesting points as usual. This time, however, I disagreed fairly strongly with what he said. Here’s the tender meat of his ambivalent stance to the class: How much is it okay to strip-mine cultural traditions for your own purposes? Is this a wholly bad thing, or is it something that people simply do naturally as they acquire experiences and knowledge in their lives? Is there a way that we can combine things that doesn’t diminish the original traditions but actually strengthens and builds and adds new life into them? […]
May 17th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
the state we are in has no comparison to the state we could be in if we did something different…….so how do we know we are free……in comparison to what. it`s like the pitch that if you do such and such or eat such and such you`ll live longer…..really, longer than what?
May 17th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Hatha yoga is a joke. Why do these people insist on jumping over yama, niyama, asana, pranayama?? Oh, wait, “spirituality” is not actually involved. It’s just a ploy to get the DIY kids (even 10 year-old punk rockers if you read the FAQ) money.
Did you read the article about all the 18+ indie kids in Seattle going to hipster church on Cap Hill? Religion for the new generation is not going to be pretty…
May 18th, 2006 at 12:30 am
Yeah, I did read that article and posted about it here:
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006...6/attack-of-the-seattle-megachurches/
Well good, then at least it will be consistent with how it’s been for other generations as well.
Again, I don’t know a lot about yoga, so I may be talking out of my ass: but I have always wondered how people could separate yoga out as a simple form of exercise when it seems like the exercise part may actually be the least important of what yoga is really all about. It seems like the physical aspects of it are only after-effects of the spiritual discipline which seems mostly lost on people who walk around with yoga mats because its trendy…
May 18th, 2006 at 12:58 am
[…] My post on punk rock yoga sparked an interesting line of conversation over on a blog called Gnostocosmosis. Author Joe Chip sums up our interaction around the subject of enlightment: I commented with, “If it leads to liberation, it is a good thing, right?” […]
May 18th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
As far as I’m aware of, most people like their canned doses of religion & spirituality to be spoon-fed to them and don’t like to venture off too far on their own… Yes, to do proper yoga one must control aspects of habit, mind, breath and body, not just the body and most certainly not in the superficial guises the physical yoga is being used in today.
Chapter 12, Canto 2 of the Srimad Bhagavatam:
Sukadeva Gosvami said: Then, O King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the age of Kali.
A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.
May 18th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
Canto 12, Chapter 2, sorry. It’s been a long day!