Dear Readers,
Our September issue is filled with insights and inspirations for deepening and growing in practice. I hope you enjoy the tutorials provided this month by our various contributing yoga teachers.
Letter
from the Editor
"The Business of Yoga"
Holly
This issue is also about the parallels of two traditions: the recovery tradition and the yoga tradition. Both Yoga and the recovery process unfold within the understanding that healing takes place on many levels. Both, for instance, assume that the human being has a spiritual nature that begs for care and expression.
Both support healing and growth by proceeding gradually, in very specific stages or steps which seek to establish stability. There is for instance, 12 integrated steps in AA, and 8 integrated steps to the process outlined in classical yoga.
Both also have support systems in place for the rigors that naturally arise in the purification process that ensues from a life of honesty and courage. “Sangha”, or sitting together in the
company of the truth is considered the first medicine for our suffering from the yogic perspective, and the AA tradition has its meeting, and its tradition of spiritual mentorship in a one on one setting. So Yoga and Recovery. They have much in common.
We offer this insight as a means of expressing wonder, and also to contribute to a growing conversation about what spiritual evolution means in a world that is changing so fast.
We also do not intend to diminish the uniqueness of any particular tradition. In some sense, we know for instance that Yoga and AA are not the same. For example, to be in a room that offers the 12 steps as a means of recovery, one must have a desire to stop drinking to be in that room, or be a member of Al-Anon if it’s an open meeting.
We are in no way promoting a specific 12-step group nor are we as a magazine affiliated with one.
With love, respect and courage towards all . . . .
Holly
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