Yoga is a very personal enquire. It’s not a competition nor a performance. Is not the display of physical aptitudes nor the cult to the body.  It’s not a fitness regime for sure, even though the practice takes care of the human body like no other physical discipline.

Yet, thousands of practitioners are daily distracted by the now so-called Yoga Porn in social media.

I have no judgment about practicing in skimpy clothing and I have many times in the past since our  Ashtanga practice is hot and sweaty. I’m Costarican and we have grown in the beaches with bikinis and sun since we were kids.  I understand the term “porn” more in the sense of exposing such a subtle spiritual Sadhana indiscriminately  for business purposes.

I also feel it present as yoga turns into a product of marketing in gyms,  as it becomes popular amongst athletes with loud music and a fad with tattooed beginner “yogis’ wearing label apparel as if going to a club.

The Parampara itself is asking us to take a moment of reflection and place more attention to the ethical, the relationship, the silence and the self enquiry instead of the glamorous, the distracting and the superficial. The problem with celebrities is there is no real connection to them, no matter how many million likes they are given (many of them bought by the same industry).We go back to the capitalist paradigm of objectified  human beings  selling unnecessary stuff. Fake news and stardom have become the daily bread of our timelines.

Yoga is relationship, first of all relationship to ourselves and the choices we make: do they take us closer to who we are or do they strand us from our core being into someone else’s perception of the practice?

Yoga is an experience and a very personal and intimate one.

Spiritual materialism is one of the loops into which the Samsara Hala Hala may take us. But no matter what I think,  that only applies to me.  I share it here because sometimes I feel very lonely in my enquiries and wonder if there are others out there who feel the same.  I live my yoga the best I can 24/24 as my Guru has asked me and try to keep a sane mind in the midst of life’s ups and downs.   The peak of Yoga for me is the clarity that comes to us in certain moments when life hits us hard and we must decide how to proceed,   who to approach and where to go.  It’s an invisible superpower and we are the only ones noticing if it enhances our lives or creates more chaos.

If the practice gives us the equanimity needed to create lives that are a manifestation of our truest deepest self,  that for me is that is real progress.

Every teacher and practitioner has the full right to display themselves as they wish since we live in a free world but it is up to us to use our discernment also and to understand anything that shines is not necessarily gold.   Walking in the present spiritual world feels like walking in a minefield.  Everything is changing so fast and the only thing that I understand in the craziness and turmoil is the steadiness of my relationship with my Guru.  Holding a boat steady is hard.  I held a yoga space for 16 years in Costa Rica and suffered all types of betrayals,  attacks,  gossip and misunderstandings.

But the beauty of yoga is that when I think about all those years I spent spreading the miracle I had found,   I only remember the good: my loyal students who are now becoming leaders in their own way; my satisfaction to see them smile again and the  deepest thank you notes I have been offered (even truer than all praises received in my previous job as a diplomat).  Joy for me is to see those who walk the talk thrive.  Some of them writing books,  others raising a family.  Good hearted people who are true jewels in the world.

It was worth it, that is all I can say.

Maybe we can all try to find those teachers with open hearts,  those who help us stay calm and grounded,  I have already chosen to unfollow whatever takes me into the hollow of past painful conditioning and reinforces the disconnection I suffered from my body,  which Yoga lovingly healed.

Those are the gifts practice has given me and they are the jewels that like diamonds,  will shine forever.