The Rise of Tight Butt Spirituality
Yoga and the Inexorable Rise of Tight Butt Spirituality
by Nick Seneca Jankel
How many come out of a yoga studio feeling the bliss of post-asana high… only to encounter a bum and feel a touch of irritation as they reach for their cellphone or car keys? This is just one everyday symptom, of many, of the meteoric rise of tight butt spirituality.
It’s estimated that over 20 million people do yoga in the US; and they spend a whopping $27 billion annually on yoga products. Yet how many have read Patanjali’s The Yoga Sutras; the Bhagavad Gita (so good that Gandhi called it his ‘handbook to life’, inspiring me to write a contemporary version of it as we speak); or know yoga means to ‘yoke together’ or ‘union’. Instead, brands have made physical yoga a lifestyle choice for those who want rock-hard buns with a smattering of feel-good spirituality… as long it doesn’t inconvenience political choices, consumer spending or career paths. This lifestyle – tight butt spirituality – offers an easy flash of spirit without demanding we deal with our darkside and that of the culture we live within.
I am no purist or ascetic; and live very much in this world. I love design, fine wines and the occasional all-night party. Yet I beseech the yoga community to move beyond saccharine (or stevia) platitudes and mass-produced Buddha heads, beyond simple tight butt spirituality, and unleash the self- and world-changing power of their practice. Unless people move beyond yoga as a tool for a sexy ass – and mindfulness as a way of getting more work done – the true power of these wisdom practices will be lost. Instead, they will be used to further deepen the crises of disconnection-driven capitalism, whether eating disorders and prescription pill addiction… or climate change and child poverty.
Yes physical yoga can give you a tight ass, contoured abs and positive vibrations. It can also be a great ‘gateway drug’ to deeper levels of self-awareness and awakening. But if it is relegated to a pseudo-spiritual exercise regime – spinning with a lotus blossom – it can fuel ego-driven habits; becoming an addictive prop, an escape zone from reality and way to prove athletic prowess with ever-harder asanas. The wily ego is tricky and can hijack our best intentions, especially when aided by an industry that wants to sell more yoga pants.
Those bums on the streets of Santa Monica, Boulder and Manhattan matter. They are symptoms of a culture that promotes money over meaning and separation over union. Real yoga, real union, can heal both us and this rift. Yoga, mindfulness, ecstatic dance are wisdom practices: They are designed to help us practice living from connection. They are not the end itself, even though we all love a cute derriere (on ourselves and others). They are a means to an end; the end itself being personal liberation and social emancipation.
Click HERE to Connect with your Daily Horoscope!
About the Author
Nick Seneca Jankel is a wisdom teacher, social entrepreneur, and in-demand innovation and leadership expert with a triple First from the University of Cambridge in medicine and philosophy. He has advised multinationals (Nike, Microsoft, Disney) and social organizations (Oxfam, WWF), written for newspapers and magazines (including The Guardian and The Financial Times), and anchored a BBC TV series. Everything Nick does is centered on “switching people on” – helping individuals, teams and organizations break through old patterns and create a thriving future. He is a partner of WECREATE and founder of Ripe & Ready.
Connect with Nick Seneca Jankel at: www.nickjankel.com
You make some great points. My favorite word since long before the yoga craze “Come-Union” aka communion.
As an FYI, there is already a modern re-telling of The Bhagavad Gita: the movie, The Legend of Bagger Vance. You may want to take a look at it.
Will check it out! Never saw it. Thanks for HT
This reply is a response to your moniker, “i’mforpeace.” I have an idea about how we might begin to make a change in our culture regarding the problem we have with police officers acting with deadly force or exacting punishment in any form without the right to do so. (Alluding to the officer who locked a woman in her hot car after observing that she did the same with her dog. He has no authority to mete out punishment.)
My idea is simple. We start calling them Peace Officers.
It’s what they are meant to do. When people behave within the parameters of the law, peace ensues.
Police
officers have become judge, jury, and executioner instead of those who
ensure others are abiding by the laws. Absolutely no one should have
that kind of power.
Change the words, change the mindset, change the behavior.
I have no forum, no blog, no connection to media. I’ve mentioned this idea to NPR and a few places on the internet, but no one has taken the idea seriously, but I know it could have a huge impact.