Yoga for a World Out of Balance

Yoga for a World Out of Balance: Teachings on Ethics and Social Action

By Michael Stone
Shambala Publications, November 30, 2008, $21.00

Yoga for a World Out of Balance is a refreshing look at why yoga practitioners and spiritual traditions concerned exclusively with the pursuit of inner peace and enlightenment for individuals is an inadequate and ineffective response to spiritual growth in today’s (or any other) world. The book convincingly and passionately argues for conceptualizing one’s personal spiritual growth as inseparable from spiritual evolution for all.

“A spiritual practice exclusively concerned with my enlightenment, my transcendence, or my emancipation from this life, this body, or this earth is not a spiritual practice tuned in to these times of ecological, social, physical, and psychological imbalance. The declining health of our ecosystems and the call for action in our cities, economies, communities, and families remind us that we don’t have time to wait for enlightenment in isolated caves or inner sanctums; instead it’s time to consider action in the world and inner practice as synchronistic and parallel.”

With these words Stone begins an exploration of some of “mythological sage” Patañjali’s wisdom teachings, originally written in what is now northern India between the third century BCE and the turn of that millennium. The yama (principles) are emphasized as being ethical guidelines, rather than commandments or rules, for how to act responsibly, as well as live joyfully and in a high state awareness and presence.

The book is divided into an exploration of the five principles: “nonharming,” “honesty,” “nonstealing,” “the wise use of energy” and “nonacquisitiveness.” Underlying these guidelines is an awareness of the inter-relatedness of all things and an understanding that the “self” is merely an illusion, born of believing that our bodies end with our skins and that the environment and all other life on the planet are not part of our physicality — as well as our emotional, mental and spiritual processes.

While Stone tends to speak initially to those who pursue spiritual development as self-involved individuals, feeling separate and differentiated from other people and the world around them, he also issues an intelligent and compassionate call for a form of social justice based in a heightened awareness of our “oneness.”

Through the practice of meditation, yoga and living life in awareness of our inter-relatedness with each other as well as with the Earth and all the life forms it sustains, one begins to experience the realization that “self” is merely an illusion. How can we separate ourselves from depleted uranium bombs being dropped half a world away, for example? Our lives are intertwined, related, connected with what caused the use of such weapons as well as the outcome of their use. To live as though we are not connected to every process or action taken in the world is a delusion that we are separate, contained, differentiated individuals.

Such a profound spiritual realization is difficult to explain through the logic of words, especially with limited space. However, the “illusion of self” is a realization that Patañjali, Stone and many other wisdom teachers have come to comprehend. When advocates of social justice come to this realization they comprehend that if there is no “self” then there is no “we” versus a “they” either.

Later in the book one becomes cognizant of the inherent implications of how we are more effective (not to mention happier) when we do not separate social action from inner enlightenment.

Stone makes a compelling case, even for those who don’t consider themselves to be “spiritual,” for how being the change you seek, honouring all life on the planet as well as thinking, speaking and acting with peaceful intent are key to transformational social change. His interpretation of Patañjali’s writings allows us to transcend concepts of right and wrong and enables us to understand how seeking balance in a complex web of relationships brings both inner and world peace, at their most comprehensive.—Zainab Amadahy

Zainab Amadahy is a mother, writer and activist. Her publications include the novel Moons of Palmares (1998, Sister Vision Press) as well as an essay in the anthology Strong Women’s Stories: Native Vision & Community Activism, (Lawrence & Anderson, 2004, Sumach Press). Most recently Zainab has contributed to In Breach of the Colonial Contract (Arlo Kemp, Ed. 2008) by co-authoring “Indigenous Peoples and Black People in Canada: Settlers or Allies?”