“The identification of the human woman with the Universal Goddess is most explicit in tantric theology- yet the very existence of female masters, lineage holders and tantric adepts, although referred to repeatedly by tantric texts, is still doubted by some… Here there is no quarter given to feminist spiritual yearnings, or for women mystics to…
Tag: tantra
Coming To Grips With The Divine: The Sacred Language of the Hand
“Our ability to grasp, to build, and to make our thoughts real lies inside this complex of bones, nerves, and vessels”…“The hand is a signature for who we are and what we can attain.” Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body. In the past year…
Sex And The “Bleaching” of Yoga History
There is no denying that William Broad’s tactic of tweaking the lowest common denominator in search of publicity hit the mark once again. His latest NYT article “Yoga and Sex Scandals: No Surprise Here” caused an uproar when he asked in the face of yoga mogul John Friend’s dizzying fall from grace — why yoga produces so many philanderers?
Chiding the yoga community for seldom mentioning that the discipline began as a sex cult, he goads,“ this is hardly the first time that yoga’s enlightened facade has been cracked by sexual scandal…so why does the resulting uproars leave so many people shocked and distraught?”
Which quite frankly, is what I’ve wondered myself. Because who cares about Friend or any other guru’s moral failings, they’re human after all. I don’t understand why Friend’s sexual trysts are seen as an assault on the holy edifice of yoga. Why do we let Broad get under our skin?
While I get why influential yoga bloggers such as YogaDork and Roseanne Harvey rushed in to trounce Broad’s claims linking yoga with philandering as “simplistic and irresponsible” and “idiotic’ – what I don’t understand is the growing undercurrent of hysteria being exhibited around the topic of yoga and sex.
body divine yoga 