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The other day, I went to see the Louise Bourgeois retrospective at the Hirshhorn. The works are a combination of exquisite technique and in-your-face, challenging emotions. I had a friend who raged at me once because I had created a piece that was radically, polemically feminist. “That’s not art; art is only meant to be beautiful and aesthetic, not to be political,” said my friend. Although he could not have questioned Bourgeois as an artist — her technique is too good — he might still have raged at it. (The high school group being shown art on a field trip, while I was at the exhibit, was scurried through a room or two, much to my amusement).
Seeing the exhibit led me to think of the purported purpose of left-handed tantric practices, which are meant to challenge us, turn us upside-down and inside out, and question what we recognize as the divine.
You may have noticed that I do not say what I will be teaching. In my blogs and classes, when referring to the philosophy that inspires me, I speak of what I will be reading, what I will be contemplating, and what I will be exploring. It is not false humility. It is a recognition that reading and contemplating a work even several times over a few years is not enough to be “teaching” it. My teaching can, however, authentically be inspired by that level of exploration. I make offerings of what sparks me to think, to practice, and to want to continue to delve ever more deeply into the yoga practices.
This session, I will be reading, contemplating, and inspiring my own practices and my class plans from the Pratyabhijnahrdayam.
Pratyabhijnahrdayam: The Secret of Self-Recognition, J. Singh (Motalal Banarsidass Publishers, Reprinted 2008)
The Splendor of Recognition: An Exploration of the Pratyabhijna-hrdayam, Swami Shantananda with Peggy Bendet (SYDA Foundation, 2003)
