The more we process, the less we know

I got up extra early this morning to have time for both meditation and asana practice. The meditation addition is new for me, and it is hard. At risk of sounding hopelessly trite, the speed at which we are expected to process information in this modern world makes it almost impossible to settle into a contemplation of what that information means for each person, and what one can discern from it.

I am learning that in classic yoga tradition, these are the three parts of the psyche: information processing (manas), identity (ahankara), and discernment (buddhi). And while the ultimate goal in that tradition is to pause or eliminate all of these elements so that you can perceive the divine, it seems to me that the further you get away from the discernment necessary to know that they are even there, the harder this would be.

I am (still) wrestling with the concepts in classic yoga tradition, and they certainly emerged in their own context, like all spiritual texts. Like all texts. Like this post.

But even in a more contemporary setting, the idea makes sense. The more time we spend flicking through social media images, an activity that manifestly has an impact on our identity or sense of self, the further we are from discernment and thus from our spirituality, or - if that makes sense to you - from G-d.

Turns out classic yoga tradition had something to say about social media. That’s some foresight.

Next up: in-studio vinyasa class at YogaSole Tuesday April 19 6pm EDT. See you there?