Extra Credit: Yoga

I attended an hour long yoga class at the VCU Cary St gym. It was my first time trying yoga and was a lot more intense that I had anticipated. I would consider myself to be pretty flexible but some of the positions were hard for me to hold steadily. Although it was a little bit difficult, it also made me feel pretty relaxed towards the end.  I became more aware of my body but mostly how I hold my spine, neck, legs, arms, and torso. The slow movement is relaxing. The soft music and soft-spoken instructions also help the relaxation. I also found the breathing exercises to rather comforting. At the end, I felt that I could breathe better and my muscles were more relaxed and not so tense.

I also did zazen with the teaching assistant of my Zen Buddhism class and found it to be even more difficult although it was less movement. In the yoga class, every few seconds we would switch positions and I found some difficult due to insufficient flexibility. Zazen on the other hand was difficult because I needed to clear my mind and remain in one position. Both classes were less than an hour long and were difficult in their own ways but I felt that zazen was more of a spiritual exercise while the yoga class was intended more to relax the muscles of the body. It is now quite evident to me that yoga has become an exercise for merely fitness in this country rather than for spiritual improvement. In our class and in the articles assigned, we were taught that “underlying all forms of yoga is the understanding that the human being is more than the physical body, and that through the course of discipline, it is possible to discover what this more is.” I felt that zazen tried to reach out more for our atman, or our true identity through mediation and wiping clear obstacles and selfish desires. Yoga on the other hand, I felt didn’t try to aim for this at all.