Yoga On & Off the Mat

Do I Really Have to Touch My Toes?

By Brooke Hewes, 7-25-07

	Yoga On & Off the Mat

I’ve almost got it … almost got it ... Just one more inch and my right hand will wrap around my left big toe. I’m almost … I’m almost … I’m not there.

Again, I try.

With a deep inhale I reach my right arm in front of my seated body, pause, and swing it around my back towards my flexed foot. I just barely touch my toe, but cannot quite grab it for the full expression of bound lotus pose (baddha padmasana). A quick glance around the room finds others sitting comfortably in lotus (padmasana) with both arms wrapped behind their backs, hands clasping opposite feet, heads resting on the floor in front of them. Resigned to my own version, I grab my ankles and lower my forehead to the ground. After a few breaths, I lay back in savasana (corpse pose).

Corpse pose signals the end of my practice. Time to let go. Yet here I am, a day later, still wondering if I will ever achieve that pose. And if I don’t, what does that mean — about my yoga practice and about me? Better yet, if I do get that pose — if I am able to summon a little more movement and flexibility — does it really matter? If the goal of yoga is enlightenment, or stretching the mind and body into universal consciousness, does it matter if I can touch my nose to my toes or contort my body to resemble a pigeon, frog or lotus flower?

Thus the question is begged: Why do I practice physical yoga at all?

Easily, I list a dozen practical reasons: yoga feels good; it builds strength and flexibility, eases pain, boosts immunity, encourages detoxification; yoga brings together like-minded folks, fostering friendship and community; it is good exercise with the added bonus of clearing my mind, invigorating my senses, and (I’m not afraid to say it), toning my abs and tightening my butt.

That’s a lot, and for many would substantiate an answer. Still, I can’t escape the elephant in the room—the seeming paradox between a tradition that celebrates a non-dualistic world and admonishes material, corporeal attachments, and a practice that focuses on achieving “perfect” physical form.

Second question, off-shoot of first: Do asanas (postures) contradict traditional yoga by their focus on the body?

Well, as it turns out, no. Triangle pose (trikonasana) does prepare us for enlightenment, both when we can achieve it and when we cannot.

Yoga postures restore health and balance to our bodies and mind. Asanas encourage good posture, even energy and blood flow, proper cell nutrition and balanced musculature. They increase agility, balance, and endurance; move and tone all muscles, nerves and glands; and reduce fatigue. And because our bodies and minds are intimately connected through nerves, organs, breath and blood, a healthy body supports healthy thoughts. Asanas, then, help us live more peacefully in our bodies and in the world.

And when we are not in our bodies — when we don’t have a practice that grounds us — we are disconnected, and as nationally renowned yoga teacher Donna Farhi writes in her book Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit we are “dissociated from our instincts, intuitions, feelings and insights ... [and from] other people’s feelings and other people’s sufferings.”

Eventually, this disconnect hatches violence and suffering within, between and around ourselves.

“Every violent impulse begins in a body filled with tension,” Farhi writes. “Every failure to reach out to someone in need begins in a body that has forgotten how to feel.”

Beyond the practical benefits of asana, the many postures of Hatha Yoga are powerful symbols within the context of non-dualistic traditions (or those traditions that believe that divinity is the inherent condition of each person). Start with the names: tree pose (vrksasana), lotus pose (padmasana), and pigeon pose (eka pada rajakapotasana); sage pose (bharadvajasana), crane pose (bakasana), cobra pose (bhujangasana), and the list goes on to include hundreds of gods, animals and plants. The practitioner, by emulating the animal or god, articulates the non-dualistic connection between all things.

This connection extends to the universe, which like our bodies is fluid, dynamic and rhythmic. Or as B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the first guru’s to bring Hatha Yoga West, writes in his book Light On Yoga, “In the beating of his pulse and the rhythm of his respiration, he recognizes the flow of the seasons and the throbbing of the universal life.”

Asanas, then — by calming the body and mind, cultivating pointed concentration and uniting opposing energies and parts — symbolize the ultimate union of yoga.

Asanas also act as mirrors. If one tends toward self criticism and competition, chances are one will be self critical and competitive in your physical practice. If one errs on the side of caution, one will likely have a conservative routine. The physical practice helps us identify those qualities that need attention and transformation, as well as those qualities that deserve support and praise.

As means to a spiritual end, as well as spiritual ends themselves, asanas are incredible tools. Like all tools, though, we must be cautious with our intention and the amount of force that we exert on them. We may be emulating deities, but we must remember that our divine nature exists whether or not we look a certain way. In fact, writes Dr. David Frawley, author of 20 books and president of the American Council of Vedic Astrology, in his book Yoga and Ayruveda, yoga should never be reduced to asana.

“While yoga asana can afford a good doorway into the vast temple of yoga, they are hardly the entire structure or its central deity,” he writes.

In fact, many great yogis were not skilled asana practitioners, just as many skilled at asanas do not have deep devotional practices.

Ultimately, yoga is not about touching your toes (phew!!!).  Yoga is about practicing to touch your toes. It isn’t about perfect grasping or perfect alignment (or looking perfect in tight pants and tiny tees), but narrowing the distance between your body and mind. Yoga is about re-inhabiting your body, and letting judgment and criticism fade in favor of compassion.

Or as Farhi so eloquently writes, again in Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit, “Whether you attain any particular pose becomes irrelevant once you make a commitment to honor and respect where you really are.”

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