Larananda at Yoga Oasis East
Yoga tradition makes a helpful distinction between pleasure and joy. For example, A Dove bar brings pleasure, while joy comes from things like looking into a dog’s eyes and recognizing that the same life force animates the dog and me. The dog and I want many of the same things, and for many of the same reasons. That is cause for joy.
This distinction between joy and pleasure is key to what follows.
I created a Facebook profile, and my circle of cyberfriends includes 37 yoga practitioners among my 59 friends. I open the newsfeed each day and it is brimming with talk about shakti and prana, and the benefits of downward-facing-dog.
B. J. Galván posts from whatever country she is in at the time as she teaches the world to do handstands. I’ve taken her class three times. Laura Kay posts from Bocas del Toro, Panamá, where she built her own yoga studio from scratch. This flow of what all these folks are up to sets me up to be attentive and receptive to joy in my own experience.
Depending on your experience with yoga, this banter might strike you as frivolous as a daily pillow fight, or as meaningful as a stroll among the giant sequoia trees. In the Facebook environment it is a mix of both. The blend may well be perfect. Yoga loses its value if it becomes ponderous.
In spite of the silliness of the online environment, a steady stream of goodness comes through this endless chatter. I experience joy when l see people acknowledge the contributions of others. I also delight in the wonderful photographs posted by Dan Plumer and Stephanie Newbold. Their work is filled with shakti, but photographers don’t call it that. By any name, they inspire me.
Every day I grow more fond of the people behind the posts. Maybe the purpose of online networking is starting to come into focus.
But, before I get either psychological, or scientific, I just want to say I like the company I keep, and the joy they spread.
