RA

Swaying Mountains: Moving into Stillness in a Hot Community

Julien Cossette York University

Abstract

This article contributes to a growing body of anthropological work on the senses and on yoga as an experiential, embodied practice. It began as an inquiry into the oxymoronic lumping of movement and stillness in yoga teachers’ suggestion to “move into stillness.” Through an autoethnographic description of my sweaty participation in a community of the Greater Toronto Area, my aim is to explore this particular relation between movement and stillness. I first discuss my contention that hot yoga is a “kinaesthetic culture” (Samudra 2008:666)—a culture mediated by movement that highly values a sense of motion as a way of knowing—that considers body, mind, and breath as interconnected. I then elaborate on a sensory model specific to its practice, and further argue that yoga cannot be adequately represented by the limits of a Western five-sense model, based on binary oppositions of movement/stillness and mind/body, which problematically excludes kinaesthesia from its sensorium. Finally, I return to my initial inquiry to discuss how the embodied mutual constitution of movement and stillness actually constitutes, in my view, the epitome of a larger biosocial configuration of a yogic way of moving and sensing.

Keywords: Senses; movement/stillness; yoga

Come to the edge. We might fall. feet connecting with the floor felt Come to the edge. It’s too high! COME TO THE immediately relaxed. A wave had just EDGE! And they came, And we pushed, And washed over my body, liberating me from they flew. the constraints of the external world. I - Christopher Logue climbed the carpet-covered stairs to the practice room. As I stepped in, the change in Mountains are actually walking. If you can floor texture struck my body: from the understand that mountains walk, you can softly abrasive woven carpet to the warm understand impermanence. bamboo, my feet felt the difference and - Michael Stone tingled with energy and appreciation. The room was relatively dark, as if candlelit. Its Prologue dimmed lighting showed respect to the early morning darkness. The heat coated my Half-awake, my movements were smooth body, a comforting feeling that reminded me and calm. In my mind, there was nothing of the warm blankets I was wrapped in at else but yoga: no to-do lists, no essays, no home minutes earlier. Only a few other worries. Once my shoes were removed, my people were quietly present in the room.

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 31 Softly, I walked towards a spot, my feet their way to (or back from) class with their carefully pressing down from toes to heels rolled mats, trendy stores selling premium with each step. I squatted to unroll my mat yoga-specific attire, and more. The and towel, cautious of my movements to popularity of yoga in North America has, avoid unnecessary noise. indeed, grown exponentially over the past Lowering my bum onto the floor, I two decades (Kern 2012:30; Philp 2009). extended my legs down my mat and finally With the exception of the work of lowered my upper body, opening my palms Indologists surveying classic yoga traditions, towards the ceiling for Savasana (Corpse however, anthropologists and other social pose; Figure 11). In my apparent “stillness,” I scientists have been relatively slow to catch was locating my breath. I could feel my on the study of this practice (Smith 2007:29). chest and belly move in a wavelike fashion, The situation has only recently changed, my muscles extending and relaxing, and however, as timely discussions of yoga—its even some uncanny contractions—pressure mainstream commercialization in the and tingling—in my sternum. My breath felt Western world, its gentrifying effects, the like it was extending to my whole body, my certain economic homogeneity of muscles simultaneously micro-vibrating practitioners’ demographics, and with a new-found energy. With each exhale, intellectual property rights debates, for I sunk a little more into the floor, melting example—have taken off (see Fish 2006; Kern onto my mat, lulled by the humming sound 2012; Philp 2009; Veer 2007). of the class’ collective breathing. Content, a While those discussions are voluntary light smile of satisfaction was necessary and insightful, Morley (2001) has shining on my face. argued that academic discussions of yoga must also approach it as it is: an experiential, embodied practice (see also Smith 2007). Such a call is evocative of a larger trend—a “sensual revolution” (Howes 2005:1)—that has emerged in the social sciences over the last two decades. This theoretical turn has highlighted the need for research “not only of the body, in the sense of object, but also from the body, that is, deploying the body as a tool of inquiry and a vector of knowledge” (Wacquant 2004:viii; see also Ylönen 2012:39). Originating in a critique of the limits of linguistic understandings of the world, this turn called for a closer examination of sensory ways of knowing and a focus “on the social Figure 1: Savasana (Corpse pose). Lying supine on a ideologies conveyed through sensory values mat, the legs and arms are extended and separated. The and practices” (Howes 2005:4; see also palms face towards the ceiling. The head lies on the Geurts 2002:14). No longer assuming the floor or is slightly elevated on a prop. The neck is long. senses were mere biological organs, a The body is in a neutral position, and the muscles are relaxed, as if sinking into the floor. The breathing is growing number of scholars began to study calm and controlled. Art by Trish Yeung. how sensory models—understood as culturally-specific forms (or absences) of Introduction: Western Yoga in the attunement and configuration of the senses —shape sensory experience. Researching Literature from and through their bodies, they were also prompted to question their own In a dense urban area such as Toronto, yoga universalistic assumptions. They realized is everywhere. Walking down the bustling how a five-sense model, which had streets of the city, one inevitably encounters informed their theories and (in most cases) countless yoga studios, practitioners on

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 32 embodied assumptions and experiences highly values a sense of motion as a way of until then, did not always allow for knowing, that considers body, mind, and comprehension and/or adequate breath as interconnected. I will then representation of the reality of people’s elaborate on a sensory model specific to its various experiences of the world (Potter practice, and argue that yoga cannot be 2008). This attention has resulted in adequately represented by the limited historical, geographical, and sociocultural Western five-sense model based on binary examples that have unsettled the putative oppositions of movement/stillness and universality of a Western ocular centric mind/body which problematically excludes five-sense model (see Howes 2005, 2009). kinaesthesia from its sensorium. I will finally Geurts (2002) argues that this return to my initial question to discuss how understanding, that the senses are five in the embodied mutual constitution of number (hearing, touch, taste, smell, and movement and stillness actually constitutes, sight), persists in the popular imagination in my view, the epitome of a larger biosocial and the unexamined assumptions of many configuration of a yogic way of moving and scholars from all disciplines. Even though sensing. balance, for example, is conceptualized as a sense in contemporary Western natural A (Re)turn to the Senses: Methodological sciences textbooks, it is not part of school Underpinnings curriculums. While the notion of a “sixth sense” is perhaps the closest challenge to a Yoga encompasses diverse philosophies and five-sense model in popular Western styles of practice, and cannot be understood culture, it has been typically referred to as a to mean just one thing (De Michelis 2004; kind of exceptional intuitive or supernatural Kern 2012; Patañjali 2003; Strauss 2004). phenomenon. No mention is made beyond Persson (2010:801) argues that yoga that number—a possible seventh or twenty- practices in the contemporary West differ first sense, for example2. widely from the 'classical' yoga of ancient One outcome of these endeavours Indian texts, but she also importantly notes into the “empire of the senses” (Howes that “classical” yoga should not be 2005) has been reflections about the understood as a homogeneous whole. In the sensory possibilities that might have been same vein, Kern (2012:30) highlights how the previously shadowed and that could change meaning of yoga has undergone many shifts our perspective of the world we live in. This over time and across places. Although “the article emerges from this legacy and from classical” tradition was originally a anthropological and phenomenological motionless meditative practice, studies of yoga as an experiential, embodied (“postures” or “poses”) have become practice (Morley 2001; Persson 2007, 2010; predominant in the practice of modern (or Smith 2007; Ylönen 2012).It constitutes Western) yoga, for example. Asanas, writes another example of sensory models that Kern, “are the bodily postures that yogis deviate from a five-sense model by focusing move through, and different styles of yoga on the practice of hot yoga in a studio of the are based on different asanas, or sequences Greater Toronto Area. This research began of asanas” (2012:30). In 1974 as an inquiry into what I initially assumed to (2003) identified and photographed himself be an oxymoron: the apparently counter- in 908 of those, but only a small selection of intuitive lumping of movement and stillness those composes a regular class. Even in yoga teachers’ frequent suggestion “to though meditation has not been entirely move into stillness”. My aim here will be to lost, the practice of is explore the relation between movement and increasingly understood and defined by its stillness by discussing my first contention. asanas, which involve movement and a focus In the context of the studio at which I on breath. practice, I argue that hot yoga is a For the purpose of this short “kinaesthetic culture” (Samudra 2008:666), research, I cultivated a daily yoga practice at or a culture mediated by movement that a studio of the Greater Toronto Area for the

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 33 span of approximately three weeks, must, in other words, “attend with and to beginning in mid-November 2012. At the the body” (Csordas 1993:138), for its time, my experience of yoga was limited to movements, sensations, and feelings might the eight classes I had taken during the reveal valuable insights about ourselves and previous two months. I attended a total of 19 others. practices during my research. The classes Such a form of “experimental and taught at the studio were almost entirely intimate bodily engagement with the based on a beginner-friendly hot yoga ethnographic field” (Persson 2010:800) is a practice that accommodates all levels of somewhat innovative research method that experience. They usually began and finished has recently gained more prominence in the in Savasana, and moved through a sequence discipline. It is directly linked to the sensory of dynamic asanas (specifically selected by revolution or (re)turn to the body that has the founder of the studio franchise), marked the social sciences for the past two breathing, and meditation exercises. Most decades. As a consequence of this shift, the often, instructors referred to our practice as method of participant observation, the modern or Western yoga, hinting at the hallmark of anthropology, has come under cultural appropriation, interpretation, and fire for its inherent ocular centrism. Some transformation that has happened to yoga in have indeed argued that vision is contact with Western medicine, psychology, insufficient to understand and make sense and other systems of belief (see Kern 2012; of people’s various sensory engagement and Persson 2010). The benefits of classes were ways of knowing and being in the world advertised as the simultaneous work of (Howes 2009). In other words, participant stretching and exercising muscles, while observation risks perceptual limitations if therapeutically detoxifying and relaxing the assumptions about knowledge body and mind. Some teachers, although to production—e.g.: that observing social varying degrees, would also emphasize the practices is sufficient to understand them spiritual aspects of yoga3. or, put in other words, that seeing is In class, a hot yoga practitioner can believing—are not identified and expect the possibility of sweating contextualized (see Clifford 1986). abundantly, being short of breath, moving, Each ethnographic field site and sinking, folding, contorting, stretching, question inevitably, in its own idiosyncratic balancing, using her or his strength, way, requires an adapted methodology. By twisting, reversing, feeling wobbly, and practicing hot yoga almost daily, my goal has more. Furthermore, a practitioner (or yogi) been to attend to the invisible—that is, the will frequently be reminded to be present heightened and specific sensory perception with breath and bodily sensations, and to let produced in class and at the studio. This go of any stories or thoughts that can deeply participatory method, which I refer constitute obstacles to that process4. In the to as “participant experience” (Hsu 1999, in context of research on embodied, Potter 2008:446), extends beyond the kinaesthetic practices like hot yoga, barrier of participant observation to fully anthropologists must fully engage in the “becom[e] a sensor” of the activity (Howes activity to experience sensations that 2009:31). It reflects the opinion that extend beyond the visible. This allows them experiencing another sensorium (e.g.: a hot to ultimately gain a better sense or yoga sensorium) in one’s own body is understanding of a culture and the nuances necessary to understand that particular of the discourses and practices of their sensory model and to relate to the sensory informants (Persson 2010:800; Potter 2008; (and affective) experiences of informants. To Smith 2007:30–31; Strauss 2004:60). There is this end, the high degree of auto- “no other solution,” writes Favret-Saada, ethnographical self-reflexivity of participant “but to practice... oneself, to become one’s experience also nods at the importance of own informant, to penetrate one’s own including the researcher’s body in the amnesia, and try to make explicit what one ethnographic text (Sklar 2000:71).It speaks finds unstateable in oneself” (1980:22). One indeed to, and augments, a predominant

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 34 critique found in the seminal volume ultimate participant in a dual participant- Writing Culture (Clifford and Marcus 1986). observer role,” or in this case participant In his introduction, Clifford (1986) argues experience. As such, my broader aim is to against the standards of objectivity that discuss what may be certain commonalities have dominated the discipline for a long and patterns shared by other yogis present time, and which actively separated the in class with me, to elucidate how the subjectivity of anthropologists from their senses and movements are framed and “objects” of study. cultivated, and to better understand the While participant experience can be commensurate relation of movement and backed by other methods such as interviews stillness in this practice. to verify one’s own “observations,” my For Anderson, anthropologists commitment here to the sole analysis of my engaging in autoethnography are also own experiential, embodied experience “constrained from self-absorption by the makes of this article an anthropological ethnographic imperative of dialogic autoethnography, a relatively recent engagement with others in the social worlds direction in the discipline (Anderson 2006; they seek to understand” (2006:385). Indeed, Davies 2002). At a time when the exile to the autoethnographic character of this some “exotic” and/or “bounded” locations is article does not deny the inherent not anymore a requirement for sociability of my practice (see ethnographic fieldwork, research “at home,” Persson2010:801). While yogis practice such as the study of the practice of hot yoga silently, the voice of a teacher is an in a Greater Toronto Area studio, became undeniable feature of a class; but, there is possible. To this end, the status of also more. If we dare, like Manning suggests, “somewhat of an insider” (Potter 2008:446) to “think bodies as relational rather than as is much easier to claim in regard to some individual” (2007:12–13), then a whole realm field sites. To be sure, however, my position of non-verbal communication opens up for as a beginner yogi does “not automatically inquiry. As Buckingham and Degen assert, guarantee infinite and interminable self- “embodied practices such as yoga offer a knowledge,” as Panourgia (1995:11) reminds kinetic language that runs parallel and in us, since a researcher’s positionality is addition to verbal language” (2012:331). always unquestionably a “partial vantage Smith similarly refers to “haptic point” (Anderson 2006:381). communication,” and argues, in relation to Despite criticisms, well-thought out the work of Csordas, that somatic attention autoethnographies are not solipsistic and involves an attunement to others’ bodies, self-indulgent autobiographies—as some particularly their positions and movements accuse—if they “embrace a traditional (2007:35).Throughout my fieldwork, I ethnographic agenda of seeking to practiced yoga with people. As a understand the topic under study by placing “community of practice,” there were “certain it within a solid analytic context” (Anderson sets of relations and certain patterns of 2006:378; see also Davies 2002). If well- action and reproduction of thought out, autoethnographies do knowledge” (Persson 2007:47) that we “contribute to a spiralling refinement, shared. As our bodies moved in a relative elaboration, extension, and revision of synchrony within a close space, an theoretical understanding” (Anderson inevitable sense of kinaesthetic sharing 2006:388). I have absolutely no interest here resurfaced, starting with our collective in the sole narration of my personal stories breathing. As some teachers would say, of a beginner yoga practitioner (Davies together we “felt the energy of the room.” 2002); rather, the focus on my experiences Not all forms of non-verbal is combined with micro- and macro- attunement between bodies were valorized, analysis in an effort to “seek connections to however. Even without speaking, classes broader social theory” (Anderson 2006:378). were a social space, but yogis were asked to In this regard, autoethnographers may follow certain rules and be mindful of reflect what Davies (2002) describes as “the keeping to themselves, limiting their

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 35 glances, and even their thoughts about one words, however, to replace ‘small step’ by another. Consider the example of a ‘yoga step.’ Jokingly, he explained that in his teacher's admonition about a sexualized teaching experience, the adjective ‘yoga’ gaze. One night, I overheard him joking with oftentimes had a transformative effect on a couple, warning them that their his students’ motion: movements would relationship status nonetheless did not become slower, more conscious, and allow them to stare at each other’s bodies graceful. As he was both kinaesthetically and during practice. This banter with hints of verbally demonstrating the qualities of a seriousness revealed an underlying erotic yoga way of moving, I embraced the short specter—pervert yogi sexually objectifying educative session as an opportunity to rest, the surrounding bent bodies. In this regard, anticipating the physical challenge to follow. an intense observation of fellow yogis’ After several poses both strengthening and bodies during class, on top of distracting me stretching, the muscles of my legs and my from my own focused practice, would not lower body were burning. Each movement have been well-received or accepted5. In was strenuous. My aching muscles— this sense, the choice of participant particularly the thighs and hamstrings— experience for this research not only were threatening to slump on the floor at reflects the fact that some of the embodied any moment (or so I felt). The warm sweat experience of yoga cannot be seen or on my forehead was adding to the heavy observed, but also exposes the intricacies of effect of the heat and humidity of the hot the collective practice of yoga in a Western room6. In moments like these, exhaustion studio community. could result in uncontrolled movements yielding to the momentum of gravity, embodying a way of moving that was not valued in this hot yoga community. This article contends that Western hot yoga, in its emphasis on movement and a sense of motion as a way of knowing, presents the qualities of what Samudra describes as a “kinaesthetic culture” (Samudra 2008:666).In the academic literature, scholars have given a variety of names to such a sense of motion or bodily movement (Çelik 2006:159;Potter 2008:447-449; Sklar 2000:70). These discrepancies are evident, for example, in Figure 2: Patanvriksasana (Toppling tree). Balancing on the interchangeable use of the terms one leg, the other extends towards the back, with the ‘kinaesthesia’ and ‘proprioception’ (Potter foot flexed. As the back leg reaches up, the upper body 2008:449), thereby highlighting the intricate tilts forward, to ideally keep a straight line running connection between these two concepts from the tip of the toes to the crown of the head. The standing leg is strong and straight, and the hips are and movement. Sklar distinguishes, balanced. The arms extend on the side of the torso. The however, between proprioception, “the jaw, tongue, and eyes are relaxed. The breathing is calm reception of stimuli produced within one’s and controlled. Art by Trish Yeung, 2014. own body” and kinaesthesia, a “felt experience” (2000:72). As Potter (2008) A Hot Yoga Way of Moving points out, kinaesthesia “carries less emphasis on a specifically biomedical One evening of early December I took a understanding of movement and instead class with a new teacher. In preparation for conveys a more general ability to feel the Patanvriksasana (Toppling tree; Figure 2), motion of one’s own body and to adjust it in near the end of the standing postures series, culturally preferred ways” (449). he asked us to take a small step back with In this light, my use of the term our right foot. He immediately withdrew his kinaesthesia to account for the ways of

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 36 moving, being, and knowing in hot yoga is inevitable. Changes do not happen part of an attempt to represent the dynamic overnight, but with time and practice one’s sensory experiences in terms that can body can be reconfigured and new bodily hopefully be meaningful to its practitioners, possibilities experienced (Foster 1999:239). myself included. In doing so, I aspire to For that reason, falling, losing balance, or answer Potter’s call “to describe culturally- moving out of a pose was not frowned upon situated ways of moving in terms that by the teachers in class. Instructors capture the energy, sweatiness, ease, pain, continually emphasized that we should and other ‘feelings in the body’” (2008:449), adopt the same attitude. It was common for instead of the strictly biochemical reactions them to repeat that stretching muscles, of mechanized bodies suggested by releasing tension, moving and transitioning proprioception. between poses, and developing a better My understanding and definition of posture took time and practice. Presence kinaesthesia—a sense of one’s own body with our bodies and sensations in the constant shifting (a vital condition to life) in present was preferred over a focus on a yet space and time—therefore sides with, unachieved end. although also slightly departing from, In class, teachers tried to cultivate a Potter’s. I depart from what I interpret as particular way of moving through verbal and her assumption that all movement is non-verbal instructions in the attempt to agentive. My experience of hot yoga proved (re)configure a dynamic yogic body. They to be different from her conceptualization, valued movements that were slow, smooth, in that I felt kinaesthetic sensations that controlled, and harmonious. Ideally, these were both conscious and unconscious, were to be performed gracefully and manufactured (e.g.: yoga poses) and skillfully, with ease, but also with effort. In unmanufactured (e.g.: breathing, at times). this, light, kinaesthetic awareness was Additionally, Potter’s definition of crucial to the self-control of my motion, and movement as something that is goal- abidance to those values and ways of directed, aiming towards an end result is moving. Other forms of movement, problematic in this particular ethnographic however, were devalued, discouraged, and context (2008:449). In class, as I will discuss considered unnecessary. In my case, an below in relation to movement and stillness, example of such movement was the action we were constantly reminded that a pose of wiping the wet and itchy sweat off my was a moving-through, rather than an end forehead. Instead of acting upon the result, for bodies are constantly in flux. temptation to relieve the uncomfortable Kinaesthesia is not solely the product sensation, a teacher asked us to of biochemical reactions, but also, and more contemplate it. The tickling sensation importantly, of social relations. From an interestingly proved to be much more early age, our bodies are socialized into endurable than I thought. In his work, moving in certain culturally-specific ways Morley defines phenomenology as an (Foster 1999). Bodies are “bod[ies]-of- attempt “to comprehend the perceived or ideas” (1999:235), and particular meanings lived world prior to metaphysical attached to different movements and categorizations” through an “absolute sensations across contexts are learned. suspension of belief, doubt, or any kind of Writing about the possibility offered by presupposition about the existence of the contact improvisation (a dance technique) of world and its objects” (2001:73–74). Such recomposing the body differently, Novack phenomenological contemplation of the (1990:172) argues that the molding power of sensations of sweat on my forehead, a culture’s sensory model is highlighted in withdrawn from any meaning that could be the challenges encountered in that process attached to them, fostered a state of of recomposition. In the highly repetitive concentration “necessary to overcome the exercises aimed at (re)creating a body (e.g.: powerful urges of the body and mind during in dance, yoga, or martial art, for example), such moments” (Smith 2007:38) that can writes Foster (1999:239), resistance is distract yogis from their practice. The idea

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 37 here is that socialization has a role in the other, and crucially, often in stillness, allow deeply engrained categorization of such an new forms of potentiality and intensity to experience as uncomfortable and negative, emerge” (2009). As Foster denotes, up until and that yogis should avoid this process. midway through the 20th century, When encouraging us to hold on to kinaesthesia was loosely defined in terms of our practice throughout the rest of that day, “a perceptual system that synthesizes one teacher encouraged us, as yogis, to information about” (2011:7, my emphasis) the move “mindfully” at all times, both inside position, the engagement, and the and outside the studio. This meant that orientation of body parts, suggesting the literally every action I made as a possible concerted participation of multiple practitioner during class, from unrolling my senses. More generally, Potter (2008) notes: mat to drinking water, to moving into the “the senses should be understood as an postures, was part of my practice. In fact, intermeshed web of perceptory apparatuses the meaningfulness of transitions between that direct the body’s total attention to its poses was often emphasized, as exemplified situation in the world, rather than as a set of above by the example of the “yoga step”. discreet biological pathways that respond Since classes always ended with a final independently to physical stimuli” (46). Savasana, with yogis closing up their Kinaesthesia and other senses are respective practices individually at different inseparable, and inherently entangled in paces, teachers often requested that we synaesthetic ecologies, as I will further leave the room while being conscious of our argue below in the context of a hot yoga bodies’ potential for disruption, in order to sensorium. respect our peers. In some crowded classes The practice of yoga never occurs in I attended, this instruction sometimes isolation in a sensory-deprived environment resulted in dexterous ballet dancing around (Kern 2012). Located in a vibrant area of the a sea of arms, legs, water bottles, mats, city, the studio was small, cozy, and props, and towels. After class, on my way intimate. We were frequently reminded of home, my motion (and sensory perception) its place in a larger urban, worldly would usually retain its yogic quality to synaesthetic ecology by the uncontrollable some extent. I would, as Kern writes, “take sound of sirens. Sometimes sunrays peaked the yoga out into the city with me” (2012:30), between buildings to illuminate the room. even if the busy pace of modern life This inevitably inflected my practice and sometimes later alienated me from this way teachers’ instructions. For example, during of moving. Throughout my fieldwork, one class the teacher was interrupted by the however, my awareness of these loud sirens of a few fire trucks driving by. kinaesthetic changes—and their impacts on Redirecting the attention of the whole class my perception, feelings, thoughts, and to the sound, she encouraged us to share muscular tension—grew enhanced, resulting positive thoughts with those whose dwelling in a better attunement to my body and its was potentially afflicted. In this way she movement all around (see Kern 2012:31). positively spun the meanings attached to Over time and practice, my sense of bodily the loud noise from a disturbance into movement became focal, rather than tacit, attunement to the assumed misfortune of knowledge (Potter 2008). In other words, my other fellow human beings. It also served as practice of yoga cultivated the embodiment a lesson to acknowledge and contemplate of both a new way of moving and a our sensory perception and experiences, particular sensorium. but to let go of negative feelings and meanings in the face of those we considered A Hot Yoga Sensorium disturbances. Although this essay highlights the In his work, Murphie coins the terms centrality of kinaesthesia in hot yoga, other “synaesthetic and proprioceptive ecologies” senses were not absent from my experience, to refer to “the way in which the senses are and I would argue that they cannot be fully dynamically assembled, bled into each separated from each other. As a brief

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 38 illustration of this point, we can think of the emphasized as others. For example, once effects of floor temperature on our acknowledged, the sound of passing fire movements and affects. For example, a floor truck sirens was quickly relegated to the thermoceptively perceived as extremely oubliettes, and therefore was not granted as cold or burning hot might result in a quicker much attention. In the way that it values walking pace and shift of our weight to our certain forms of sensory perception over tippy toes, whereas a comfortably warm others and imparts various meanings on floor might slow down our actions. Another different sensory experiences, hot yoga example is the torrents of sweat streaming could be said to cultivate a specific sensory down my body during practice. These tactile model, or sensorium, particular to its and thermoceptive experiences also practice. included an acoustic component, with the In class, a hot yoga sensorium popping sound of the dripping sweat on the valorized attunement to our bodies—“listen ground, which could become distracting. to your bodies”—for sensations like While this image might not seem pleasant to movement, pinching, tickling, tingling, the reader, it is important to emphasize how warmness, pain, vibration, contraction, intrinsic such sensory experiences were to relaxation, tightness, and other “feeling[s] in my experience of hot yoga. Furthermore, the body” (Geurts 2002:179; see also and perhaps most importantly, sweat also Buckingham and Degen 2012:333). This was had repercussions for yogis’ way of moving encouraged so we could act accordingly by before and after class, and outside the taking rest or deepening a pose, for practice room in the main lobby. While example. This particular attention was students were asked to remove their shoes helpful in the performance of poses. For upon entering the studio, the dark wooden example, if I could kinaesthetically sense the floor was sometimes wet from students' motion of my leg extending towards the dripping sweat, occasionally provoking back without unleveling my hips, instead of contorted poetic dance performances by actually turning my head to look, balance yogis actively trying to keep their socks dry was easier to maintain, and my movements after class and avoid an unpleasant tactile felt more gracious and skillful. Some have experience. suggested that, in our anaesthetized At the studio, hot yoga was a sense- culture, such a “radical form of engagement positive practice that esteemed an with the body” usually only happens when in enhanced sensory awareness, and pain, and that our “bodies are mostly absent stimulated several of my senses, particularly from our attention at any given tactility, hearing, proprioception, moment” (Smith 2007:37–38).In my practice thermoception, nociception7, and obviously of hot yoga, however, this form of bodily kinaesthesia (see Morley 2001:76 on attention was cultivated and valued, “inverted perception”). Inside, reflecting the values of a specific sensorium. environmental factors, from the relaxing Such presence with oneself was also soundscape, to the natural lighting, to the reflected in an enhanced, inherently temperature of the room, and the warm kinaesthetic, sensory awareness of our wooden and bamboo floors, were controlled breath. , the life force of breath, for the production of an atmosphere is an essential aspect of yoga. In class, conducive to the framing of a yogic way of breathing awareness was indeed central to moving and sensing. We were frequently our practice, and thus our motion. We encouraged to “move with the environment,” attended to the “inherent relation between which evokes Persson’s (2007) research the body’s inside and outside,” which exploring how an embodied form of being- “reveals the ways in which we inhabit space in-the world cultivated by yoga is tied to through our bodies” (Smith 2007:32; see also emplacement. Sensory attunement was an Persson 2007). The length of each posture essential aspect of my hot yoga practice, but was regularly timed in terms of cycles of in the end, certain forms of sensory breath. We would use our breath to “unlock perception and sensory inputs were not as the body,” using again the cycles of inhales

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 39 and exhales to create space and move into the entanglement of movement and it. Moreover, in instructions such as stillness. “breathe into your body parts” or “send breath to...,” breathing was an imaginary Swaying Mountains: Movement and vehicle for sensory awareness, relaxation, Stillness and grounding (see Kern 2012:31; Persson 2007:47). We can now return to the initial object of Peacefulness of the breath was also my curiosity: the apparent oxymoron deeply intertwined with peaceful inherent in the lumping of movement and movements and peaceful thoughts—three stillness present in the suggestion that the interdependent, mutually-influencing, and dynamic practice of yoga can be a method cohesive factors of this hot yoga practice to still the mind. Frequent instructions such (see Ylönen 2012:41). As one teacher claimed as “move with breathing into stillness,” in class, yoga is a body-mind-breath “breathe stillness,” and “don’t try to reach connection. Two examples from the stillness; let it come to you,” cannot be literature of the senses are worth rejected as simple counter-intuitive figures considering in this regard. First, such a of speech (see Patañjali 2003). In my body-mind-breath connection shares some experience of hot yoga, rare have been the similarities with the Anlo-Ewe people’s classes that went without a single concept of seselelame (“feeling in the body, invocation of the concept of stillness. Early flesh, or skin”) described by Guerts in my fieldwork, I thoughtlessly assumed it (2002:180-181). Contrary to epistemological referred solely to bodily stillness, for it traditions of the West, they do not would often be discussed while we distinguish feelings from sensations, mind performed certain seemingly motionless from the body. “Analytic categories of postures. As I grew more experienced in my language, cognition, sensation, perception, yoga practice, however, my kinaesthetic culture, and embodiment”, she writes, “are awareness grew enhanced, and direct not experienced in discrete stages at the experience began to plant seeds of doubt in phenomenal level [by Anlo-Ewe this assumption and the nature of stillness people]” (2002:190). Her example of the itself. “kinaesthetic phenomenon” named In one of my first classes, I was lugulugu, a kind of swaying walk said to standing, eyes-closed, in (have the potential to) embody one’s (Mountain pose; Figure 3), the last of the personality, demonstrates precisely how balancing postures that ended our standing they do not differentiate between mind and series. Despite the stillness sought in this body (2002:189-190). Second, Hughes- pose, I could feel my body moving. It was Freeland offers a similar analysis. In her literally swaying like a boat. The weight of ethnographic study of Javanese dance my body was shifting back and forth, side to theory, she quotes the poetic words of one side, heels to toes. The muscles of my legs of her collaborators who advanced that were pulling and releasing in an attempt to “dance is the shadow of the moving of your find balance and stillness. The temptation mind” (1997:57).This assertion is particularly was to harden my knees, but just as this interesting, because it appears to suggest a thought crossed my mind, the teacher similar notion of a movement-thought, or reminded us to be with the movement. body-mind, connection and mutual Outside of yoga, stillness is typically influence. Based on these two examples, we opposed to motion. The most basic can notice how hot yoga, as I was taught definition of both words, though perfectly during the classes I attended, is not circular, might be the absence of the other idiosyncratic in its distinction from a (see Bissell and Fuller 2009; Cocker 2009; Western Cartesian five-sense model Sharma 2009). Yet, as Murphie (2009) separating mind from body. In the argues, the problem with this paradoxical remaining section of the essay, I explore a co-determination might well be its attempt personal experience furthering this point, in to pin them down and define them as

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 40 directly opposed. He suggests instead some movement in Tadasana, a pose I thought ambivalence to their definition. As Bissell could be held perfectly (statically) still, and Fuller (2009) argue, “a focus on such a exposed a deceptive movement/stillness dialectic of stasis and movement neglects dichotomy whose existence is sensibly not other registers and modalities which still possible (Gray 2012:201). “Paradoxically, inhabits, where still emerges through other inaction bec[ame] action” (Gray 2012:204) in configurations of matter which are not my experience. necessarily reducible to the dialectic of Yoga thus resists the perceived mobility and immobility.” binary opposition of movement and stillness. In fact, it transcends most, if not all, sensory-related dichotomies. Persson writes indeed that the practice of yoga is imbued with a series of “dyadic experiential relations... [which] are not necessarily construed as internally antithetical” (2007:46) or contradictory. She notes how supposedly opposite terms are “often seen to contain or even facilitate the other” in a sort of “mediated balance” (2007:46) that may generate new forms of embodiment (see also Smith 2007:40–41; Ylönen 2012:41). Consider, in light of the practice of Western hot yoga, Tomich’s (2002) Figure 3: Tadasana (Mountain pose). Standing with the statement as he writes about the realization feet together, the big toes are touching, and the heels are of our inherent mobility in the context of slightly apart. The muscles of the legs are firm. The acting and artistic performance workshops torso is large, tall, and open, and the arms hang by its on stillness by “listening in this fashion, we sides, palms oriented forward. The neck is long. As if it increase our awareness of our body and was suspended by a string attached to the crown of the head, the alignment of the body is straight. The jaw, embark on a deeper and more conscious tongue, and eyes are relaxed. The breathing is calm and exploration of its (our) potential. Eureka! We controlled. Art by Trish Yeung. rediscover it. It is my belief that this is empowering information” (80). The stillness of a living body is a Stillness carries a propensity for deep “dynamic equilibrium” (Feldenkrais 1981, in awareness, a possibility to attune by Manning 2012:44), rather than a static state. “listening” to the (sometimes barely visible) According to Manning, physically “standing movements and impulses of our bodies still is [indeed] a metastable (Murphie 2009). This mode of attention to activity” (2012:43) impregnated by the body is highly valued in the practice of movement, or micromovements, that yoga, and it resonates through its specific constantly correct one’s shifting balance way of moving and sensing (see Persson (see also Murphie 2009). Life, in its simplest 2007). form, is thus inhospitable to frozen stillness, At the time of my fieldwork, a because moving is inherent to this condition drawing of a boy lying on a pink mat was (Abrahamsson 2009; Manning 2012; Thrift circulating on social media. A speech bubble 1996). Our bodies are transcended by an read “this is not lying down this is Savasana”. urge to move within and without, and our The image initially spoke to me because I attempts to remain perfectly still and to interpreted it as a challenge to the concentrate on stopping movement reduction of Savasana (and yoga, for that inevitably remind ourselves, as Tomich matter) to a merely static (as in insignificant) suggests, “of the undeniable fact of our physical pose. Despite its apparent ‘movability’” (2002:80; see also Murphie incarnation of stillness, the pose is 2009). In this light, my initial surprise to find paradoxically permeated by subtle

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 41 movement. My assumption omitted, change of form; form is only a snapshot view however, the meditative stillness sought in of a transition” (328). Massumi, inspired by Savasana and throughout one's practice. As this argument, argues that the body has an a phenomenological ability to remain “incorporeal dimension” (2002:5). For it is focused on one's sensations and feelings in continually in motion, always in passing but the present, it enables an attunement to never arrested and never the same. As he movements and sensations (see Persson writes, “when a body is in motion, it does 2007:48–53). In light of this insight, one not coincide with itself. It coincides with its teacher’s assertion that Savasana—which own transition: its own variation” (2002:4). admittedly, from an external uninformed In this view, corporeality would only be fully point-of-view, really appears to be “just regained upon stopping movement, if such a lying down”—is an advanced practice is condition exists. If we similarly consider much clearer. Such a meditative state is not Stone’s exemplification of the Buddhist clearly visible to the external gaze, and if concept of impermanence through his physical “stillness,” which is inherently reference to the pinnacle of immovability, dynamic, is indeed relatively accessible in then nothing is indeed ever permanent, itself, meditative or cognitive stillness concrete, or still: “mountains are actually requires time and practice. This was not walking. If you can understand that lying down. This was Savasana, the heart of mountains walk, you can understand my yoga practice. impermanence” (2012). Movement is Another paradoxical angle is left inherent to life in its simplest form, and in unaddressed in the face of this analysis, this sense, nothing ever stays the same. however. If motion and stillness are Stillness is “always on its way to movement,” commensurate, and if everything—and not as Manning (2009: 43) asserts. “Posture is just biological life—is in continuous less a stopping of movement than a passing- movement, “how can there be through” (2009: 44), and as such, it carries a stillness...?” (Abrahamsson 2009). In the certain potentiality. As the yogic body context of hot yoga, however, stillness is “moves as it feels, and it feels itself more figurative, in the sense that it does not moving” (Massumi 2002:1), it cultivates a mean the absence of motion, even if it plays sensory attunement, its stillness into the on the appearance of stillness and the present moment, and a potential for bigger embodied meanings it carries in its popular change. understanding. “Being still” simultaneously referred to both kinaesthetic stillness Conclusion (controlled movement, breath), and emotional and cognitive stillness (controlled The insights presented in this essay are but thoughts). But more importantly, “being the tip of the iceberg of yogic sensescapes. still” meant to be alive. It implied a deep In the past few decades, yoga has become sensory awareness and recognition of our increasingly popular in the Western world, inherent “movability” (Tomich 2002:80). and future research could investigate how Manning asks: “How can we think a and why yoga communities have sought and political body that resists the dichotomy adopted (or adapted) yoga traditions and between stillness and movement?” (2009). Indian philosophy. While not irrelevant, As exposed earlier, an explicit connection these questions are however beyond the was made between the body, the mind, and scope of this essay, which began exploring the breath, all considered as mutually- and conceptualizing a different way of influencing and intermingled in the knowing the self, the fellow others, the formation and constant becomings of environments, and the world. human beings felt in motion. For Bergson My sweaty and engaged participation (2005) “the body is changing form at every in the rich sensory practice of a hot yoga moment; or rather, there is no form, since community allowed me to gain some form is immobile and the reality is embodied experience of otherwise invisible movement. What is real is the continual aspects of that culture. Arguing that the

Student Anthropologist | Volume 4 | Issue 1 | 2014 42 limited Western five-sense model based on for three lists measuring differently the number a binary opposition of body/mind, which of senses: a “conservative,” an “accepted,” and a excludes kinaesthesia from its sensorium, “radical” mode of sensing. could not represent adequately the experience of hot yoga practitioners, I 3. I interpreted this as the result of a certain worked towards a better understanding of a freedom to be creative in their teaching methods. While the classes I attended were all of yogic way of moving and sensing. I tried to the same yoga style and relied on the same demonstrate how movement, breath, and sequence of asanas, they all took slightly thoughts were interconnected in my own different forms depending on the teachers, their practice among this community. This personality, and their personal interests. They exploration ultimately provided some never mentioned, however, their level of essential contextualizing elements to experience in class, although their professional understand what had initially tickled my training genealogy (and own teachers—a curiosity: the apparently oxymoronic fetishization that is beyond the scope of this lumping of movement and stillness in yoga article) was sometimes listed online in their teachers’ suggestion to “move into stillness. biographies. ”Kinaesthetically feeling in my body, my sensations opened a door to a different 4. In this active, sweaty, and meditative context, understanding of stillness from the one I spontaneous note-taking was not an option. My experiences were therefore written from had initially assumed. This sheds light on memory, within a few hours after class. the cultural construction and meaning of Throughout my fieldwork, however, memorizing stillness in Western hot yoga. In my view, insightful moments has proven to be difficult in the embodied mutual constitution of the face of a challenging paradox. At numerous movement and stillness actually constitutes occasions, I felt in my body (to borrow from the epitome of a larger biosocial Geurts’ “feeling in the body” (2002:179)), or a configuration of a yogic way of moving and teacher mentioned something that I immediately sensing. thought would be worthwhile exploring for this Movement was an inherent quality of essay. Paradoxically, these reflections about my life reflected in the poses of my practice, sensations momentarily alienated me from my even Savasana or Tadasana. If it appears to sensory experience of the present moment, be an oxymoron by the Western definition affecting my yoga practice, and by vicious circular extension, my research. The process of of the terms, in hot yoga being still did not documenting my experiences has thus mean being static. Rather, stillness passed necessitated the negotiation of apparently by the kinaesthetic awareness of one’s contrasting options, in remembering insights, motion, the resulting regulation of the and staying committed and present to my yoga breath, and the avoidance of unnecessary practice. movements. It also implied a calm mind focusing on the present and one’s own 5. This is especially the case considering my sensations and feelings. Only then could positionality as a heterosexual male in a practice yogis be peaceful and still in their moving still dominated by female participants (see Philp bodies. 2009).

Notes 6. The heat of the practice room was maintained between 34 and 38 degrees Celsius (93.2 and 1. To contextualize the poses mentioned in this 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit), with humidity article, I have reproduced, in addition to the generally ranging between 20 and 60 percent. images, an approximation of the basic While it was undeniably entangled with other instructions I was given in class. The idea is to senses in my experience, heat is not the focus of give the reader a basic sense of what the poses this article and will not be discussed at length. I are. They are only meant as images, rather than use "hot yoga" here as a descriptor, since it was certified instructions. how the classes were presented. On the studio's website, the heat of the practice room was celebrated for its naturally calming and 2. The mere numbering of the senses is, in itself, a culturally constructed fact. See Howes (2009) detoxifying benefits, among other aspects. It did

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