The section before this was about the history of Yoga, and I feel the author just had a fucking seizure while watching Fox News, before continuing to write the book. agony-consuming

Like what.

  • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    It’s fairly common for people into chakras and crystals to also have a bunch of reactionary brain worms. My friends ex is a vegan whose really into yoga and organic food, also thinks the Holocaust was a hoax because she watched some YouTube videos on how there was exercise equipment at Auschwitz and most of the people died of cholera or something.

  • AMDIsOurLord@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    The author is using the contrast they’ve drawn between “cultural Marxists” and capitalism and religion to prove an earlier contrast, the one between myth and science

    So this book is actually anti-science

    How much hippy yoga weed this this fucker have before writing this book

    • LibsEatPoop [any]@hexbear.netOP
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      4 months ago

      I didn’t even consider that…Someone else also pointed out how another section I posted which I thought was just a tangent actually ran defence for the caste system.

      The amount of brain worms right-wingers transmit in seemingly innocent books, videos etc. that people might stumble onto is legit scary.

  • o_d [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
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    4 months ago

    Careful. You’ve stumbled upon a book from a timeline where Jordan Peterson became popular with the hippy yoga cult crowd instead of the manosphere. Read on and this universe may collapse in on itself 😬

  • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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    4 months ago

    Such edgy nihilism was pretty popular among teenagers around 2000, just without yoga part, but i guess when you are so far in that rabbithole you can use any random idea as shield.

    • LibsEatPoop [any]@hexbear.netOP
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      4 months ago

      I never thought words like “social justice warriors” and “cultural Marxists” would be used in an actual book I would read, let alone a book about Yoga. And I’m not even getting into the absolutely ridiculous argument in the paragraph. Like, the logic is so childish, I would expect better from a redditor.

    • LibsEatPoop [any]@hexbear.netOP
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      4 months ago

      As far as I can tell, nothing. It’s just another tangent.

      For the purpose of yoga, it is important to understand the myth of Judgment Day. Judgment Day is a concept that is found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It was also found in ancient Egyptian, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Greek mythologies. The idea is that when you die, you are judged on your actions and sent to heaven or hell accordingly. In the case of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, God is the judge. And therefore, God creates the rules one must follow. If one follows the rules, one goes to heaven or hell. Secular nation-states also follow the framework underlying Judgment Day, though they exclude the idea of God. Instead of God, they speak of citizens as a collective, and commandments take the form of a constitution. The citizens are expected to live by the nation’s law; those who don’t are judged and penalized. Structurally, then, the notion of Judgment Day is implicit even in the secular idea of social justice and corporate social responsibility.

      The concept of a judge, Judgment Day, and the binary between heaven and hell are not dominant motifs in Hinduism, Buddhism, or Jainism. In Buddhism, the Buddha is not a judge. The idea of heaven and hell exists, but it’s not quite based on judgment or commandments. Buddhism speaks of the concept of karma and the belief in rebirth based on your actions in this life. The rules of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are restricted to religious ascetic orders and communities, more for functional than metaphysical reasons. You go to heaven not by following rules, but by restraining senses and seeking wisdom. Thus, the Buddhist concept of heaven and hell is not based on following or breaking rules, but on psychological transformation and accumulating karma that either raises us or casts us down in the many-tiered cosmos.

      The concept of judgment comes in a society that believes in equality, and therefore strives toward homogeneity, shunning heterogeneity. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are based on diversity, which is often misread as inequality. Every human being is different, because we all carry different karmic burdens from our previous lives. Each one has different strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So, one rule cannot apply to all. Likewise, different people need different forms of yoga and different kinds of teachers. There is no one yoga for all, no one guru for all. The yoga that works for our particular context and our body is best for us, but it might not work for others. Yoga cannot be benchmarked or indexed or standardized. Nor can gurus, yogis, or yoginis.

      Like, this might be the worst book I’ve ever read.

      You could’ve just begun with “different people need different forms of yoga…” You don’t need to fucking discuss the difference between Abrahamic and Indic religions for three paragraphs, preceded by four paragraphs of “high school tier” philosophy about money being an illusion and other “myths” agony-consuming

      I just wanna read about Yoga.

      • Ehrmantrout [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are based on diversity, which is often misread as inequality. Every human being is different, because we all carry different karmic burdens from our previous lives. Each one has different strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So, one rule cannot apply to all

        This is just a defence of casteism here. One belief is that people who have good Karma are reborn as Brahmins and those with bad karma are reborn in the “lower” castes. Thus they can justify casteism since those in lower castes deserve it by being evil in the previous birth.

        • LibsEatPoop [any]@hexbear.netOP
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          4 months ago

          I didn’t even consider that. I just thought it was a meaningless tangent that should’ve been edited out. Turns out, it was wholly intentional.

          The amount of brain worms right-wingers transmit in seemingly innocent books, videos etc. that people might stumble onto is legit scary.

        • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          4 months ago

          interpreting Hinduism as wholly casteist is like interpreting Christianity based off all the preachers who think Black people are going to hell

          Lingayatism and arguably Shaivism in general doesn’t care about caste, and that’s like 100 million+ people. Also they invented the protestant reformation 400 years before Martin Luther existed

          • Ehrmantrout [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            4 months ago

            You are correct that the thousands of beliefs and sects under Hinduism cannot all be tarred in the same brush as casteist but that specific quote is definitely a nod towards casteism and discrimination against disabled people.

            • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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              4 months ago

              except it’s not “thousands of beliefs and sects”, it’s literally a couple that cover hundreds of millions of people in South India

              it’s like ignoring Evangelicalism or Catholicism

              But North Indian Brahminical Hinduism is a cancer, yes

  • Anne_Teefa@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    Don’t worry, they don’t engage in behavior creating an imbalance with power dynamics, creating a predatory culture abusing those who look up to you as a mentor figure because they’re enlightened and above such earthly desires checks notes

    TW/CW:SA

    There was literally a special on Netflix about a yoga instructor who would take advantage of his clients and molest / assault / rape them…

    Edit: Not even an isolated incident… Link to Wikipedia after a quick Google search. It’s like it’s part of the practice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse_by_yoga_gurus


  • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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    4 months ago

    A lot of crunchy granola white middle class “peace and love” “I’m not religious but I am spiritual” stuff is used as an entrance to the alt-right pipeline. If they’re willing to believe that doing a bunch of stretches will make them a millionaire, they’re also going to be willing to believe nonsense about the “wokes” ruining society.

  • The_Filthy_Commie@lemmygrad.ml
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    4 months ago

    This is on brand with these hippie or new age types. I remember during Covid watching some documentary on Vice, I think, about some antivax loonies that went to Mexico to found some kind of ‘‘commune’’. I know I’m on Hexbear, so I won’t rail against anarchists, but some self-professed ones were there, along with Trump chuds, bazinga brains, vibes chicks that talk about energies, and crystals, and do yoga, libertarians, ancaps, you name it.