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| Kyczy Hawk, Yoga Recovery |
Drimay: I noticed some of the notes you left on the flip chart from your class on Sunday (November 13) and I want to find out more about that, but maybe you can tell me what the Y12SR program is about first.
Kyczy: The class on Sunday was a workshop, so that was different than the Monday night meetings. Y12SR—Yoga of 12 Step Recovery—is an all 12 step recovery for AA, Al-Anon, etc. It’s specifically for people in 12-step recovery programs. It’s open to everyone from a recovery path, i.e. recovery from any behavior or substance. The behavior can be co-dependency.
Drimay: What will you actually do at the sessions?
Kyczy: The first part of each meeting is a discussion group. We read out of a daily meditation book, talk about non-harming, non-stealing, non-lying, or gratitude, which are conventional subjects. We do that for an hour and then have a one-hour yoga practice—Hatha yoga, the physical practice.
The first hour may include readings to use as a jumping off point for discussion. We include readings from approved materials that we obtain from the central offices of any of the recovery programs or can include meditation books or other recovery-oriented literature. We could also discuss a subject that overlaps the 8 limbs of Raja Yoga and 12 Steps.
Drimay: People are excited to have a recovery program at GGBC. Land of Medicine Buddha (LMB)—our sister center in Soquel—hosts an AA meeting that runs itself. It doesn't depend on anyone from the center facilitating it. They seem to be people who just like to have their meetings in a Buddhist setting. It's a well-attended meeting. GGBC would like to offer something like that to benefit the community at large.
I would like to start an open-ended discussion about how Yoga philosophy is informing the 12-step work that you are doing. Some Yoga philosophy is the same as Buddhism and some is not. I do believe that it's possible for great masters to pick up something from another tradition and explain it in a very universal way, for example His Holiness the Dalai Lama's commentary on the gospels in The Good Heart. But I would like it to be clear which teachings are coming from which tradition.
There are two different banners at our center: Buddhist Programs and Wellness Programs. This is because there is then more freedom to offer things that are compatible but not part of the Buddhist tradition, or not part of our specific Buddhist tradition, i.e., chi-gong, mindfulness based stress reduction, etc.
Now as for the topics on the flip chart... I know many yoga practitioners don't like to call what they are doing “Hinduism”.
Kyczy: Yoga is non-denominational; it's philosophical. It is not a religion. People from every path can practice yoga.
Drimay: I say it's coming from Hinduism. That's my stance and I'm sticking to it. It's fine to show how parts of it can apply to people's lives who are not Hindu, but Patanjali (the compiler of the Yoga Sutras) was a Hindu. I want to make sure that when people come to the center they understand which tradition’s language they are hearing. When they are in the Y12SR class they are going to be hearing some ideas that are coming from an Eastern philosophical system which is not Buddhism. There could be some overlap, but so could there be with Christianity. If someone were teaching the Bible and the 12 Steps then it would be more clear that it's not Buddhism.
Kyczy: I was at a retreat with Noah Levine recently and from his Buddhist philosophy he's trying to develop a recovery program because of the monotheistic issues of the 12 Steps. I thought the issue at GGBC would be with the monotheistic tradition of the 12 Steps rather than the very diluted yoga stuff.
Drimay: I've heard more discussion about the issue of whether a person can follow the 12 Steps without being Christian, so I think that topic has already been covered elsewhere. By the way, I'm okay with using the label “Yoga philosophy” with a footnote that says it “comes from Hinduism.” The thing is that Yoga philosophy shares a lot of language with Buddhism. As in the saying about England and America being two nations separated by a common language (lift, boot, biscuit), I see words on the flip chart that are used in Buddhism but I don't know what you mean when you use them, words such as karma, tantra, etc. I can see that you are generalizing them, universalizing them when you write the meaning underneath. Maybe that is partly due to working with a general audience.
Kyczy: As an example, the 12-step slogan of “let go and let God” suggests a monotheistic 12-step point of view. If you don't believe in a monotheistic higher power you may still go along with the phrases such as these; that is one of those things where you'd rather be sober than right. Instead, I say, “let go of the results.” We all have our struggles with the concepts.
Drimay: Another example of a term common to both Buddhism and Hinduism is Dharma. We call this whole path to enlightenment Dharma. But when you say Dharma to an Indian person they think it means duty, like your filial responsibilities and the obligations that come with your caste. We might be using the same words but we mean different things.
Kyczy: It's semantics, although that term isn't robust enough for what it really is. It's more like depth of meaning. When I'm speaking to people who come to the Y12SR groups, they're coming from recovery but they're also wanting something more than what the 12 Steps offer. Most of them have done the steps already. [Link to the 12 Steps: http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/smf-121_en.pdf]
They want to get a little more richness in the dialogue of our principles in the program, as well as physical / somatic health benefits and trauma release. We do yoga to get rid of the trauma which is lodged in our bodies which is why people come to speak and come to move. This is key.
Drimay: Okay now I understand. I was wondering how you were going to connect the physical yoga practice to recovery. It has to do with releasing trauma held in the body.
[Back to the flip chart...] Some other terms that we could have more conversations about are Ishvara-Pranidhana—which literally is something like praying to God—and Self, a term which Hindus and Buddhists have debated for centuries.
Kyczy: Maybe it's too confusing to have this class in this facility. I am not even attempting to touch on the Buddhist path. I'm talking about straight yoga and the basics of the 12 Steps. Maybe there is too much confusion or there is a possibility for confusion that would make this not right in this situation.
Drimay: There is more enthusiasm than trepidation, so I think we should try it. My idea is just to bring some of the differences out in the open. We have to trust the students to be grown-ups, to be able to keep things clear, not to mix up terms from a yoga class with those of a Buddhism class.
Kyczy: I take what I know about the Sanskrit words and condense them down to words that we use in recovery. I'm looking into the light, the positive rather than “Don't do this and that.”
Drimay: Do you know that Buddhism also uses the term yoga with the literal meaning of unification? That's Buddhism’s goal. As for exactly what is being unified, that takes some explanation. We talk about different levels of tantra—yoga tantra, anuttara yoga tantra—but those are secret teachings, restricted teachings. The lamas have been teaching about these things more openly these days just to clear up misinformation.
Kyczy: There are similar issues in Yoga. The term tantra here in Raja Yoga has been morphed in common parlance into a practice that was not the original intent. Its the same with kundalini yoga.
Drimay: Let's keep the dialogue open. This could be the beginning of some cross-understanding.
Kyczy: I'd like to come back and discuss things more.
Drimay: It feels like working at the United Nations.
Kyczy: The United Nations of the Heart.
Kyczy Hawk, RYT 200, has studied with Nikki Myers, Durga Leela and Annalisa Cunningham gaining a deep well rounded understanding of relationship between yoga and recovery. She teaches an ongoing Y12SR, Yoga of 12 Step Recovery class, yoga for those in recovery as well as conventional yoga classes at Willow Glen Yoga. She also teaches for well known non-profits such as The Art of Yoga Project and the Niroga Institute. She has written a book, Yoga and the 12 Step Path, published by Central Recovery Press, due out in April 2012. Additional information: http://www.yogarecovery.com/
Bhikshuni Losang Drimay, a Buddhist nun, has been the resident teacher of Gyalwa Gyatso Buddhist Center since 2001. http://gyalwagyatso.org/about/teachers/#drimay
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