The Wisdom in the Learning

written by Hannah Fletcher

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Book flea. Library mouse. Read rat. Ink drinker. Reading Horse. Do you recognise yourself in these names? Or do you prefer the more down-to-earth British bookworm? I can recognise myself in each of those names I think, sometimes I hop between books, I have certainly spent many happy hours tucked up among the library stacks, sometimes scampering through a book to find what I need, sometimes imbibing a novel as though it were the water of life and occasionally plodding through pages (yes, Henry James, I do mean you). When a suitor arrived to our date with gifts of a handmade sourdough loaf and a Terry Pratchett novel I knew, dear reader, that here was a person who understood the way to my heart- bread and books. Nourishment for belly and brain, body and soul!

Amidst the long list of things which we could no longer enjoy under lockdown there were also some things that became possible with the new-found ways of using technology. A yoga book club that I previously attended had been dissolved when the teachers who hosted it were taken east to Jakarta and west to Bristol, now in lockdown it became a reality once again albeit a virtual one.

Book clubs can be a fantastic way to connect to fellow bibliophiles, or in this instance fellow students of yoga. There is much to be learned by the physical practice of asana, and some may wish to stay in the purely physical realm, however we can find both knowledge and wisdom between the pages of books where we can dive into the causal and spiritual realms.

You may be aware of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, whether it is a name that rings a bell as something mentioned by a teacher during a class or maybe you are a devotee who regularly reads in the original Sanskrit. It’s hailed as one of the great works of yoga and so can feel intimidating. I’m yet to read the work from start to finish. I have studied some sutras and am in the process of learning to read Sanskrit in order to get a better feel for this well of knowledge. For me, learning that “the great sage Patanjali” was probably not one super-enlightened person was a moment when engaging with this text started to feel less like staring up at Mount Everest. The name Patanjali can be translated as “the one without end who falls into the hands of those who want to know”, or in other words a teaching that will continue to show us deeper and deeper levels of understanding as we open ourselves up to being willing to receive it. The name Patanjali is a teaching in itself! And it’s not just the Yoga Sutras to play this prank on us. The Yoga Pradipika by Svatma Rama? Well, ‘his’ name translates to “playing with your own consciousness”. Kind of yogi jokes which for me felt like a breath of fresh air, a weight off my shoulders.

If these deep texts begin with a playful wink then surely the contents cannot be completely stuffy and inaccessible to us normal folk? Maybe we can think of it like getting a gold star for turning up because turning up is all we really have to do, just as some days the most important part of our yoga class is simply arriving on your mat. Before we even open the book we have received some kind words. Once I learned that I felt welcomed in rather than challenged by this book of wisdom. I will mention at this point the importance of finding a translation that works for you.

My copy I hurriedly bought for my Yoga Teacher Training is pretty old school and the tone is so starchy that I really struggle with it. (I say this a someone who adores both Shakespeare and Jane Austen!) I am still on the hunt for one I will fall in love with. If you have a translation that sings to your heart I would love to hear from you!

Compare if you will “Here follows Instructions in Union” with “now unfolds the teachings of that to which you are already joined”. Both are translations of the opening line of the Yoga Sutras. Do they feel different when you read them? Which sits better with you? Before the opportunity to learn and talk with fellow students of yoga I felt that I had failed as a yogi because I hit a wall when reading my translation. I felt there was some deeper understanding that I was unable to access. I just didn’t get it. It wasn’t until I could talk it over with others that I found a path into the learning. There is a reason that yoga is taught rather than just read in a book. The wisdom is there on the pages, but we truly learn from interacting with the words, by being led to a place that we can make our own discoveries. Like any book, each reader will read their own interpretation and often with new perspective every time they read it.

When the novel American Gods was first published by my favourite author, Neil Gaiman, I was devasted to not enjoy it! I read it, I understood the words yet somehow they fell flat for me. I failed to connect with his characters and story for the first time. His next novel for adults, Anansi Boys, came a few years later and despite my trepidation once again I was in his thrall. I tumbled into the world inside those pages and revelled in them. So I left it a few years and re-read American Gods... and I got it. I simply wasn’t ready the first time around. Other learnings and understandings had to occur in my life for me to be on the same page, if you will.

In the same way we can fall in and out of love with different styles of asana class, we can fall in and out of step with books and ways of learning. Sometimes it helps simply to say to someone else “I don’t get it!”, we may get a reply of “neither did I” or “oh really? I love that” either response gives us a place to start a discussion, to begin exploring. The Sanskrit word Sutra gives us the English words for stitch, to sew which is an act of bringing together but also as a friend pointed out recently an act that requires piercing holes in something in order to create something new.

Learning requires not only an open mind but an open heart too. Surely if the experience of lockdown has taught us one thing it is that we are creatures who need community, even if we sometimes choose to keep our distance, we need to know that there is community available to us. Opening ourselves to learning, and sometimes to unlearning in order to relearn, requires courage. Why not allow your yoga community to support you in your courageous act of learning?

If there are fellow bookworm yogis in our Winchester community then please do leave a comment, we would love to hear from you! Perhaps an in-person book club would be something to explore once we reopen?

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Written by Hannah Fletcher and published on Sunday 28th February 2021 at 13:44

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