Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

MasterWee t1_j17uejb wrote

Reply to comment by Cats-n-Corks-n-Cubes in [IMAGE] sometimes you just need to not care by Th3MysticArcher

I think my criticism is fair, if not entirely practical. I am not claiming there is an epidemic of people believing these quotes. I am just making a stated argument that life contains more nuances than a 3 sentence quote can solve is all.

0

Cats-n-Corks-n-Cubes t1_j1fksl1 wrote

You said "this is bad advice". It's not bad advice in a yoga class, which is where it was given. Well, unless someone is afraid of failing a difficult pose, resulting in a fall and brain trauma, or something like that.

You're certainly correct that not every 3-sentence quote applies to every nuanced situation in life. I don't believe this particular quote was claiming to, though.

1

MasterWee t1_j1fwetf wrote

So this is where we have to use the contextual meaning, and peel away from what is textual here.

  1. The advice was at the “end” of the class. So maybe it could have been about yoga poses, but as a send away it seems very much like “go off and use my wisdom in the real world!” We all interpret things differently. But GOOD advice is very specific. If someone can misinterpret something so easily, it is inherently a bad attempt at communication, and thus, bad advice.

  2. The tone of the advice was very harsh and aggressive. This is suggested by the use of the world “fucking” at the end of it. Now, I don’t claim to be a yogi, but from my limited knowledge, shanti, or inner peace, is kind of one of the goals of practicing yoga. I find a heavy conflict between achieving shanti and having an inner dialogue telling me “fucking” do things. Maybe I don’t fully understand the art so I, once again, can be wrong here.

  3. If the advice was limited to just the first sentence then this would actually be a very positive and insightful message. It retains the advice to just dealing with failure. The addition of the second sentence derails the advice into a call for narcissism and individual selfishness, a very not Yoga principle. Yoga isn’t “think of yourself first/only”, Yoga teaches respect and consideration for others through namaste.

  4. Words have meaning. Deliberate meaning. The length of our speech does not correlate with the heaviness of emotion it evokes. There is a call on your phone. You pick it up… “Mom died”… two words, three lines, an entire manuscript. Words, and the meanings those words convey can be very powerful. Never doubt that being of their length.

  5. Lastly, Yoga is an art form, and art always contains a deeper meaning. I don’t know how many yogis you know, but many of them explore the teachings of it to find extrapolations of Yogas meaning into their life (and more than just posing). This phrase said by a yogi at the end of creating/performing their art. Look at the subreddit this was posted in; this is very intentionally meant to be about more than just Yoga.

So not only is this bad advice generally, but even in the context of Yoga it is bad advice. Namaste!

1