What it could mean to live in a world of duality as a
practicing yogi
“Truth has no tradition. It cannot be transmitted.” –J.
Krishamurti
Reflecting on our recent national, regional and local dramas
with ethical complaints surfacing about Supreme Court nominees, senior Iyengar
Yoga teachers, media moguls, family members, and who knows who all else, I find
myself reflecting on sutra II.35 of
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras:
Dicussing this sutra with friends yesterday, I’ve spent the
last day wondering why we speak at all. 99% of the time, speech has some egotistical
motivation, or is just filling space/time with inane observations—“Hot again,
isn’t it” “Yeah, and humid too”.
A civil society, a democracy which is based on non-sectarian
principles of respect for everyone’s chosen religion (or none), has to follow
principles of fairness. Due process for those accused and for those accusing.
Fairness for those who are wronged and those who wrong them. Problem is that
every single religion has their own teaching about how to deal with moral
infractions. Many of them reach similar conclusions.
Nevertheless, if we are to live in a culture, a HUMAN
UNIVERSE, in which this principle of fairness—DUE PROCESS—is offered to
complainer and complained-about, to accuser and accused/plaintiff and
defendant, petitioner and respondent, to use legal terminology, we have to put
aside our separate agendas about “Ultimate Truth” or “Religious Values” which
may or may not be shared by all parties involved.
Due Process has a long legal history, which I won’t go into
here. What I found reassuring about the Senate confirmation hearing process was
that it gave both parties a chance to be heard, not only by the committee, but
by the whole nation.
This large audience has been commenting and reeling since
last week, and at least has led to a further investigation.
I have reread our IYNAUS By-Laws and reread the Pune
Constitition on our precedures for dealing with ethical complaints. I was on
the original IYNAUS board when accusations against Manouso Manos first arose
and was part of the team that spoke with him personally. Manos’ subsequent
therapy, B.K.S. Iyengar’s advice to our community that we ALL accept a period
of touching only arms and legs after getting permission to touch was accepted
as a viable solution to the complaints.
Now that other allegations have arisen, some recent, some
from past years, we have gone through our process again,. I am assuming that
this process followed the procedures
outlined in the By-Laws and the Pune Constitution, but honestly, I have no way
of knowing for sure.
What troubled me about the breaking of news about these new
allegations, specifically the one from Anne West, is that Certified Iyengar
teachers were petitioned as a group to send supporting letters and emails to
IYNAUS and to Pune.
I question that this was a fair request and whether it
afforded the complainant, Anne West due process, while her complaint was being
investigated. I also question whether Pune has to be involved at all unless and
until our own internal procedures have been followed, or possibly even after
that.
One of the concerns when allegations first arose in the late
1980’s was that our impecunious nonprofit service/educational organization
–IYNAUS—could be sued by someone who had been through our process but found it
unsatisfactory. I am not a specialist in sexual harassment/abuse law. I don’t
know if we have a practicing attorney member of our association who is. Yet, this remains a real fear if we do not
ensure that our internal procedures offer due process to all parties.
These are my questions today. Do our procedures need to be
refined/rewritten? Can we find a way to lead the way in the yoga community in
creating a fair and safe forum for students and teachers alike? Would this help
avoid litigation that could be costly/possibly fatal to the financial health of
our nonprofit association?
I could not agree with my colleague Hong Gwi-Seok more: it
appears to be true that we have allegations that a Certified teacher/member of
our community believes to be true of inappropriate touching and we have a
denial on the part of the senior teacher complained about. This can lead us to a place where we see that two
seemingly contradictory truths exist side by side: inappropriate contact
occurred, AND the accused is capable of brilliance in teaching.
We have guidance going forward:
And go forward we must.
Perhaps the Sri Argala
Strotam for Ma Durga can also offer sustenance (and highly recommended is
Krishna Das’ version of this—“The Beautiful Song”):
Rūpaṃ dehi jayaṃ dehi yaśo dehi dviṣo jahi*
Grant us your form (Liberation), Grant us victory,
Grant us welfare, remove all hostility (negativity).
Jai Ma Durga!
Querétaro México, 10 octubre 2018
