10 asaNa Magazine | March 2017
war. It would be like trying to win a
hurricane. When the Junior Bush and
Elder Cheney administration wanted
to invade Iraq over nothing Iraq had
done, there was no stopping it.
If it all sounds like a shell game,
that’s because it is. Exploding shells,
shells of what was life, and the shells
of shills advocating for and selling
armed combat. When you’re dead as
a doornail it doesn’t matter who won
the war.
The side of the moon facing away
from the earth is the far side. It is
the side facing out to the cosmos.
The bright side is what makes some
moonstruck, making them go crazy
when there’s a full moon.
John Bell Hood was a General in the
Civil War on the Confederate side. He
was notoriously brave and aggressive
and a madman. His troops routinely
suffered staggering losses staging
frontal assaults they were routinely
ordered into. During the Seven Days
Battle in 1862 every single officer
in his brigade was either killed or
wounded. In 1863 at Gettysburg
Hood’s left arm was severely injured
and he lost use of it for the rest of his
life. In 1864 at Chickamauga his right
leg had to be amputated just below
the hip.
For the rest of the Civil War he rode
into battle with his left arm tied to
his body and his body tied to the
body of his horse. “He has body
enough left,” one witness remarked,
watching Johnny Reb lock horns with
the Yankees again.
The macabre spectacle of the one-
legged one-armed Hood, trailed by
an orderly carrying his replacement
cork leg, was not his alone. Hundreds
of thousands of soldiers on both
sides of the Civil War lost arms and
legs. That’s the damage all wars
do, civil or not so civil, lopping off limbs, scrambling brains, filling up
cemeteries.
Yoga, on the other hand, is not only a
practice intent on keeping your arms
and legs attached to your body, it is
a practice that conjures additional
limbs to those willing to take up the
mantle of the mat. The discipline in
the classic sense is an eight-limb
practice. The limbs are restraint,
observance, posture, breath control,
sense withdrawal, concentration,
meditation, and samadhi, which
means standing inside of.
The walk of life can be hard enough
with two arms and two legs. It’s
much harder when missing an arm
or a leg, or both. It’s much easier
with eight extra limbs. In the world
of doublespeak, freedom is slavery
and war is known as peace. In the
world of yoga, freedom is freedom
and non-war is known as peace.
The masters of war would have you
believe that taking up the gun will
solve all the problems of taking up the
gun. “The crueler it is, the sooner it
will be over,” said William Tecumseh
Sherman. General Sherman is known
for the Savannah Campaign of 1864,
slashing through Georgia and South
Carolina, innovating what is now
known as scorched earth warfare.
“Yoga is not easy!” said K. Pattabhi
Jois. “But, it leads to freedom.” He is
known for inspiring and influencing
the way yoga is taught and practiced
all over the world.
Standing on one leg in a yoga
class may be cruel and unusual
punishment, but at least you’re
standing. Not only that, the standing
is getting you somewhere. Getting
anywhere in the Fog of War is up
for grabs, at best, and on a collision
course with Hell, at worse.
When it comes to getting on the good
side of the Pearly Gates, war doesn’t
have a leg to stand on.If it all
sounds like a
shell game,
that’s
because it is.
Exploding
shells,
shells of
what was life,
and the shells
of shills
advocating for
and selling
armed
combat.
When you’re
dead as a
doornail
it doesn’t
matter who
won the war.