FENOMENO YOGA © by Giulia Moiraghi
Introduction to a Phenomenological Method in the Yoga Practice
In the world of yoga there is a tendency to practice either very dynamic and physically demanding forms of yoga, that fall within the great vein of hatha yoga, or thoroughly meditative approaches to yoga where the body is not used.
With Fenomeno Yoga I wanted to keep together the bodily dimension with the meditative one.
Hatha yoga and Raja yoga coexist thanks to a method that singles out two different moments, the “moment of action" and the "contemplative moment", not necessarily subsequent in time.
This method is made up of a phase in which "doing" is required and a second one in which "letting happen" becomes central.
It is a type of practice in which you must be ready to feel the internal fire burning and also to shed a few drops of sweat; but there are moments in which action is suspended and a different phase is entered, in which you allow yourself to start exploring a new domain.
The metaphor of lighting a fire is very fitting to somehow represent this approach.
Setting up a fireplace implies beforehand searching for the wood, cutting the logs, putting them together, arranging finer branches and, underneath them, crumpled newspapers balls. So there is a lot to do to light a fire;
Once you have lit the fire you, however, you must also be able to stop, otherwise you will not be able to be with what happens, with what occurs, with the happening of the fire.
Again, the trigger is necessary, and for the trigger you need a lot of ardor, but then you need to be able to pause on the fire, look after it, take care of the fire, and, thus, avoid overdoing, like pushing with the poker, or blowing, which would probably end up in extinguishing the fire; instead observation and care are needed in order to set a touch at the right time and revive it.
On the one hand there is "doing", on the other there is "letting happen", on the one hand there is action, on the other there is passion (in the etymological sense of letting oneself being imprinted).
In the first active phase, through a kind of suspension or "epochè", we burn the past, we burn the habits, we burn the ordinary attitude and the mental patterns that prevent us from experiencing reality "as if, for the first time".
Once this has been done, we might have access to a contemplative dimension in which what happens before us is simply allowed to unfold, within the limits in which it is given to our experience; in this dimension ia widening of the field of consciousness takes place, as if we were embracing the appearance of the world, beyond mental categories, beyond previous interpretative patterns: it is the "givenness" of what is, exactly as it is given to us, moment after moment.
When getting back to our mats and our bodies, this approach gets rooted in an intuitive and spontaneous understanding, felt in one's own psycho-physical complex, in one’s own flesh, and thus we become holders of a knowledge which cannot be said, but only experienced.
According to this approach, in yoga, it is a matter of "removing" all that can be removed, rather than "adding" when trying to reach the essence, which is never an inherent and autonomous substance, but something that arises in a relational weave of interdependency, where the boundaries between subject and world overlap and dissolve.
Avoiding to load the domain of yoga with exotic and metaphysical interpretations and concepts becomes central in this method, which turns out particularly suitable for practitioners coming from a Western background.
Short Bio
Giulia Moiraghi is a post-doctoral researcher in Philosophy and has been a dedicated Yoga practitioner for about 20 years. After a summa cum laude Master’s Degree in Contemporary Aesthetics from the University of Milan, she completed a Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Verona. She is the author of the monography: In cammino verso la cosa. Heidegger dall’estetica all’ontologia, (On the Way to the Thing. Heidegger from Aesthetics to Ontology) and has written several essays on philosophical subjects. She is a certified yoga (3-Years Teacher Training – 1920 hours), a member of the National Association of Yoga Teachers and teaches yoga and meditation since 2013. She developed a phenomenological approach to the yoga practice through “Fenomeno Yoga” in order to bridge Eastern contemplative practices with Western phenomenological research. In 2017 she published with major Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, Cura e Ardore. Il rigore e la passione della pratica yoga (Care and Ardor. The Rigor and Passion of Yoga Practice, new edition 2021). From 2020 she started a collaboration with the University of Pisa where she teaches in the Master program "Neurosciences, Mindfulness and Contemplative Practices" and in the Summer-School "Consciousness and Cognition" and in the "Advanced Training Course on the End of Life".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syF790cw12M&lc=UgyuvXdDLefi6oe1jUR4AaABAg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syF790cw12M&lc=UgyuvXdDLefi6oe1jUR4AaABAg
A detailed exploration of this phenomenological method in connection with the yogic concept of Tapas has been presented in my book Care and Ardor, edited by Corriere della Sera.
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