Gannon’s Comment: You Are Yoga

When Sharon Gannon was asked what she thought yoga was in 2015, at a yoga conference in New York City, she replied back saying, ‘the answer to that question is wrong, the fact is we don’t do yoga, we are yoga”!

Of course the reporter didn’t follow up with what she meant by that, and for the next few years it went without an explanation. Recently, in 2017, Gannon explained to some extent what she meant by this statement:

‘The world today. The world we’re living in right now. The one with high tech cell phones, Instagram and Trump is all predicated on power, manipulation, and rules.

All of this developed from when we began not living with the environment – as aboriginal  cultures around the world did for thousands of years  – and we began to settle, create communities and conquer  over thousands of years. Out of this, ego was developed also, which is man’s way to  justify the sins for some of these actions. 

Again , thousands of years, before the development of modern civilized society, we lived as one with nature. We didn’t develop some mental sense of separateness (i.e. ego)  from ourselves and nature.

We simply took what we needed in a sustainable way, and with that we lived in harmony and thus had harmony in ourselves. No distractions, fully in tune, aware and present and with that an ability to see the magic around us.’

A native living as one with nature

Natural State: You Are Yoga

So when we go to a yoga class and we find ourselves calm after that state that we’re feeling is our natural state. Our  stressful – day to day self –  is the unnatural state.

So yoga is not connecting us to simply a more relaxed sense of ourselves, yoga is connecting us to our actual natural self: Our unfragmented self! What is sometimes referred  to as the perfect self: Atman.

When we do yoga long enough. we begin to realize we a part of the divine and new yogis who realize and feel this for the first time are usually moved or overwhelmed to tears. That is the beauty of yoga.