Elephant

The Yogic Principle of Inner Power

Waylon Lewis
Winter 2005/2006

From elephant magazine, Winter 2006, pps 43-46. "Ele:Conversation, Baron Baptiste"

Walyon Lewis, for elephant: Welcome. So I'm here today with Baron Baptiste and... I forgot the date, but someone can fill that in, at the Yoga Journal conference in Estes Park [Colorado]. I think I first took a class with you... I don't remember what year. They all blend together.

Baron Baptiste: Thank you... ! It's good to be here.

ele: In this lovely, lovely room here. [The room is barren, with stained '70's style orange carpeting, yellowed walls, low ceiling and fluorescent lights]

Baptiste: Four walls of freedom.

ele: Exactly. Er, what does that mean?

Baptiste: Four walls of freedom: there's no distraction. We're free to be here together to talk, to be present.

ele: Oh, I see. To start at the beginning: with your parents- I know you come from a famous yoga family.

Baptiste: Well I was brought into yoga, no so much by choice, but by circumstance. My parents were yoga teachers, who founded the first yoga center in San Francisco in 1953. Back then yoga was a strange, 'Twilight-zone' practice Eastern, mysterious. People didn't know what yoga was. So [my parents] were really ahead of their time. My father came from a physical background natural bodybuilding. Back then, using weights as a way to train your body was still a weird idea. He was a progressive guy interested in health, diet and general fitness. Then he was introduced to yoga by his father and grandfather, Joseph Baptiste, my great-grandfather, who was influential in bringing [the guru] Yogananda from India to America, and helping Yogananda establish his centers in Los Angeles. So my father really opened up from Western culture from seeking personal improvement through diet and body conditioning to this world of yoga and Eastern forms of health and spiritual path. He integrated these two worlds Western health and the spiritual culture of the East, the disciplines of the mind and the teachings of Patanjali [the Indian sage who first set the teachings of yoga to paper].

I was born in 1963. By the late 60s, early 70s, yoga and other Eastern disciplines were en vogue. There were lots of Indian gurus around. My parents started taking me to India with them when I was 11 years old. I would spend time at different ashrams, with different teachers. So I was inducted, initiated early on. But my training was more by osmosis: I was just a kid, but I was around it. As a child, there were things in India and around certain gurus that I just would roll my eyes at. And it's funny, those same things still don't resonate today. But there was a soulfulness, a spiritual warmth, something within me that felt protected within the Eastern teachings. And those same things still resonate today. So the things that didn't make sense to me as a child still don't make sense to me as an adult, and the things that resonated deeply as a child in the teachings of yoga still resonate today and it's this authentic path that I try to share, the platform from which I teach. It's really just based on my own experience keeping what works and throwing out the rest.

ele: We've interviewed Richard Freeman, Cyndi Lee, Tias Little, Sarah Powers, many of [the famous yoga teachers]. But you are, in a sense, the epitome of yoga going mainstream, becoming accessible to ordinary Americans... and children, now Greg [ele's photographer] and Miguel [ele's film-man] and I were looking at your new children's book...

Baptiste: My Daddy is a Pretzel.

ele: [Chuckling] It's amazing: you've come full circle: you are a father, and now you are teaching children through the book.

Baptiste: And we have children's programs in my studios.

ele: That must be interesting for you, considering that you remember being a child in their situation.

Baptiste: You asked about making yoga accessible: I carried the torch early on into the mainstream, before a lot of the yoga world wanted to do that. When you bring yoga to a population that knows nothing of it in fact, only knows yoga as some strange kind of discipline where you tie your body up into knots, into a pretzel, or where you leave your life and go live in a cave or monastery well, you need to apply a wonderful principle of yoga called adaptation, from the teachings of Krishnamacharya-

ele: One of the founding fathers of yoga.

Baptiste: The great father of modern hatha yoga as we know it. He was the guru of BKS Iyengar, pattabhi Jois and [TKV] Desikachar. Iyengar's teaching is also a wonderful example of the principle of adaptation taking the practice and adapting it to people at the level at which they exist. And so that's been a driving yogic principle from which I teach: adapt it. Not only adapting the poses and postures to a person's physical ability flexibility, strength, injury history but also going beyond the physical: adapting it to their state of mind, their cultural mind. Often people are body-focused. So, sometimes, the door to the heart and mind is through the body. And that's why Hatha yoga and the practice of vinyasa [flow] is so powerful. I teach a Power vinyasa flow style of yoga practice with emphasis on body alignment, so it's safe.

ele: What does power refer to? Does that mean more physical? I know it can mean different things.

Baptiste: I chose that word based on Aristotle's definition. Power is, he said, "the ability to be and to let be." That sums up yoga beautifully. Yoga: yo- means to bond, to connect. Union with the inner self toward total self, integrated self. So this is to be ourselves. That is power. Personal power is the ability to be ourselves, to stand on our own feet, to come from our unique yet universal spark and express ourselves in a genuine manner. That's yoga and power all in one.

ele: Just being present, as you referred to in the beginning.

Baptiste: It's a good question, because power can be greatly misunderstood. There is an egotistical or ego-centered power, which means to dominate or use brute force. Overpower. But there's a spiritual power that's more balanced. Probably the greatest definition of proper alignment is to be and to let be and to see reality.

ele: I got excited when you talked about your experience growing up in the yoga world, because I'm what is sometimes called a Dharma Brat: my parents were Buddhists, I grew up in the Buddhist situation in Boulder and elsewhere. I remember living in Vermont at a retreat center and looking at everyone meditating, and as a child feeling condescending and frustrated: "Why don't they just get out there and live life, what are they so scared of, why are they all so serious?" Later, I got into meditation myself and realized that it wasn't about avoiding, but rather practicing being present. As a child, were there things that you looked at in the world of yoga and thought were weird, that you now understood more fully?

Baptiste: Yeah. That's a good question. It's personally pertinent because I found that yoga can be a narcissistic, self-centered practice. And for me, at one point in my life, my yoga and meditation practice was all about me, me, me.

Then I had children. It was like a nuclear bomb dropped into my so-called spiritual life; it forced me to go beyond myself.

And then, aging just growing up and having to take on responsibilities. I started to see, "Well, I can't just practice yoga and meditate all the time and expect to be a light in the world and influence others if I'm self-absorbed in a practice." So "How do I take yoga off of the mat, off of the meditation cushion and make it something real?" And I hit a plateau where I felt stuck and disappointed in yoga. I wasn't finding the answers.

ele: Like 10 years ago?

Baptiste: More like 18, 20 years ago.

ele: Wow.

Baptiste: ... Right around 22 or 23 years old, I felt like I was completely dysfunctional in the world. I had this great yoga background: I had been living in and out of ashrams, I had studied with lots of gurus, lots of yoga teachers, I had looked at a lot of the teachings. And yet somehow I wasn't able to live. So I started to really look. I remember praying every day, asking for guidance. Then one day, I heard a Jewish mystic talking about meditation. Later, I was introduced to a more Biblical form of Christian meditation, and it opened me up to Christian mysticism. I started to study the life of Jesus I'm not speaking of churchianity or religiosity. I realized He was such a brilliant example of someone who was active, a cultural revolutionary He was out in the streets, out in the world. Taking people and things head on.

And there was something in it, there was a light that somehow resonated with a light in myself. There was an opening. I'd been judgmental toward Christianity, coming form a yogic background and just having seen the preachers on TV and all. I thought it was all a bunch of hype. So in practicing this type of meditation, it somehow brought all of my yoga together. It all integrated in a way that enabled me to actualize and live my yoga.

You find this principle that we must choose a deity or guru, a path. It could be Buddha for some. And it could be Jesus for others. It could be Patanjali. To make that kind of commitment to something and be true to it, through the monotony where you climb a mountain and then hit a plateau. We may linger at that plateau, but if we stay committed to that path, to climbing that mountain, where we don't even know how long that plateau is, but through our commitment at a certain point we'll find a way up to the next level and climb higher up the mountain. And then there's another plateau. Some plateaus are short and quick and you jump onto the next ledge and keep climbing. But sometimes we get stuck on these longer, slower plateaus-

ele: But it's important to stick with that and not just get bored on the plateau.

Baptiste: Right. Commitment is a yogic principle. It took me a long time to come to that because, boy, it was easy to sit on the fence at some point. One foot in and one foot out.

ele: Maybe that's why they call second generation Buddhists Dharma Brats. We were spoiled. We had so much, we were so wealthy in what we had been given.

So you had to get outside of your inheritance, in order to see it. Do you still practice mystical Christian meditation?

Baptiste: I do. I follow the teachings of Jesus not so much in terms of structure and form but in my heart, my conscience. The focus of any great teacher, ultimately, is to bring us to our inner teacher. My greatest gurus have brought me to the kingdom of heaven within myself, to follow my own inner light, intuition and conscience. The word conscience means con-, with, and science means to know. With knowing. It's an inner knowing that we all possess. And this is where meditation and our asana practice can quiet the fluctuations of the mind. As the muddy waters of the mind settle, the mind becomes more clear. We can then see the way. We can hear and receive signals that come from within intuitive hits- and therefore lead our lives from an inner space versus being subject to our environments. We'll be a bottle tossed around in the sea until we swim down into the sea of the soul and live from a deeper place. And that's power: to just be and to let be to live in harmony and peace and let love flow through and then, therefore, be a light unto others. [Laughing]

ele: It's great that magazines like Yoga Journal or our little elephant tend to be biased towards the Eastern view we in the West are just now discovering it. But it's important in this time in history, in America, to reinvigorate Judaism or Christianity... because there's so much wonderful wisdom there, and it's been almost co-opted by political groups.

Baptiste: It's been soiled a bit. It's an interesting phenomenon: in the same way that, going back a few decades, people had all these weird associations with yoga, now we can see the same thing occurring toward Christianity. But when you get to the essence of it all, there's this beautiful truth. But you know people! [Laughing]

ele: Well, they are very different paths, too.

Baptiste: They are. But in their essence they are not. But as they are dressed up and presented...

ele: My parent's teacher, Trungpa, talked a lot about something he called spiritual materialism, which is what you are talking about. In America, we're so spiritually wealthy, we're spoiled. You can go to the Yoga Journal conference, you can practice with [great yoga teachers] Rodney, Patricia, Richard, Baron Iyengar himself! And then next week we can do a Buddhist or Christianity intensive or whatever it is. That's spiritual shopping. It's important to stick with one path, wholeheartedly, as you said about commitment.

And then you can actually get to the top of that mountain, that place where all paths agree.

Baptiste: It's through commitment that we end up getting through the monotony. And it's really those plateaus that can be painful, the mirrors, where we face ourselves. When we're climbing, the view is great. We're feeling high and awesome and it's all good. But we hit a plateau? That's when we look for another teacher, another path, another way. Because, as a society, we just want to feel good. We're consumers. You used the word term dharma brats being spoiled and having access to so much we can choose whatever teacher or path if something doesn't feel good, it's not for us or we want to go find a teacher that's easy on us, makes us feel good.

ele: Right: "That one is too hard on me!"

Baptiste: "So I'll find another teacher." And then we can badmouth it. [Laughs] The thing to do is, if we find something that resonates, to stick it out, stay with it and move from the periphery toward the center, which is the meaning of concentration: to move toward. Con-is with, centra, toward center. Concentration of focus or commitment to a way without getting caught up with all the structure. Form can be such a block. So whether we're looking at the yoga sutras or Biblical teachings or the Dhammapada, remember that those works are like maps into our own center of being, our own ability to be and to let be.

ele: It's funny, people like Jesus, the Buddha, generally didn't invite a whole lot of worship of themselves. They said, "You can do this." They empowered others. But almost all the time, people would insist on carving some statues and making their wisdom eternal.

Baptiste: External ritual versus internal awakening.

ele: As we mentioned, in a lot of ways you, like Rodney [Yee], are the epitome of someone who is taking yoga mainstream. I was reading all your press: you are doing columns for Women's Health...

Baptiste: I've done specials for PBS. A lot of things like that.

ele: So, in your experience, is it easy to take yoga which in some ways seems fragile into those venues? I know it's important to do it, to share it, but what are the challenges? Does yoga get corrupted, or does it flourish in the mainstream?

Baptiste: There is no question that as it spreads, it gets diluted. But, hopefully, over time more seeds are planted in deeper soil and some of those seeds take hold and become something that's true, and open doors for people.

I have about a dozen videos out. I've come to realize that people practice with my videos or books way off in the little Podunk towns in Kansas or Montana, the Midwest. And when I meet those people or receive letters from them, it can be so meaningful for them. At a time in their lives when they might be down and out, sometimes suicidal or depressed, desperate, living in great pain... and how this practice a video or book fell into their lap and opened up a whole new world. Whereas, if we just kept these teachings close to our chest in the name of being pure and true, and didn't share it? What we give away, we get to keep. The true practice of yoga is ultimately giving it away not judging who we give it to and saying, "Oh, the unwashed masses are not worthy." Who am I to decide who's worthy of yoga practice, if the teachings can help them? Who am I? That would be playing God.

ele: For your personal path, it must be an enjoyable challenge: you are something of a celebrity, a star. People treat you as... people don't know you but they feel like they know you

Baptiste: I surround myself with friends who kick my pedestal out from underneath me. I purposely keep really truthful and honest people around me, because, like everyone else, I'm a student of yoga; I'm a student of life. So that puts me on common ground with everyone. I've learned not to put myself above or beneath anyone, but to just be myself. I may have had more experience, I may be a senior teacher because I have walked the path longer or taken it further at least my path. So again all I can do is just share what's worked for me, leave out the rest and not get too puffed up about it!

ele: So when or if you find yourself getting puffed up- we all do in our own lives anyway, whether we're famous or not how do you work with that?

Baptiste: Well, I'm not so puffed up these days. As I take my practice and journey seriously, the universe takes me more seriously. I see myself not as a god or guru or even someone who holds something special but rather as someone who holds experience and suffering. Life has brought me to my knees. And those humbling moments have been my greatest teachers. I had a teacher once who said, "The moment you think you've arrived, you get squashed like a bug." And that's been my experience. If I puff up, I know it because, man, life takes me right down quick. The great yoga master Shivananda said our greatest strength is found in our weakness. In those moments of weakness, I've actually found my strength humility. Realizing that I'm not it. I ask a higher, divine power to give me strength.

ele: You're open at those moments, instead of trying to be hard and tough, which is more closed. And that's real power.

Baptiste: Yeah. And I think those weaker moments, those moments of acute suffering in my life have been truly my greatest teachers and my greatest anchors because they stay in my system. So when I start getting puffed up, I feel it. I start to feel like my life force gets cut off. And I have enough of a sense of myself and my inner being now to know that if I'm playing God, or trying to control my life or my universe too much, that that's getting puffed up... and somehow the flow is not there... so I just kind of turn it over to the universe, over to God, give up my power and just open up to something greater than myself. That's an important anchor me to come back to, again and again and again.

ele: Thank you so much for your time. I would love to do this again sometime.

Baptiste: Awesome. Thank you.

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