If there is anything that we learn over time in a yoga practice, it is that you do not advance through sheer exertion. In yoga, you have to be tolerant, learn to honor your limits, and adapt. You have to be flexible! If only our leaders would follow such wise, skillful measures. But look! They are doing just the opposite—ICE officials forcing their way into homes and vehicles and statesman vowing to invade foreign countries. And we all thought that a “might makes right” approach died with Ghengis Khan. This applies not just to affairs of the state. It is the same with coercion in a teacher-student relationship, aggression in the workplace, or throwing your weight around in a marriage. When you realize that you can’t just plough your way to progress, you begin to fathom the old wisdom of the Tao te Ching, “ The force that is forced is not the true force.” Might really does not make right. True force is able to yield, to relent, and to conform to the situation at hand. True strength has qualities of both resilience and adaptability. The Bible said something similar: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”. Meek here is not weak. Rather it champions the qualities of humility, discrimination and gentleness. So we need to teach our children, particularly our boys, how to embody “right force”, that is knowing when to advance and when to yield. And a yoga practice is one of the best means to embody this.
Photo: Fred Moon / Unsplash
