Yoga studios tend to have a certain look. Part of this has to do with the practical needs of doing yoga. For example, a carpeted floor tends to hold more dust, and is less desireable for a practice where your face is regularly close to the floor. Part has to do with the rather long and highly fluid history of the practice of yoga. There are objects with philosophical meaning, sometimes simply vestigial, sometimes repurposed (older meanings left over to which new ones are added, like layers in an archeological dig), sometimes multiple philosophical/cultural/historical/spiritual meanings are mashed together, sometimes retaining their original meaning to some and simply being like a sign that says 'yoga studio' to others. Even a yoga room in an exercise studio tends to retain some of this look. So here are a few of the things you might see in a yoga studio, and a little bit about why they were there and my take on how they are useful as more than historical artifiact.
Statues
It is widely known that yoga arose as a spiritual and philosophical practice in India thousands of years ago. Therefore it arose in the context of Hinduism. While many, if not most, practitioners of yoga today would not consider themselves followers of this religion, there are some who do, and some who do partly. There is a famous quote in yoga.... “Truth is one, paths are many”. Remember that Ghandi said he was both Hindu and Christian. Yoga tends to have symbols drawn from the heritage of the culture in which it arose, but in yoga those symbols also stand for an idea of a basic human spiritual quest.
Here are some common figures you might find in a yoga studio:
The first is Ganesh. One Ganesh story is that he was a boy who had his head knocked off (kind of by mistake, but it is a long story) and Shiva sent his followers to get a new one, and the first one they found was an elephant head so he put that on in place of the original and made Ganesh the head of his followers. Ganesh is considered a very auspicious figure, and a figure of devotion. I think for us today it can also be a reminder that we cannot avoid every painful experience, but we can always strive to move past them, to look for possibility rather than resentment and anger.
The second is the dancing Shiva (Nataraja). Shiva is one of the great 3 triad: Brahma the creater, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. There is a long story behind why Shiva is dancing in a ring of fire, and for each object he holds, and so on. These sort of bronze statues of dancing Shiva have been around over a thousand years. I think as a symbol for someone who comes from a different tradition, this can still be a powerful symbol of yoga as a practice seeking balance. First the idea of Shiva as destroyer is first that we all have unhealthy habits, old stuck ways of thinking of things.... in any wellness practice we are seeking to destroy and burn away that which does not serve us, as only then do we have room to bring in the new. Kind of like a fire in the woods and the new life that arises after. And second, this idea of death and rebirth, of the balance of what we preserve, what we destroy and what is created in its place is inherent in the cycle of nature. And this image underlines the balance in the practice of yoga between the active, powerful and energizing physical part of the practice, and the meditative, inward, resting part of the practice. (The story has him defeating deamons through his dance, while retaining his calm throughout).
The third is the Buddah. 'But' you say to me, 'I thought yoga came out of Hinduism?'. Well, so did Buddhism. And the stories of the Buddah sitting under the tree would have been quite a bit before Patanjali wrote the 'Yoga Sutras' which are widely taken to be the most important text of yoga. I kind of like what Sarah Powers said “There is a wider range of the psychological realm in the Buddhist tradition” ( http://www.lionsroar.com/buddhism-and-yoga-where-the-paths-cross/#). That statues of the Buddah have found their way into the yoga studio is a sign of, and a reminder to continue to find, the importance of the meditative practices. As with most of this statuary the positions of the hands, the mudrahs, (I have blogged about mudrahs before) always have meaning. This statue has a hand down to touch the earth because it refers to a story in which the deamon brings a bunch of friends to witness that he is the enlightened one, and the one who is to be the Buddah touches the earth to show that the whole earth is his witness. I like the image of touching the earth but reaching out or up with the other hand, as it reminds us to stay connected to our physicality as we reach up to connect to our spiritual or intellectual or emotional self.
Candles
Candles are common object sused in spiritual settings: from Diwali, the festival of lights, to lighting the Sabbath candles, to candles in a Catholic church.... they are ubiquitous symbols of the light of truth, the light of compassion, the light of hope in dark times. When we say 'Namaste' in yoga one of the common translations is 'the light in me greets the light in you'. It is small wonder one would have candles in a yoga studio.
Fire is also a symbol of rebirth …. think of the Phoenix. In Hinduism cremation is practiced because it is believed that fire releases the soul from its old form for rebirth. I think anyone who has ever begun an exercise program or a yoga practice can connect to the idea of walking through the fire into personal transformaion.
Pragmatically speaking, and I talk to my students about this all the time, a yoga studio tends not to be lit with bright artificial lights because part of the practice is about creating focus. The more sensory distractions that can be done away with the easier it will be to learn to create focus and calm. So the studio tends to be quieter, less garishly painted and decorated, and less bright. I have blogged before about meditation and how in yoga there are a ton of techniqes to do single point meditation (as a way to remove all but one sensory center of focus, and then to move to uncentered focus). Candles are one tool that can be used in this way. (tratak)
Gongs/Brass Bowls/Crystal Bowls
If the candle is used as a way to focus visually on one image, there are other auditory techniques to focus on one sound. A mantra can be used to help drop one into a meditative state, as can the sound of a gong or bowl. Actually sound can be used in very complex ways to affect emotional states, as anyone who plays or sings or enjoys music or runs with their ipod knows. A lot of yoga studios offer 'gong baths' or 'kirtans' or other events in which one can explore this side of the multidimensional self.
The brass bowls (what I have) are, as I understand it, are Tibetan in origen. But there are also bowls made of quartz crystals. They are tuned to align with the chakras. I have blogged about the chakras before and will just suggest you look that up if it interests you. I am not an expert on chakra theory or practice. There are people who teach yoga specifically in reference to these energy centers, and certainly the use of the tuned bowls would come up in some of that type of practice.
We know that physiologically music and sound generally has an extremely strong effect on human mood. There is research that the tempo of music can affect one's exercise intensity. ( Waterhouse J, Hudson P, Edwards B. "Effects of music tempo upon submaximal cycling performance.", Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2010 Aug;20(4):662-9.doi:10.1111/j.1600-0838.2009.00948.x PMID 19793214)
I personally very much enjoy the music of Steven Halpern, who has created a number of albums, some of which use crystal bowls, and some of which try to use the frequency of the music to elicit shifts in brain flow.
Crystals
I am SO not an expert on this topic. However, many people who teach yoga are interested in crystals and crystal healing. It has an association with the chakras (which also have an association with sound, and therefore with the use of sound devices which I just talked about), as each chakra is taken to be associated with a sound as well as a color, as well as certain stones, and other things. As I see it it all comes down to wavelengths and the way energy flows and the way that things and energy transmute into each other (remember e=mc2). You will certainly see representations of the chakras, and various crystals in a many studios. One example would be the throat chakra which represents learning to self express in a way that is true to that self. Turquoise would be a stone that is associated with that chakra.
I think even for those who do not find themselves drawn to this branch of philosophical study might find it useful to use a small stone as a reminder that a certain idea or habit or concept is important to them. So, if one knows that one is very self judgemental in word and thought having a small stone of turquoise on one's desk might serve as a reminder to be mindful that that is interpretation and not truth. Yoga is meant to be a way of being in the world that goes beyond what we do in the hour or hour and a half we spend on the mat at a time, after all.
I was gong to talk about OM, which is not an object, but is something you will see in pretty much every yoga studio you enter, but it is such a big and important topic I think I will leave that to another blog.
I spent a half hour trying to get the visuals to transfer with the text. I am not sure that I succeeded as I am a very non technological yogini. If you cannot see the images please message me and I will send you the document as it was meant to look. I cannot get too upset, as I am grateful to IDEA for giving me a site from which to blog, I suppose it is part of the travails of not having a budget to hire someone who is technically savvy to do it for me :-)
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