Is the Camino like Yoga?

[Al the optimist]

I have not attempted Yoga personally but I came across something written by a Yoga teacher and thought that I might share some of what I read. Maybe there are parallels to be drawn and maybe these might help those contemplating or about to start their first Camino.

It's about remaining open and letting whatever comes come. Connecting with oneself can be uncomfortable. As we begin to connect, we can feel a whole host of emotions and sensations. Then the judgments come. I can’t believe I tried this. What was I thinking? etc.

Yoga starts to transform you as soon as you begin to practice, in major ways and in subtle ways, and the effects are cumulative over time. Yoga strengthens the body, the mind and the spirit, and allows those who practice to face life with a sense of peace and resiliency they may not have previously known.

 

[Leaningforward]

I think many different practices, which focus one's mind and body on connecting with oneself and others and nature, are like the camino.

I think a part of what draws many of us to the camino -- and daily or weekly to this forum -- are those connections.

It's interesting that you ask this question Al. I awoke long before dawn today and happened to stumble across a documentary called "I am", which asks the questions, "what is wrong with the world and what can be done to fix it". The documentary highlighted the tensions that exist in many lives (including my own) and in societies between cooperation and competition. It suggests that cooperation is a fundamental human (and more broadly in nature) instinct that arises, is perpetuated, or both from genetics and culture. It discussed phenomena such as "mirror genes", which enable people to recognize and respond emotionally to others' pain, joy, success, etc. It discussed the electromagnetic field (characteristic energy) produced by one's heart and the interactions that can and probably do arise between two or more people (and the electromagnetic fields of their hearts). This was not "new age" theory; this stuff has a basis in empirical observation and science.

As I was watching the documentary -- noting that the sky was lightening and the birds were beginning the sing their first songs of the new day -- my thoughts kept turning to the camino and this forum, and a new sense that one of the powerful forces that seems to draw many people to either or both is the positive and beneficial (healthy) experience of cooperation and empathy that many of us knew on the camino and find in this forum.

Of course, one may find cooperation superseding competition almost anywhere, but the effects may be easier to recognize on the camino, where many of us are outside our comfort zone in unfamiliar circumstances, relying on others and eager to help others -- in a sense, a sort of purer connectedness, unrelated to our livelihoods and cultural pressures.

 

[billmclaughlin]

camino:yoga::treadmill:mat

 

[newfydog]

no

 

[pilgrim b]

Yoga, Zen, Mindfulness, Centre-down,and Henry David Thoreau,to be open Al the camino provides !

 

[amorfati1]

if rusty memory serves me right - the root of the word YOGA has to do with bringing together/yoking together (as in two oxes to pull the cart) - bringing together the mind and body in a conscious way. Often when people speak of yoga, they mean Asana (those pretzel postures, as i call them) - but Yoga has many other branches (the yoga of service; yoga of devotional love, yoga of knowledge/studies, etc etc) all intended of bringing something together.
so, in this sense, if one walks the camino / any pilgrimage with the intend to bringing something within together ... yes, it could be called Yoga. (and the only reason i still remember this is because i lived in india for a few years and had a rather excellent german Sanskrit professor as supervisor ...lessons so learned are hardly ever forgotten )
but could be called also religion... which root is from latin: religare, ... tying back together or something like that. (what religion got distorted into is another matter and discussion altogether IMHO) -
so yes --- if you walk the camino with the intent for e.g. to bring something back together ('you' and the 'faith in life'; or 'you' and 'trust in life'; or 'you' and the 'loss of hope' or whatever else may or may not apply) - it perhaps it could be said that the camino is like yoga. (just me two pennies ...since you asked )

 

[Metropolly]

Yes. I've tried yoga about as many times as I've walked various caminos, and found they have this in common: the physical exertion so occupies the mind that it silences the usual brain churn. Mental flotsam - or jetsam? - is sweated out during the exertion. Only later, in the rest time, comes clarity