DRU YOGA, AN ANTIDOTE TO THE CULT OF SECULARISM
DRU YOGA, AN ANTIDOTE TO THE CULT OF SECULARISM
By John Jones, Senior Dru Yoga Tutor
In modernBritain, the cult of secularism marches inexorably onward marginalising and mocking all and any expressions of faith or spiritual aspiration. This article looks at the void left in the wake of this phenomenon and the role of Dru Yoga in meeting our intrinsic human need to experience transcendence.
In 2007, after Tony Blair had left office he admitted that he had been unable to be open about his faith during his tenure as Prime Minister because “frankly people do think that you’re a nutter”
In November of the same year, Melanie Phillips, the Daily Mail columnist, bemoaned the growing influence of the cult of secularism in British society. She pointed out that whilst the great 19th century campaigners, who brought an end to slavery and universal suffrage and who transformed Britain into an orderly society, were motivated by Christian Evangelism, admitting to a belief in a supernatural Creator, is today considered “the equivalent of believing in fairies at the bottom of the garden.”
As a Dru Yoga tutor of some 25 years experience, it is my opinion that the growing dominance of the cult of secularism has left many with the sense that there is a void at the centre of their lives.
We try to meet this intrinsic human need in a thousand unsuccessful ways but like an itch that we can’t quite reach, it stubbornly refuses to yield to our frenzied attempts to find a remedy that “hits the spot.”
In Britain, yoga has grown from a gentle if somewhat eccentric pastime for middle aged ladies in leotards into a versatile and widely accepted tool for living embraced by everyone from Premiership footballers to aspiring executives and ordinary citizens looking for a way to bring a little more meaning and purpose into an increasingly secularised life.
Yoga makes no demands of its practitioners to accept any particular belief system. It is not a cult or sect but rather a sophisticated system designed to meet a huge range of human needs.
Yoga can help restore damaged health, give you a shapely body and an alert mind. However, as any serious student of yoga will tell you it can also help you to find new levels of self-awareness and personal integration and yes, for some, yoga will be a means to experience a transcendent reality that will fill the void that nags all too often at the centre of our busy, secularised lives.
Yoga comes, like cars, in many different makes and models: Ashtanga, Iyengar, Bikram, Satyananda like Ford, Hyundai, Range Rover and Vauxhall. These varied styles can look different and are often aimed at particular market needs. In the West, we have historically embraced the physical posture-based yoga brands that give us physical benefits.
Dru Yoga is a typically gentle style that is highly accessible to people of all physical abilities and levels of fitness but it also incorporates many of the more traditional aspects of yoga in a form that is digestible for the Western mind.
Consequently, Dru Yoga is a very holistic style that addresses physical, mental , emotional and spiritual needs of its practitioners. If you haven’t already tried Dru Yoga, why not find a local teacher and experience its unique benefits.
