343.
“Luna” - Green Yoga Activism (23 November 2015)
In one of his last books, the
late Georg Feuerstein presented his views about how to become an active yoga
participant in the discussions about the environment. Green Yoga is a book that he wrote
with his wife Brenda; it was published when the two authors launched
the Green Yoga Initiative, a proposal to
create awareness about environmental issues from a yoga perspective.
1 In the last chapter the authors call on yoga practitioners to
incorporate “Green Yoga Activism” in their practice. In the last pages of their
book, they say: “We are calling upon all Yoga practitioners to intensify their
practice by becoming viras, or
‘heroes,’ in the old sense of the word, who put the common weal before their own
consumerist comfort and uninspected predilections. The time has come to live Yoga with as much heartiness and
genuineness as we can possibly muster” (page 154). The subtitle of the first
chapter of Green Yoga is “Our Planet is Dying –
What Will YOU do?” and the one of the last chapter, “What You Can Do.” This last
section has a concise list of practical things that we can do, such as to
simplify life as much possible, to think twice before purchasing a new item, to
practice the well-known 3Rs: Reduce-Reuse-Recycle, do not use plastic bottles,
to use environmentally friendly cleaning products, and many others.
The environmental
field has some notable “heroes” (‘viras’) as represented by some notable
and zealous activists. One of the most noteworthy examples is the case of Julia
Butterfly Hill, a California artist, poet, and activist, who in 1997, climbed
the branches of a threatened redwood called Luna, which was scheduled to be cut
by the Pacific Lumber Company. Julia spent 738 days on a 180 feet high platform
that she built on Luna. After an arduous negotiation, the Company agreed to
protect Luna, which stands on a ridge above the town of Stafford, California,
and demarcated a 200-foot buffer zone of forest around Luna. Subsequently, Julia
founded the Circle of Life
Foundation, which was a project of the parent association, the Earth Island Institute; early in
November 2002, the Circle of Life
became an independent nonprofit organization. 2
Julia wrote a national
bestseller book called The Legacy of Luna, which recounts
her experience in defending the redwood trees. 3
The example of Luna and the
actions suggested in Green Yoga and many environmental
organizations illustrate many ways to practice “Green Yoga Activism” as a firm
stand on environmental issues.
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1 Georg Feuerstein and Brenda
Feuerstein, Green
Yoga
(Saskatchewan, Canada: Traditional Yoga Studies, 2007), 164 pages.
