For years I went about paying homage to imaginary yoga critics and ‘authorities’ in my head, which extended from how I should think, act, eat, and even dress. I’ll admit that part of the impetus came from a belief I had to conform to a certain presentation, toe the line of the dogma and “look” and “act” the part I was playing.
Danny Paradise used to remind me that yogis are rebels to society, but since when then, have many yogis become fascist about religious protocol?
I get questions like, “is X legal according to yoga”? Where X could be a certain tilt of the chin, a glass of wine, or even orgasms. I began to get curious who the inner judge was really and why did I put it there?
It wasn’t until fairly recently where I felt like I suddenly woke up out of a decade long, self-imposed box of dogma. I gave myself the permission to question the eternal carrot stick methods put forth by all religions (and some yoga dogma)and found an overwhelming sense of freedom as a result.
Now when it comes to answering any such question of “is this legal?”, or, “is this the right way?” I get a lot of personal freedom by first considering the NLP T.O.T.E. formula. This is
Test
Operate
Test
Exit
First, know where you’re going, what you want, what state and test where you are in relation to that state. You do a simple test, or check to see if you have the result you want already. If not, do something (operate) and then test again. If you got what you’re looking for, exit the loop. If not, go through the loop again, trying another operation to get what you want.
Breaking down behavior into these basic units will help you understand and create more elaborate strategies in anything you do. Remember that giving up is another TOTE, where the test may come like, “do I feel too lazy to continue?” Then the operation is to move towards that outcome, and exit.
When someone puts an idea or protocol across to you, try it on, see if it does something good for YOU, and if so, keep it, if not, try anything else! I encourage you to develop the personal flexibility to question your own beliefs and identities. Try on new realities and see if they enhance your experience. Yoga is all about developing flexibility after all, and the more flexibility you have, the more fun you’ll have.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Subramani // Mar 10, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Digression!
The TOTE method is not always suitable. If someone wants to re-invent the wheel then yes please go ahead, but please also remember that maybe in your lifetime you might manage to just add 1-2 spoke to your wheel. In my humble opinion the TOTE method is for individuals (myself) who have a hard time being devotional, at least so we think. Everyone is devote to something or the other. Countless people are devoted to many things without experiencing first hand “No test”, not many people test what is said by their favorite news journalists or people they believe in (e.g. Friends relatives). YOu may not believe what is said on a website or a news channel but you would believe the same thing (or the oppisite) when someone close to you has experienced that. So, ultimately you don’t have to test everything for oneself. However blind faith is also not the answer. In our times, it is very hard to devote ourselves totally to anything as we are are afraid what would happen if in the end “My Guru” turns out to be a false one. I agree at one level with TOTE; however most Yoga practitioners have been doing only TAST (Test abondon, search, test). I do believe that every individual knows at a deep level what is good or bad for them. After experimenting with different Yoga schools, different diets etc. you will automatically know what is good and bad for you. Problem is that we refuse to accept the truth and want to think of us as the Ultimate born Yogi who’s fire just needs to be ignited. TOTE is good, but after some time one certainly needs to devote to whatever practise they decide is best for them.
Having grown up in a traditional family in India, and being exposed to many new ideas from the west at a Yong age, I refused to stay still and did a lot of jumpoing around from one thing to another. Only later did I realize that even a simple thing like Mantra chanting (as a child you are just taught the phonetics and easy Mantras without the meaning) would have been easier if I had just surrendered as a kid instead of TOTE. I did not have the capacity to TOTE, as a 8 year child will not understand why he is chanting “Purna madah Purna midam…” however when you grow older and like the philosphy behind your favourite mantra, you realize that it is hard to memorize/chant and understand the meaning all at once
Again I am not totally against TOTE, but just saying that you should also trust others TOTE experiences to save some time 
2 Adrian Cox // Mar 11, 2010 at 6:14 am
Great reply! I love that: TAST! I’m stealing that from you
Yes saving time, (and bruises) by accepting some shorthand for life is a necessary step for continuing existence of our species. It seems that as I get older, learning is less about completely downloading new information, but taking in new, discarding some old, and hopefully, noticing the connections.
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