Hello Steemit,
In the past ten years, I have been writing articles in my columns in three different magazines. My latest article will come out in February but I think I might post a video version of that before it is even published in the magazine. The article below is my first one in the Estonian Telegram magazine. In this article, I talk about dualism, and it is related to the video I posted yesterday. You can check the video later here.
Let's start the monkey article:
Oneness or dualism?
Hello. My name is Jocke Salokorpi aka the Ashtanga Monkey. I’m a 41-year-old man, father of two and the husband/ co-traveler of Terje Hakman-Salokorpi. A while back, I had a thought and before too much thinking, I messaged Hando from Telegram. He thought the idea was great, and here we are now… I think I’m supposed to write something interesting about yoga, which is a problem of course because yoga is not really that interesting. All that breathing and meditating keeps emptying the mind and thus all of that which is interesting starts to fade away.
I’m a father, I’m a son, I’m a husband. I’m this and I am that, but if I’m very honest, I can’t really say who or what I am. Who is having these thoughts? Where am I? Can you find me in my brain? No. I have been here my whole life, but I have never seen me. I have been here all my life but I have never heard me. So who am I? What am I? The person I see in the mirror while brushing my teeth is only the biological vessel I'm somehow connected to. Tuned in to. Who is reading this text? Have you ever seen yourself? Who are you?!?
I like questions. There are many more interesting ones, like “where am I?” Hando has an interesting view about this (flat earth), but I think the start of this article has been confusing enough, so let’s not go there. Who I truly am, I don’t know. Who am I playing? This character, Jocke, is a mouldable entity and at this moment of time, he’s playing a role of a yoga enthusiast, yoga student, and a teacher. I think I need to be careful with these cookies I’m eating, they're making my brain come up with odd and complicated ways of saying: “I teach yoga.”.
Another thing should have become clear by now. I’m not the typical “yoga teacher type” of a yoga teacher, I’m a monkey. A yoga monkey, with the intention of bringing yoga to absolutely everyone. If you can breathe, you can practice yoga. You don’t need a 100€ yoga mat to start taking care of yourself, or a 100€ monthly membership fee. I will do my best to bring the practice to you. Thank you Hando and Telegram for making that possible.
Not the typical yoga teacher, not a very typical person in general. I’m quite happy to be “a little crazy”. No, I’m extremely happy to be crazy. I sometimes tell people that I would be alarmed if someone thought I’m “normal”. When I look at the world around us, it looks insane. You reading this magazine tells me that maybe you have similar thoughts. If “normal” for me is insane, then me being a little crazy is a good thing. Of course, there is a small chance (not really though) that the world is actually very sane and I’m literally crazy, which obviously is not a problem because I would be totally ignorant about it. (#confusedalready)
Like you can see, I don’t write in a very typical way either, so I’m quite sure Hando wasn’t expecting an article like this. If the voice reading these words is not mine, it means they were crazy enough to print this. It would be easy to write informative articles about the “benefits of yoga” or about any other thing that the public wants to “buy”. “Seven steps to health and happiness.” That doesn’t resonate with me at all. What resonates with me is that which is real. If my writing can have a real effect on someone, it’s worth doing. If not, then not. I used to write a monthly column for two years, in another Estonian magazine but I decided to end it because I felt it was only noise. There is too much of that already in the world. So what is it I’m doing here now? How can I make sure these are not just empty words, interesting concepts that don’t change anything in real life? How can I make sure that the energy I put into my writing will have a real positive effect on someone's life?
I think I know how. Hando, let’s make this a regular column in your magazine. We can call it the “Ashtanga Monkey Blog” or something. If your readers like it, we keep it, if not, we don’t. In this blog, I share things about yoga, life, spirituality and health in my own weird and very personal way. To make sure the ideas shared are not just empty ideas, I would like to continue some discussions (on my YouTube channel ... not anymore) on my DTube channel, with the “Ashtanga Monkey Vlog”. There I can share practical things like recipes, short practices, and other tips that your readers can try out for themselves. In addition, I will create full-length yoga practices to your website, telegram.ee. All content I create for you is free of charge. How about it Hando?
This is how I negotiate with people. I write a public article and in the article negotiate the terms. Their slogan is “Läbipaistev meedia” (transparent media) and they seem like open-minded people, so I guess this is ok.
Welcome to my blog! (#smilingface)
Today is 21st of June (as I’m writing this), it’s the international yoga day. People from different yoga traditions, all over the planet (or plane) celebrate and share their practices with others. I visited the event here in Tallinn and while I was observing the different traditions share their own versions of the sun salutation sequence, I started to think about the practice of yoga. What is it really? How would I describe yoga? Again, it is easy to just take some textbook description and spit out words that don’t really mean anything. Many different traditions and each have their own methods, but what is the goal? Why do we use the different methods? Yoga means union, right? Uniting the body, mind, and soul. Become one with everything, seeing all as one, experiencing oneness in everything. Surprise, surprise, this is not how I see it. I don’t think becoming one is the goal at all and here is why.
One equals nothing. Becoming one with everything is the opposite of dualism, which means it is nothing (and everything). This might be a little philosophical now, but stay with me, it’s not that complicated. Being one with everything means that dualism disappears. There are no more opposites. When everything becomes one and the opposites disappear, then the experience of something disappears also. The only way we can have an experience is by having this oneness, which equals nothingness, divide itself into two. Then there is something that is not the other. This is how creation must work. Divide nothingness to create somethingness. Yes, I just invented a new word. Our whole existence is based on the opposites. Male and female, positive and negative, yin and yang. If we wouldn’t have the opposites, we wouldn’t have life. Through a logic like this, I can’t wrap my brain around the idea of oneness. It doesn’t make any sense. Oneness might be where we come from, but this dualistic world is where we came to experience. We are created for experiencing. We have the senses that deliver an enormous amount of information from the outside world, into our nervous system. Our brain analyses that information and gives different pieces of information, different meanings. Our emotional system adds fuel to these different meanings, giving us the experience we call, being human. The sensation of cold is just information. Having a (#vegan) ice-cream on a hot sunny day is a human experience.
Is this just theoretical nonsense or is there some practical use of this idea. You tell me. I see it like this. Oneness is not the goal and it will never be the goal. The harmony of two is. This world and these bodies are created for us for the purpose of experiencing. When we find harmony between the two, between the masculine and feminine, between me and you, life starts to flow and our energy bodies starts to vibrate in a higher level and we can start to experience the opposites with more freedom. Resistance goes away and inner peace and contentment increase. The opposites won’t disappear, our reactions to them, will.
But hey.. what is the point of this philosophizing? Why not just pick up a yoga book and study it? Thank you for asking that question, it’s an important one. We have been programmed through our whole life to believe “facts” that are often not quite that, even totally false. I say no to any more programming and yes to critical and creative thinking. We can all figure out these things ourselves, but we all need to do it individually. No-one will do it for us. (#thinkforyourself) You should similarly not take my words as fact, you have to think for yourself. It is your life, your reality and you can find your own truth. My goal is just to make you think for yourself. Question everything. Listen to your own inner wisdom and put that wisdom to the test. Knowing is different from information. Knowing requires experience. If someone shares something and it resonates with you, then it’s time to experiment with it. Knowledge + experience = knowing.
What now? I will keep writing these articles if two factors are met. One, Telegram has to feel that there is value in them. Two, I need to feel that there is a point with it. That means that there has to be a real value for you. I’m not interested to add any more noise into this world if it doesn’t change anything. I teach yoga because the people who practice it, benefit from it. I’m also looking forward to really connect with you, the reader. I’m a human being and my style is very personal. I write from my heart and I have no reason to hide from you. You like it or hate it, that is up to you. It’s none of my business. I do what I feel in my heart is important and if that resonates with you, great. If that is the case, please go to my DTUbe channel and share your thoughts there. It’s greatly appreciated.
As you are reading this, the first full-length yoga practice is also up on the website. Direct link to the practice is here: (). It’s an easy, short form Ashtanga Yoga practice (45 min), combined with a Yin Yoga style, deep stretch (20 min) in the end. The best time to practice is in the morning but you can, of course, do it anytime. When you practice, always remember this. Be friendly towards your body. Respect it, love it and don’t force it.
Sincerely, thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. I hope to connect with you soon!
Jocke
Jocke Salokorpi is the founder of Ashtanga Yoga Tallinn, the first school to teach Ashtanga Yoga in Estonia (Established in January 2007). In the more than 10 years of dedication to yoga, Jocke has learned not to take it too seriously. “It’s a great tool, just learn how to use it… and have fun while doing it.” Jocke is also the creator of an international fitness yoga concept called YOGAFUNC. At the moment Jocke is building a new yoga school concept, which will take its first steps in Estonia in the fall of 2016 and when the time is right, this concept and the classes created by Jocke can also be found abroad. The name of the concept? Ashtanga Monkey Yoga.