On the periphery of practice

The Cop had someone at gunpoint last night. He told me about it when I got home from practice. Usually after evenings with gun-related events, we chat a bit before he goes to bed.

The guy was in a stolen car, tried to elude the police, and then, when the police caught up and there was a confrontation, rammed one of the police cars and then bolted on foot.

The Cop, checking out the area, just happened to hear the guy rustle some bushes. (Coincidentally, those are the bushes near where the Mysoreans park their cars on practice mornings.)

Anyhow, The Cop spotted him in the bushes and had him at gunpoint, and the guy was moving around without showing his hands. As is always the case when we discuss potentially violent events, I verified: "You were ready to shoot, right?"

This is an interesting question to ask right after practice. It certainly doesn't qualify as "yogic" in the usual sense that the term seems to be used. But it is an entirely sensible question from a zen perspective.

I really suspect that yoga is pretty tough--like zen, and that there's been an overlay of a kind of alternative view of it, of yoga as a gentle lifestyle. Kind of new agey. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with new-agey-ness. But it can be somewhat limited. And limiting, if you conflate new-agey-ness and yoga.