Using Buzz Lightyear 🚀 to explain Yoga Philosophy

We know that yoga, away from the poses, means union. The yogi (the seeker) tries through breathing and concentration to go beyond the mind. And once the seeker is beyond the mind, there are theories that you join or yoke with the universe, or become part of it (union) ✨. A kind of eternal bliss, beyond anything you could feel or picture. A place we can’t really imagine (as that would be within the constraints of the mind).

Is this understood the same way across yogic and eastern philosophy? Er, no. Not really 🫣. Nothing ever is that simple.

Image of my dad in the early 80's. Propa bollywood fam :)

So I tried explaining the whole thing to my 7 year old Zaccy. "Explaining Yoga Philosophy to a 7 year old" - We were going to film it for Instagram but never really got round to it. We did make a carousel though. Check it out in the 'gram.

I told him that Buzz Lightyear is the yogi. Buzz arrives lost and confused, the way we all do when we are born. And all Buzz wants is to get home, back to where he came from. This is the yogic thought. Man's soul yearns to return back to the universal soul. Which is why man is always lost and looking for meaning and purpose. The difference is Buzz knows exactly where he needs to go.

But before Buzz can get home, he has to defeat his greatest enemy. Emperor Zurg.

I told Zaccy that Zurg is just Buzz’s mind 🧠. His own demon, the thing he must conquer before he can make it back to his home planet. At this point Zaccy looked at me and said “bru”.

So I tried explaining that the mind is just his memories and imagination. Which is exactly what Zaccy is building right now. This mind (which is not the physical brain but what it does) can be the source of great art and wisdom, or it can be the source of suffering. And in Toy Story, if Buzz’s mind defeats him, he may never makes it home 🚀.

Then I told him about Woody. Woody keeps reminding Buzz that he is not really a space ranger, he "is just a TOY". Woody is the voice of reason. Rather than fixate in some pre-conditioned (and programmed) dream, Woody helps Buzz find his place in this world. The world he is actually in.

(I see Buzz as a metaphor for the Indian yogis in their saffron robes. They are in a costume convinced they are a cosmic being 🧐)

And across the film, Buzz slowly works something out. His obsession with getting home could consume him. And while he is so busy dreaming of "home", he nearly misses the obvious truth right in front of him. His life. Buzz has Woody, his best friend (a real guru), who eventually only wants what is best for Buzz. An unconditional love is born. And he also falls in love with Jessie. Which is just the best part of it all for me. And Woody helps him realise that Buzz nearly misses it all of this, the love, life and friendship, something real in chasing a home that he doesn't know in his heart even exists.

And that is the paradox of yogic thought. Does this great mystery, this universal consciousness, this enlightenment, actually exist? Or does chasing this mystical union stop you from living the one thing you know for certain is real? Life itself.

And this is why I sit on the side of the fence that says there is no enlightenment. There is no nirvana. The only truth is life. And so many yogis from the tradition, so fixed on the destination, miss that life is giving you something every single day and never asks for anything in return. But these yogis continue ignoring it for a union that may not ever be real. And when they arrive at death’s door, there is no Woody or Jessie in sight. An empty life and an empty heart.

This is why Tantra says just be. And everything you are deserving of will arrive in its own time. And this is why I interpret BKS Iyengar’s meaning when he said that true freedom is not found in some distant land. It is closer to home than we think. It’s in the here and now. It’s simply life as it is. It won’t be found in infinity or beyond 🚀

Namaskar

Zahir

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