Obama Pranayama · 12 September 2008

Pretty excited about Obama Pranayama here. “Whether we are doing yoga or just taking our next breath.... let us consciously breathe in the intent for change and help move Barack Obama into the White House.”

I want a breathe-in. Not kidding. I’m going through an extroverted cycle here

But about the OP. On the one hand, ok, it requires the solipsistic worldview of a very small child and hilarously low standard of reality-checking to think you can actually shape external political outcomes by sitting around breathing. The aether theory of consciousness-raising.

It is interesting that we Santa Monicans, whose lives are the most disproportionately blessed in the world by technological advancement and the inequities of global capitalism, hold to the most hocus-pocus explanations for our dramatic privileges. “The Secret,” the apotheosis of the hocus pocus, is first and foremost a legitimation scheme for those who are disproportionately privileged—so they can believe their parking spaces and the SUVs they park in them are manifestations of their own superior mental power.

Yeah; because people in H3s are the smart ones.

We actually don’t get to sit around and will Obama in to office. Ever hear of precinct walking? That’s what they do in neighborhoods a little closer to the reality line.

Onnnnn the other hand, intention does have power. Besides mind-reading and occasional clairvoyance (didn’t just say that), there are no superpowers of yogic consciousness. What looks like siddhis is just the intuition trained to a very high level of self-knowledge and knowledge of its environment. The more you are aware of the operating systems, the more freaky-accurate your reading of the present moment and the better your predictions of what’s to come. Breathing is really good for that: pranayamites have a mysticism about them because they’re hyper-aware. More conscious of the fine details.

A corollary of the idea that you can effect political outcomes with breath practice is the magical thinking that you automatically make the world a better place by working on yourself. If I may part ways with Ramana Maharshi and co., there’s no magic in this either. You don’t sit in a cave and raise global consciousness by some “vibration.” It’s that if you’re more worked out in yourself, you relate to the world in a series of relatively healthy encounters that increase the goodness in the world. Sitting in a cave (or at obama pranayama) doesn’t do that: it just prepares you to do that really well.

Preparing the ground for action is not the same as action. But… it is still a good idea.

So, it’s all good. I’m excited about obama pranayama.

The thing is: I’m wondering about Obama himself. Is he doing the OP and tapping in to the world-soul/ prevailing discourse/ dynamic possibilities of the present moment in a way that’s prepared him to speak with apparently-magical accuracy? Does he have a better map of this territory and where it might lead than the GOP with its tired fucking culture wars?

It might not happen, considering what I’m little I’ve seen of recent days’ politicking but

The guy could bust out. He may have his intuition so finely articulated, and may be so ready for this moment, that he finds the way to speak to these angry ghosts so a margin of them hear him. I only say this because the race speech in March was that. He wrote it himself when the time for it was perfect. The content and tone were the most brilliant political moment in the US in my lifetime. I was amazed.

The guy is carrying some measure of awareness and discursive power. The charisma factor, easy to forget amid this week of dread, is a big deal. But he’s also moving along in the rickety old sinking mothership of the Democratic Party, filled with a crew that doesn’t get it at all. So we’ll see what happens. If he can get some headspace to tap in, and just allow himself to get righteously pissed off, something might happen.

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Categories: markets-networks-society , self-deception , social theory

Comment

1. Not to state the obvious, but whatever Obama’s got, he better tap into it soon, because the Republicans are expert. The Karl Rove playbook is really quite impressive.

   Posted by: knl · Sep 12, 06:23 PM · #

2. Yes it is. Much of the genius is just all-out boldness and full-on sense that they are “generating their own reality.” Which puts that New Age idea in a particularly sinister light. :)

   BTW, I didn’t specify that Obama Pranayama is a group on Facebook. One I’ve been promoting, even!

   Posted by: (0v0) · Sep 13, 01:13 PM · #

3. The further we get toward the election, the more jazzed I am about it. Obama is not playing to the Republican tempo the way the last few unsuccessful Democratic campaigns have tried to do. He’s making clean representations to the audience he needs to connect with, just the way progressive campaigns should go.

   As my good friend Sam Clemens says: “Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.” His audience is the American people and if he should try to go tit for tat with SP or JM or “the media” then he’d lose at least some of what advantage he has. The Rs think this match is about “change” — and they’re absolutely correct — but they don’t comprehend what needs changing. Obama is drawing politics toward a more dignified direction and that is where we benefit most. If we can get him elected then we win big-time.

   I kind of liked it better when I thought we could khumbaka his ass right into the White House. You make it sound risky.

   Posted by: Carl · Sep 13, 02:17 PM · #

4. Hey, why is there a Serra sculpture on your Flicker page? You intimate a problem with the object? What’s going on?? I LOVE RS! If you are seeing it as overbearing and imperialistic, we have to talk. There’s such delicacy there.

   I sent money to Obama’s campaign this morning. With a sense of hope, but also resignation. This is a democracy, and in the end, the collective will make a decision. I may find myself feeling like I’m on the outside looking in — a position I am not unaccustomed to, politically. But there is something good about the way we do things, even if, in the short view, it can look like we shouldn’t be trusted with such a system.

   Posted by: karen · Sep 13, 04:15 PM · #

5. LOL! Just realized I used the word “collective” — my belief systems always leak out…

   Posted by: karen · Sep 13, 04:16 PM · #

6. I was a-scared because for years I’ve thought that we needed a Dem (i.e. Hillary) that could out-Rove the Republicans and Obama is clearly not playing that game.

   But now I’m wondering if he’s really a game changer in a much bigger sense. Maybe his insistence of running a new kind of campaign is really going to work. The media is finally starting to pick up on the “McCain is a liar” meme.

   I’m starting to believe that Obama really does know what he’s doing – and he’s laying a trap for McCain to fall into. He sure seems cool under pressure, given the state of the tracking polls.

   I believe in Obama! I breathe for Obama (5:5:10:5)!

   Posted by: cody · Sep 14, 09:43 AM · #

7. 10-4 CP, 5:5:10:5 !

   I agree with you and sense many others do as well, but the question is: is THIS the time to change the game? The media are pretty stupid and have professional and institutional habits of structuring this game. I thought Krugman’s column on Thursday was the first mainstream message to just move away from that, but commentators have so much more freedom and perspective than reporters.

   But yes! We have to BELIEVE! Maybe we can khumbaka his ass in to the white house, in the form of getting out the vote.

   I don’t even want to get started on this power of intention shit. It doesn’t apply to mindless Americans trying to feel good about themselves. If it would work for anyone, it would be the Tibetans. Still waiting for some “experimental results” on that one. Maybe they’ll happen, but in the meantime I don’t want to hear about anybody else’s “vibratory awareness.”

   It’s socially irresponsible to offer people “consciousness” practices as a substitute for political action. (Just as it is personally irresponsible to funnel all your shadow anger into political action without taking care of yourself… something I see so often when I study social movements.) It’s amazingly self- mcongratulatory and makes me feel so uncharitable to the more interesting ideas New Age likes to play with. Actually, it quite pisses me off to see these practices used to immobilize people en masse.

   I love that TNH’s engaged buddhism works from both directions. A ton of lovingkindness and compassion practice, self observation, and bold, morally unassailable political action.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Sep 14, 12:08 PM · #

8. Richard Serra. Karen, especially considering you are a sculptor, I want to hear your thoughts about this. Anyone else too. I’m still playing with this…

   Two years ago when they dropped this thing into the sculpture garden I thought it was gauche and corny. The garden is full of so many delicate, gorgeous pieces placed in relationships to each other, and the Serra draws all the energy out to a corner and forces you to move from it to the new art building it salutes. (For example, the Gaston Lachaise I love now has to compete with it.) The major funder of the new art building is Eli Broad, who has a big thing for Serra and even dedicated the entire ground floor of the new contemporary art building at the LACMA to 2 huge Serra pieces (which are horrible in the space—the lighting, acoustics and ambience are all wrong: one of the worst contemporary art displays I’ve ever seen). The whole thing just seemed self-congratulatory on Broad’s part (and also overly LA—I mean, do they need to go with the most popular living sculptor?). I looked out the rest of the garden—a diminuitive Calder, a couple of gorgeous Rodins, and all the others—as a group of patient, congenial old scholars humoring the passionate but shallow freshman Serra who wants to do all the talking.

   Anyway. Last summer I experienced the huge Serra exhibition at NY MOMA and found it so overpowering. It made the baby Serra back home seem like a bitty token, kind of shifted my perspective on it.

   The past year, I feel like I’ve had a kind of open inquiry on the piece. I love the garden so much and have some of my most beautiful moments there every day. My emotions around the Serra have changed, and continue to change.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Sep 14, 12:13 PM · #

9. Talking with the loudest voice? Um, that’d be the representational artists first and foremost, with their self-congratulatory mimesis. LOL!

   Material (steel, air, humidity, rust) as a curving shape moving through space? Gah! I can’t stand how beautiful!

   And how embodied and begging us to return the favor with our whole bodies?? Mmmm. Stand there and mesmerize yourself with the shape, then tilt yourself to match some of the planes. Imagine it as directions for another asana. A standing posture, clearly — grounded and solid. Oh, but what about the motion in those rolling planes? Breath, maybe?

   LOL! Exquisite! I’ll try to dig up some proper critical writing about Serra. All I can say is that they make me want to throw myself against them, limbs outstretched. Follow one with your eyes that way.

   Posted by: karen · Sep 14, 01:54 PM · #

10. Oh, and forget any prejudices about “bigness.” No kneejerk reaction about how much space someone should be “allowed” to take. Meet just the object as it is. Take a really broad view.

    Posted by: karen · Sep 14, 01:57 PM · #

11. Ok.

    Posted by: (0v0) · Sep 14, 02:17 PM · #

12. I’m staying optimistic too… and like Cody, I have noticed the media starting to come out in force about McCain’s lies. I think Obama knows what he’s doing, but I also think he’s trying to stay true to his nature. I hope he doesn’t feel cornered and eventually lash out with the same vileness as the GOP. I love his coolness and his desire to keep to the issues.
    As far as that sculpture goes, it’s super cool. What struck me when I saw it on your Flickr page, next to the open doors of the shala, was how the two images play so well together. They both share that wonderful warm, orange color. One glows from within, the other reflects the light. One draws you in, the other makes you want to stand back to appreciate the size and shape before moving forward to explore.
    I’m really enjoying your photography!

    Posted by: Liz · Sep 15, 11:47 AM · #

13. Thanks! This is what I was seeing with those two as well. That and the Serra has that sliver of an entry to—drawing you in and pushing you away at the same time. Inside, the shadows on the ground look like keys and sickles, shaped by the curling edges of the metal. Different from warm old sweaty ganesh, but in an interesting way.

    Posted by: (0v0) · Sep 16, 08:17 AM · #

14. My favorite art fires up all of my nervous system EXCEPT the pesky discursive blah blah. One of the best feelings in the world! :-)

    Posted by: karen · Sep 16, 10:55 AM · #

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