Dear Yoga Friends,

If you're like me, you have an uneasy feeling watching one of those driverless cars pass by, kind of like seeing the mythical headless horseman. Tech moguls are focusing on these driverless cars, but you may be surprised to learn that the smart money is shifting to car-less drivers. Ironic that driverless cars receive all this attention, when what the world desperately needs is more car-less drivers. The core technology behind the cutting-edge car-less driver is yoga.

Before you conclude that I've gone a bit bonkers, consider this definition of technology: "the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes", and this definition of science: "the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained". I'm preaching to the choir to you yoga practitioners, but what can be more practical than yoga, a means to holistic health and well-being and a path to significant personal evolution? And isn't the way we learn from our experience with our own bodies, breath, minds, and states of consciousness a form of science? When you do this or that asana, how do you feel before, during, after? What asana sequence or pranayama calms your nerves, energizes you?

Which brings us to that elusive car-less driver—an entity that knows where it's going and is going somewhere meaningful. Consider Sutra II.18 (translation from B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali):

Nature, its three qualities, sattva, rajas, and tamas, and its evolutes, the elements, mind, senses of perception and organs of action, exist eternally to serve the seer, for enjoyment or emancipation.

Sounds scientific, doesn't it? Although an analysis of this sutra goes beyond my meager knowledge of yoga philosophy, I'll go out on a limb and associate the "seer" with the car-less driver. Serving that seer, navigating the paths in a world of elements, mind, and senses, involves the application of yoga technology. I'll keep you posted as I knock on the doors of prominent venture capitalists. How could they ignore this opportunity?

Very much welcome your comments and perspectives—scientific, technical, or otherwise!

Namaste,

Chad

------------

* Weekly classes: 12:15-1:15pm Tuesdays (mixed level, online) & noon-1:30pm Thursdays (intermediate, in-person) at the Noe Valley Ministry