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FINDING MY RELIGION
Yoga saved Jim Whiting's life
David Ian Miller

Monday, July 2, 2007

David Ian Miller
Finding My Religion
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What's It All About?

Jim Whiting credits yoga with saving his life on more than one occasion. His yoga practice got him back into shape, gave him a new and a far more optimistic outlook and may have recently saved him from an early death by drowning.

I spoke with Whiting, who works as a graphic artist in Albany, N.Y., by phone about spiritual aspects of yoga that are often overlooked in the West, his recent boating accident and how he used yoga as a tool to re-engineer his life.

What sparked your interest in yoga?
A few years ago, I was really overweight. I smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, didn't get any exercise and was totally out of shape. And I was going through a divorce. I had reached a point of despair where I didn't really care what happened to me. Finally I decided that I had to make some changes or I was going to end up dead at a pretty young age.

One day, I was at a local Y when I saw a flyer for a yoga and meditation group. I thought, "Hey! Maybe I'll try this. Maybe I'll find something I'm looking for." And, sure enough, I did. I studied with the gentleman who was teaching the class for about 10 years, and we became very good friends. I consider him a mentor.

What surprised you the most about yoga when you started practicing it?

I didn't realize how out of shape I was. I couldn't even touch my toes. There was almost no flexibility in my body. I started studying postures at the local Hindu temple and practicing on my own, and gradually I began to feel better.

Emotionally, going through a divorce, that was a big trial. And I think without my yoga practice, I probably would have been ... well, I was really devastated, but it would have been much more traumatic. I really relied on yoga to get me through the trauma of the divorce and separation.

So if you hadn't found yoga, it might not have ended so well?
Probably not, although I think the way the universe works, I might have found what I was looking for anyway. The Hindus believe that you go through the same process over and over again, throughout each lifetime, until you get it right.

How else has yoga enhanced your life so far?

It keeps me centered and it helps me in my interaction with other people, my outlook on the world and life. When you are going through these emotional crises, you have a tendency to -- your outlook is pretty dark. And yoga helped -- and still helps -- me to keep the spiritual connection alive, looking towards the optimistic side of things.

What is Kripalu yoga?

Basically, it's meditation in motion. The idea is that you concentrate on your breath while performing asanas (postures), and you become centered in your meditation through breath work, breathing through the postures as you do them.

It was developed in India by a man named Swami Kripalu and is based on accessing prana, which is life-force energy, and releasing it. You do a series of postures, and by stretching certain muscles you release energy and any emotions that are bottled up inside. That way the energy can flow.

How difficult is it to master?

Not that difficult. A lot of the classes start out with gentle, easy movement -- the point is to get students moving parts of their bodies they are not used to moving. Most of us only go through the same motions every day, day in and day out. I know that working on a computer I sit at a desk all day, and I carry a lot of tension in my shoulders and my neck. So starting to move those muscles helps me relieve the tensions that are stored in there.

Lots of people do yoga as a form of exercise. But I think many people emphasize the physical regimen and ignore its spiritual components.

Definitely. Here in the West we have just picked up on the exercise part, but it really is a spiritual practice. It's a whole philosophy.

Can you say a little bit more about this?

The word "yoga" refers to the yoking of the self -- controlling the self -- in order to become the best human beings that we possibly can. And that requires a certain amount of spiritual connection to one other. We are all interconnected in some sense, and yoga is a means of staying in touch with that truth.

Through the process of yoga we can begin to remember that we are all part of the source and we are all here to help each other.

What do you mean by "the source"?

Some people call it God. I was talking earlier about prana, the energy that flows through everything. I believe that's the intelligent energy that runs the universe. I think that's what people mean by God or Yahweh or whatever term you want to use.

How do you relate to that source? How do you interact with it?

I find that by meditating and calming my mind, I begin to connect to my inner source of me, an inner light or divinity that is shared by every living thing on the earth. We all have it.

You mentioned that yoga can be used to clear angry emotions and bad experiences from your life, from your body. How does that work?

It's similar to the way acupuncture works. You have energy that's constricting the body, and it needs to be released. So when you bury or suppress anger, for example, it stays in your body and can manifest as a form of illness. The body is an interconnected system. These emotions are not just going to go away. What you're doing with yoga is releasing that energy, much like acupuncture does with a needle in your skin, so that it begins to flow. That way you can work through the emotions, release them from your body.

What is the hardest part of yoga for you?

The hardest thing for most people is the discipline, trying to do it every day. I know that's the hardest part for me.

How do you get over the hump?

Well, after a while you begin to enjoy the benefits of doing it. You have a calmer mind and you feel an internal energy that you hadn't had before. So when you don't do it, you begin to miss that.

Have you always been a spiritual person?

As a kid, I definitely had a spiritual view of things, but I lost some of that as I grew up. Since being introduced to yoga and meditation, I feel as though I've gotten back to that.

Do you follow a specific religion now?

I wouldn't call it a religion. I'd say it's more of a spiritual path that has led in a few different directions. I have studied the Himalayan tradition, and now I'm studying Kripalu, which is very similar. I've also studied a lot of Hinduism and found it to be very integrating, very accepting of other religions. And after being raised Catholic, I found that very refreshing.
Now you're teaching yoga. What sorts of classes are you teaching?

I'm teaching beginner yoga classes as well as a class for more advanced students. I incorporate spirituality into all my classes.

How so?

We do meditation, and I spend time showing them how to connect to the energy flow -- the source. I also read from spiritual writings.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to learn yoga?

I would go to a class. Interacting with people who are looking for the same thing or teachers who have something to offer is much better than reading a book at home.

You mentioned earlier that you were recently in a boating accident.

Yes, and I think yoga saved my life.

How so?

I was out on a boat in the middle of a lake, and the engine died. I had my mother out there and my small nephew and my sister -- no way to call for help because the radio also decided not to work, so I had to swim about four miles to shore.

To me, that was a big deal. I had a terrible fear of drowning when I was a kid. I used to have nightmares about being in a huge ocean, just floating, with nothing around but water everywhere.

So I was out in the middle of the lake, and it was really choppy. At one point, I panicked and felt that I wasn't getting anywhere, and I just started doing my yoga breathing and repeating my mantra, and that got me through it. For a little while there, I thought this might be it, this is where I'd buy the farm.

You're only 47 -- do you think much about dying?

I used to think a lot about death when I first started doing yoga and meditation. My teacher said to me: "Yoga is kind of like dying. You have to give up the position that you are standing in. You have to give it up to create space for something new. It's a process of dying to your old self." For a while, I struggled with that, but now I have more of a fear of not really living than dying.

What do you think happens when you die?

I think that we are energy, and energy can never die. Energy can only transform. We transform from one thing to another.

So you believe in reincarnation. Did that bring you any comfort while you were out there on the lake, or were you just scared?

Most swamis will tell you that they don't really want to come back [reincarnate] and have to do it again. So they try to get it right in this lifetime. It kind of scared me that I would have to go through this whole process again. Sometimes it's painful enough to go through it once.

So everybody got home OK?

Everybody got home OK. I found a fisherman who took me back to my boat and towed it back to shore. He thought I was a crazy decathlon swimmer and couldn't believe I swam across the lake. It's a really big lake.

Did you learn anything from that boating experience that applies to your life?

I've learned you can do difficult things if you put your mind to it. I was out there, I was scared and I just said to myself: "This is not what I want. I don't want to be scared. I don't want to freak out. I can do this." And I calmed down and did it. I think that's a lesson I can apply to almost anything.

Finding My Religion wants to hear from you. Send comments on stories and suggestions for interview subjects to miller@sfgate.com.