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Why I don't say 'Namaste'

Its come to be expected. After savasana, role to your right side, press up into a seated position, bring hands to heart center in anjali mudra...maybe there’s an Om, maybe not, but the last element of practice, the final close is often a chorus of “Namaste.” Many - maybe most - yoga teachers close their class this way. But not me. Why not? You might expect it, you might miss it, but what is it? Namaste is a Hindi phrase with Sanskrit origins often used to end a yoga class in the way “Amen” is used to end a Christian prayer or sermon. However, outside of the western yoga context its simply a greeting. A salutation, as in Surya Namaskar A and B, sun salutations. According to Merriam-Webster, "... namaste is formed from namaḥ , meaning “ bow , obeisance, adoration,” and the enclitic pronoun te , meaning “ to you .” The noun namaḥ , in turn, is a derivative of the verb namati , which means “(she or he) bends, bows.”  ( How 'Namaste' Entered The English Language ) Here...
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Jessamyn Stanley on cultural appropriation

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Disrupting Systemic Whiteness in the Mindfulness Movement

Check out this interview with Dr. Angela Rose Black in Mindful magazine. Many of us had been repeatedly yet unintentionally harmed by White students and White instructors teaching curricula grounded in Whiteness. ... that there is an overt assumption that the content presented is universally beneficial to EVERYbody. That the empirical evidence driving the curricula is “robust and rigorous” so of course its application is relevant to EVERYbody. And all of this universality is assumed while never having to say that decades of evidence-based, well-funded, highly visible, and industry standard findings that support mindfulness curricula and practices are predominantly normed on the lived experiences of White people. And quite honestly, that lack of inquiry—not having to ask which bodies receive benefit and which ones don’t; which ones were included in research studies and which ones weren’t, all the while garnering major dollars to further the development of this bl...
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