perfection, or In contemporary neoliberal societies, Nikolas Rose tells us, these immortality.” technologies of the self are put in service of the imperatives of choice and self-maximization: and its capacities have become central to technologies of While bodily “the body selfhood.” self-enhancement has of course been a human goal since time immemorial, self-enhancement in contemporary neoliberal biopolitical regimes is characterized by the the “[maximization of] vital forces and potentialities of the which is as an It is living body,” “understood imperative.” this imperative—and indeed responsibility—to maximize and optimize human vital capacity that is reflected in many contemporary forms of postural yoga practice. Generally speaking, postural yoga is a teleological project of progressive individual self-improvement and optimization. Despite the diversity entailed in different understandings of the purpose of yogic teleology, at the heart of the yogic project is the inevitable impetus toward steady, incremental, betterment of one’s capabilities, whether understood in the lofty terms of soteriological aims toward transcendence or in terms of more mundane aims such as bodily beauty or perfection of postures. In most contemporary forms of yogic practice, one attends classes with regularity, working incrementally to master postures, to make the body more pliable and easefully able to move into and out of certain poses. The body is honed, trained and cultivated through repeated practice. Nor is this commitment to teleological self-fashioning and self-cultivation exclusively an artefact of or “modern” of yoga. The emphasis on repeated practice of self-cultivation appears in “Western” versions premodern Indic texts now regarded as as well as in modern Indian forms of “canonical,” practice. Benjamin Richard Smith, for instance, notes that the practice of K. Pattabhi Jois’ Ashtanga yoga valorizes ability to achieve greater hights in the “the body’s … progressively performance of yoga while B.K.S. is replete with references Light on Yoga poses,” Iyengar’s to repeated practice in pursuit of progressive achievement.
perfection, or immortality.” In contemporary neoliberal societies, Nikolas Rose tells us, these technologies of the self are put in service of the imperatives of choice and self-maximization: “the body and its capacities have become central to technologies of selfhood.” While bodily self-enhancement has of course been a human goal since time immemorial, self-enhancement in contemporary neoliberal biopolitical regimes is characterized by the “[maximization of] the vital forces and potentialities of the living body,” which is “understood as an imperative.” It is this imperative—and indeed responsibility—to maximize and optimize human vital capacity that is reflected in many contemporary forms of postural yoga practice. Generally speaking, postural yoga is a teleological project of progressive individual self-improvement and optimization. Despite the diversity entailed in different understandings of the purpose of yogic teleology, at the heart of the yogic project is the inevitable impetus toward steady, incremental, betterment of one’s capabilities, whether understood in the lofty terms of soteriological aims toward transcendence or in terms of more mundane aims such as bodily beauty or perfection of postures. In most contemporary forms of yogic practice, one attends classes with regularity, working incrementally to master postures, to make the body more pliable and easefully able to move into and out of certain poses. The body is honed, trained and cultivated through repeated practice. Nor is this commitment to teleological self-fashioning and self-cultivation exclusively an artefact of “modern” or “Western” versions of yoga. The emphasis on repeated practice of self-cultivation appears in premodern Indic texts now regarded as “canonical,” as well as in modern Indian forms of practice. Benjamin Richard Smith, for instance, notes that the practice of K. Pattabhi Jois’ Ashtanga yoga valorizes “the body’s ability to … progressively achieve greater hights in the performance of yoga poses,” while B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga is replete with references to repeated practice in pursuit of progressive achievement.