Last week, The New York Times' Social Q's column by Phillip Galaines ran a Q from a yoga student pissed off about a loud OM-er in her class. Here's the letter, and Galaines' reply:
"Spare Us the Om
A new person joined my yoga class and has a habit of yelling her “Om!” She ignores the soft beginning and jumps in with a deafening wail, which she continues long after the rest of us are finished. Any suggestions? Leslie Dumont, Manhattan Smells like a hit: “Downward Dog” starring Ethel Merman! A Zen yogi would find a way to accept the deafening chant as a lesson in tolerance — which is probably why you came to me instead. So, if the Human Foghorn is really bothering you, ask your yoga teacher to intervene. Or take a deep breath as you sit cross-legged on your mat and repeat after me:
“May this be the worst problem I have today.”
"What's so remarkable about this complaint and reply is not the content---who hasn't been in a yoga class where someone chanted too loudly, off key, with bad breath etc? (or did something else that got under your skin)---but that a social ettiquette columnist for the New York Times knew how to answer the question. Maybe he's a yogi? Or, maybe our culture is getting a lot more savvy about yoga.
Culturally, this is light years away from general consciousness about yoga 40 years ago. Not in a good or bad way---just different. Compare this to the "feel" of this review of Paul McCartney's benefit concert for the David Lynch Foundation from April-- read it here--populated by people who really lived the '60s. It's got that groovy, pre-hippie, peace, love, and dope-smoking feel to it. By contrast, the Social Q is very status quo. (Cool thing is, the April benefit was to raise money to teach meditation to children. That's right---says it right here:
"The concert was a benefit for the David Lynch Foundation, which seeks to teach Transcendental Meditation to a million students worldwide. “Every child should have one class period a day to dive within himself,” reads the manifesto at davidlynchfoundation.org. “This is the way to save the coming generation.”
"McCartney, joined by Ringo Starr, sang some songs " that Mr. McCartney wrote during a 1968 trip that the Beatles (and Donovan) took to learn Transcendental Meditation at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh, India." ")
In the end, it's all good. Even the loud OM-er.