Taking a leaf from Tara Stiles, yoga at Cobra “is not meant as a means to an end but as a moment to enjoy,” forgoing chanting while keeping poses simple and close to the floor. An all-American bar menu is replete with comfort food: hot dogs, soft pretzels with Cheez Whiz, and vegetarian Frito pie.

Bar co-owner Nikki Koch said she was inspired to open after observing that following class, “I feel like the best version of myself, and that means I want to be social. [Friends] and I always go out together after class and drink wine … I challenge anything on the prescription market to compete with its stress deleting, muscle unspooling power.”

Unsurprisingly perhaps, news of Cobra’s offerings has proven controversial. Yet the concept is arguably so yesterday; yoga’s modern pairing with intoxicants ranges from wine to marijuana to the entheogen ayahuasca in the Peruvian Amazon. Yoga Sutra 4.1 proclaims, “psychic and spiritual powers may be inborn, or they may be gained by the use of drugs, or by incantations, or by fervour (sic), or by Meditation.” Historically, the coupling of yoga and intoxicants has precedent in the left-handed Kaula tantrikas, who employed sex, drugs, and ritual to attain immortality and enlightenment.

While their use of intoxicants in combination with yoga is not necessarily to attain a higher state of consciousness as with Kaula Tantra, Cobra's owners believe that vice is part of a healthy life, theorizing that self-criticism and guilt stemming from imperfect choices may have a worse impact on well-being than indulgence. Some research supports this; the harder we are on ourselves, the more it may lead to future over-indulgences. A self-compassionate approach has much more robust associations with health and well-being.

There is a fine line, however, between self-kindness and overt self-indulgence. While it’s nice to unwind with a few drinks, habitual/excessive extremes may exert deleterious effects. True self-kindness entails recognition of self-harmful behavior and a willingness to hold yourself accountable. Is becoming a regular at the bar and its weekend “hangover yoga” classes a good use of your precious life force?

For some, the addition of yoga may be a radical improvement and perhaps even beneficial, as for Cobra owner Koch. Yet for others prone to over-indulgence, bar yoga may sanction routine drinking. The two “higher” paths of Tantra, Mishra and Samaya, abstained from intoxicants entirely, instead focusing on the rich inner world as a source of truth.

What are your thoughts on the interface of intoxicants with the path of yoga? Do you think all intoxicants are created equal?

Timothy: ...

I think it is irresponsible for a yoga teacher to encourage and enable their students' unhealthy habits. I'm not against the occasional glass of wine or beer, but drinking enough to create a hangover is not healthy or yogic. And with yoga's inherent purifying and detoxifying effects, drinking large quantities of booze and eating hot dogs and Cheez Whiz will only make your body work harder to detoxify all that junk.

1

August 16, 2012