That position is called “the locust”. She makes it look so easy, so comfortable. Perhaps she could do that all day?
It’s fitting that yoga originates with religion and gurus because today’s thought is about the danger of deceptive posturing.
Here’s how it goes. Pastor Guru Guroferston has a bit of influence, and a bit of charm. So a would-be padawan decides to try to win him over as his master. In this dance of acceptance he wins the role of padawan by standing on his head and bouncing around. Pastor Guru is impressed! He’s clearly no “rolling saint” but he’ll do for now.
After putting on such a show to win the interest of his new master the padawan has a tall order to fill. He must always appear comfortable bouncing around on his head to maintain the new found status.
Months, even years go by and finally the contortions are paying off. Pastor Guru is looking for a successor (sometimes code for he’s bored and ready to expand his influence). The young padawan is anxiously awaiting his opportunity to be the master and he does! His first act as master is to accept auditions for his own padawan and after watching a few different acts he is nearly ready to make his choice. In fact he’s pretty sure he can choose several of these people, maybe even a half dozen or so when the news breaks… IN BREAKING NEWS… “World renound Pastor Guru Guroferston caught in prostitution raid…” or “Guroferston’s wife leaves him after 10 years.” or even just: “Pastor Guru destitute after a series of bad investments.”
Kaboom… the would-be master is now turned into nothing but a bad investment, a divorcee, or a cheap “trick”. Yes, the padawan. Why? Well simple, the padawan was building his house on the sand of Pastor Guru Guroferston. So every dumb thing that Pastor Guru did reflects on the padawan. Pastor Guru was the authority that declared him “master” or “pastor” or whatever title was bestowed on him and for however long as the padawan finds his identity in that title he is linked to everything Pastor Guru Guroferston does. He was ordained by a fraud and by association is himself a fraud. Even if he isn’t, for as long as he defends the title he cherishes, he defends his guru.
This is not how it is supposed to be! Of course the story was a caricature of this dynamic, but tone down the exaggerations and this is precisely how many churches work. It feels like a competition because that’s precisely what it is. The padawans and gurus would never admit such, but they play-on, vying for titles and admiration precisely as Jesus warned they would do:
“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.” – Matthew 23:5-7.