anything organic. Often, my whole family sat around watching tv with individual fold-out trays in front of us, eating Chun King frozen Chinese hors d'oeuvres that were heated in a microwave oven and served in the plastic container we bought them in. Back then, convenience and economy were valued over nutrition, and unhealthy patterns of eating were developed that I reckon with now in my later years.

Mass production and scaling of yoga look to be on a similar course as food was during my childhood. Despite the extraordinary growth of yoga as an industry, newer generations of practitioners, who have only come to know yoga in the internet age, often have less access to substantive teachings on yoga than I did when I came into the fold. There is simply no way to be exposed to the depth of a contemplative practice while scrolling through Instagram feeds. Chances are that the demise of meaningful yoga will lead to a greater sense of crisis before a larger realignment might occur.

Nothing exemplifies the false narratives perpetuated by the yoga industrial complex more than a recent Yoga Journal headline that read: "How to Make $5 Classes Sustainable." These stories, often well-intentioned, are the product of outdated modes of thinking that turn earnest people into unwitting hypocrites. Challenging the status quo by returning to an earlier stage in the evolution of yoga transmission, but with new eyes, might be the best way to break free of our current extractive paradigm.