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Acting for Yogis

Lesley Ewen
www.GeneralLife.org
I am an actor.
Or acting is what I do. I was born to it. I had a vision when I was twelve, I WILL BE AN ACTOR. Ive
directed my whole life in accordance with that. My mother used to say, Oh dont be so dramatic.
Artists dont choose what they be, they just must. Ive tried not to be an actor and I begin to wilt. Im
stuck with it. Its a pleasant journey, challenging and occasionally suicidal. Rather the nature of life.
Acting is not really a job. Its a way of life. A vocation. Ive been accused of having a messianic
bent toward the Theatre. Ya...so whadaboudit? I believe the Theatre can be a deep ritual. A
healing for everyone engaged in the journey playing itself out on stage. Messianic bent? Of course.
I practice a craft that was a method of worshiping and revealing the divine, of embodying the divine
even. Still is, when its presented in its highest form, which depends on how deep the actor is willing
to come from. Sometimes its just entertainment.
This is what the astrologer, Dane Rudhyar says about the actors craft.
I used the word actor, but at a certain stage of human development the actor becomes an
agent, for he has come to realize that through him the purpose of the universe is indeed focused
according to the time and place of his life performance. The ego in him has become a crystalline
lens through which the Will of God is concentrated into individualized acts. He does not think; the
One Mind thinks him. His life has become sacred because it is no longer his life, but the Whole
performing within and through the space of his total organism, and at the time determined by the
rhythm of the planetary process, whatever act is necessary.
A pretty tall order when youre playing Black Nurse #1 on the latest American tv dis-ease movie of
the week. But Ive done it and I do it. Im not interested in any other way.
Why... is Yoga. How... is Yoga.
Ive been studying Yoga, officially, for almost 4 years. The more I study, the more I see that Ive really
been practicing most of my life, without naming it.
I remember I was about 10, I saw a show on sea turtles. The narrator told us how they breathed really
slowly and thats why they lived so long. From that moment on I decided to slow my breathing. I
would lie in bed at night, ease the breathe in and leak it out. And in the timeless stillness in between,
Id just be. Float. Pranayama. Without knowing it I was also preparing my instrument for speaking
long stretches of text. Shakespeare, Checkov, the Greeks.
At acting school in my 20s, much of the work we did came from Stanislavkis school of thought, ideas
which, unbeknownst to me, he extracted from the Esoteric Mystery schools. Our teacher was infusing
us with an experiential understanding of the non-dual, the divine. We learned how to manipulate the
energies that surround us and of which were made. He guided us in becoming adept in the use of
the Anima Mundi, the world soul.
It took years to understand the importance of being able to take half an hour to walk across the
room. What it means to be, fully, in the process of every step without anticipating the next. The
value in standing, just existing, undistracted by an aching back or the dreaded feeling of nausea as
one passes through yet another wall of resistance. Focus on the breathe. Put it through the work!

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was the mantra drummed into our heads by our brilliant teacher. An indelible path in my psyche. A
verbal rut. What ever discomfort or seemingly overwhelming emotion...breathe, detach, observe
and...Put it through the work! Occasionally, the wall of resistance won out, and the garbage can
in the corner had to be rinsed out a couple of times in a day.
Now, after calling myself an actor for 30 years, I feel that Ive finally arrived at the beginning my work
as a mature artist. Ive studied the instruction manual, now its time to fearlessly play the game.
Yoga has helped me to understand this game very differently than I might have otherwise.
My focus has always been on doing good work for the rest of my life. Work used to refer to acting
here, there, anywhere, good reviews and bigger parts. Now, through Yoga, work points to a whole
other world...interesting experiences and most important, serving the Divine. So much has dropped
away as a result of my practice.
Simple.
Complex.
Simple again.
Through Yoga I have glimpsed the Vast Subtle. This has wreaked havoc with my ambition and
career. I just dont care about the things a successful actor is supposed to care about.
Fortunately Yoga has strengthened my perspective that those things dont really matter or even exist.
It seems theyre just waves on the ocean. Ive become interested in the ocean itself.
Not being swept up in those waves requires a rock solid practice. Especially in the power hungry,
ego driven world of film, television and theatre where the focus is often on surfaces. And when they
say its good, its you they point to, not a painting, not a building, not a report that you can walk
away from. You, how well you manipulated your emotions, how pretty you are, how sexy, how funny,
how True. And when they say its bad, grotesque, or worst of all, boring...Oooooo mama, bring on
the razor blades! Keeping my eye on the ocean, the unchanging, that which is below the relative is,
for me, the only way through this minefield of irrelevant judgments. Yoga is the only thing Ive found
that ensures this internal freedom. Of course, my experience with hallucinogenic drugs is very limited.

When it comes to the work of building a character whether at the beginning of each rehearsal or
each night of performance, I ask the Divine creative force to bring through me whats needed.
What is necessary for the worlds healing on that night. For that particular audience. I ask to be used
as a channel, or a prism with a facet for every viewer present. Yoga helps me keep the channel
uncluttered, the prism unclouded. Physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Yoga makes it safe to drop myself which leaves me with a deep neutral foundation upon which I
can build the character, (character = the cumulative effect of a series of actions). It takes me to
the space before my concept of me exists. An empty apartment cleared of all my neurotic
baggage, memories and questionable taste, that I can then fill up with furniture fitting to the
character; their posture, their emotions, their way of moving, speaking and processing information,
their beliefs about the world. Then I can act in ways that I wouldnt normally act. An intense letting
go of Self.

Drama is about being in conflict. Its about sitting in the shit and eventually making ones way out of
it...or not. Thats why its so delicious to watch. We all slow for the car crash. The feelings that the
character goes through I, as an actor, go through to a certain extent. Yoga keeps me lubricated so
those emotions, however intense, slip right through me. Yoga teflonizes my insides so I can hate the

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enemy enough to saw his head off or fall in love at first sight...with my torturer. Or both. At the same
time!
Yoga teaches me to let go of the moment just lived. This ability to detach keeps me from getting
bogged down in the past (onstage, at least) so Im loose enough to play out the drama full on. To
splash about and get really mucky in the messy Now. The play ends, I drop it all, take a bow and
return to myself. Or the configuration Ive adopted as myself.
Yoga gives me access to deep stillness. This kind of stillness is fascinating to watch. If you look closely
at an actor, or anyone, adept at being deeply still you can see the place where everything, ever, lies
in wait to be born. Ecstatic grief and ecstatic joy in the crook of their mouth. The first smile of a
newborn and the grimace of the murderer. The potential for a whole world. What will she do? What
will he say? All possibilities, equally present. This creates an enticing danger. SNAP!!! one takes
action and drama is created.
Someone somewhere said that an audience keeps showing up at the Theatre in the hopes that The
Archetype will appear. We need to see these Archetypes; the Queen, the Magus, the Executioner,
the Ingenue. They show us how to proceed with our lives or how not to. The Archetypes reveal
Beauty, The Good, Truth and Love . They are emissaries of The Divine. Practicing Yoga - union with
the Divine - grants me an all-access backstage pass to the dressing room where the Archetypes
hang out. Back there, I can swallow whole anyone I want, come on stage and spin them out for you.
Whatever you need on that particular night.
Medea, a small blonde boy or a black sheep named Snowy.