The ancient yogis teach about the value of taking time to withdraw our senses from the world in order to bring our attention to our inner experience. Pratyahara is this process of temporarily turning away from the intense stimulations of the world so that we can tune into the subtle elements of our inner experience.

Pratyahara is comprised of the word ‘prati’ meaning ‘away’ and the word ‘ahara’ meaning ‘food. This can mean taking a break from eating food in order to rest the body. It can also mean taking some time to meditate and withdraw from the outer world or it could also mean going away for some time to retreat from the demands of everyday life. It is when we take a break from something that we are able to return to it with fresh eyes and senses. This invites us to appreciate those every day things and people in our lives that we may take for granted.

Taking time to do a 1-3 day juice fast is a wonderful way to practice pratyahara. It gives your digestive system a rest and allows it to heal. As you remove toxins, new cell growth is created. It also allows you to cleanse emotions that have been lodged in the body. I believe it is best to do gentle cleanses with support throughout the experience. Going away to retreat gives you time to be gentle with yourself and listen to the needs of your body, as well having the support of others on the retreat. When you are true to yourself you will always feel more whole and healthy.

I have experienced many retreats over the past two decades. In the silent retreats we withdraw from talking so we can bring that energy inside to observe the on goings of the monkey mind. It is quite enlightening once you realize that this monkey mind controls so much of our words and actions. It is through this practice of pratyahara that you can quiet the mind and clean the inner-lens of perception. This allows you see things more clearly; to see things actually how they are. Sometimes we don’t want to see the truth, but ultimately this is the only path to true freedom.

Mindful eating is also a wonderful practice of pratyahara. It invites us to slow down the experience of eating so that you pay more attention to what you are eating and to your body. This allows us to be more in tune to how much we eat and what is best for us to eat. We are all unique so we can all benefit from listening to the wisdom of our bodies. My first invitation to mindful eating was from a Priest who taught me Yoga and we ate a peach together. The smell before we ate it was glorious and the feel of the fuzzy texture tickled my lips. As we took the first bite, I felt a cool sensation of the juice drip down my chin. Then the flavour burst inside my mouth! All of my senses were alive in that moment and I had never felt so appreciative of a peach before. Mindful eating invites us to be fully present in the moment which cultivates gratitude for all we have.

We can practice pratyahara by creating space for yoga and meditation practice. It is best to eliminate as many distractions as possible so that you can bring your attention inwards. Imagine going away for a weekend retreat (or longer) and taking time to unwind from the busyness of life. This can be challenging for many who have a hard time letting go. We tend to want to stay in control and retreat is about surrender. This can bring up uncomfortable emotions and you may want to run from them. The practice invites us to stay, even if it is challenging, and to ride the waves of each moment. As we give ourselves this time to rest and reflect we do come through to a place of renewal. It is best when you can withdraw from the world a little each day and even better when you can get away for longer periods. You will return feeling more vibrant and alive!

Follow Your Bliss

Jump into your life with your whole heart, trusting that you will fly! ~ C.L. 

Ishvara pranidhana, surrender, reminds us that there is a divine force at work in our lives. It invites us to be active participants in our life, totally present and fluid with each moment, while appreciating the magnitude and mystery of what we are participating in. 

Nicolai Bachman refers to Ishvara-pranidhana as humility and faith. He says it is the personal practice of deep respect for, admiration of, and faith in a higher, inner knowledge.  When we can calm the mind we can listen to our inner teacher.  Then we choose to act without expectation.  When we dedicate the fruits of our action to Ishvara (universal soul) it is truly freeing.  When we understand that each person is a constantly changing outer shell encasing an unchanging, pure inner light of awareness, then we can show love for the divine in all beings.

Pranidhana implies a state of humility in the presence of something higher. Humility means that egotism is not active. No one owns knowledge. We all dip into the giant soup of universal intelligence.   When you surrender to the divine it allows you to truly understand your relationship with it. 

History is full of great people who surrendered to the hardships and challenges of their time and engaged those hardships with creativity and skill. These inspirational people like Ghandi, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, understood that surrender meant giving themselves to a higher purpose because that was what life asked of them. They were ordinary people that did not shrink away when challenge arose, but instead chose to meet the moment skilfully. We don’t have to look for greatness; we only need to pay attention to the needs of the moment.  When we are aware of what is right in front of us, we will get clues into our own development and direction. When life needs us, it will come to us, but we will recognize it only if we are paying attention and if we are courageous enough to respond. 

The jewel of Ishvara Pranidhana invites us approach our Yoga practice in the spirit of offering. We can make an intention at the beginning of our practice to let go of what no longer serves us so that we can cultivate our ‘greatness’.  We can dedicate our practice to something bigger than ourselves and offer the benefits we receive from the practice to all beings.  This niyama asks us to let go of tensions in our mind and body. By watching our thoughts float by like leaves and twigs on a river, this helps us to calm the monkey mind. In all of our Yoga poses we can practice easing into the effort.  And the Yogis say that Corpse Pose is the most important pose of all as we let go of all the doing. When we lay in the corpse pose, the position of death, it is symbolic of letting go of another layer to allow our heart center to open. Like a flower opening to the sun, it requires surrender. As the flower grows towards the light, its purpose is to bloom. It’s vulnerability and delicacy is what makes the flower beautiful. But first it is important to have roots of support. When we take care of ourselves it helps us to feel rooted and gives us an inner strength. The 3 pillars of Ayurveda invite us to eat food that is alive, to get enough sleep and to exercise our body. This is what gives us strong roots so that we can bloom in our own lives. 

Deborah Adele says, “When we practice all the Yamas and niyamas we are learning to find our compassion and courage, our boldness and contentment, and the knowledge of how we get in our own way. As we grow in all the skills of these 10 guidelines we will be able to greet each moment worthy of what it asks of us. We all have something to offer humanity. As we discern where our path lies and then surrender to that awareness, we will begin to taste freedom and joy.  Surrender asks us to be strong enough to engage each moment with integrity while being soft enough to flow with the current of life”. 

At the end of our yoga practice we join and share a chant together. This is an affirmation of Ishvara Pranidhana as we offer the benefits we receive from our practice, to others, so that all beings can be happy and free.

Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu

“Know yourself so well that you will grow into your wholeness and greatness.” ~ C.L. 

The yogis teach that you are, at the core, divine consciousness. This place within each one of us is referred to as our ‘true nature’ or ‘inner light’, or ‘heart-mind’. This light is covered in your experiences, your conditioning, and your belief systems. This is how you identify with yourself and what you believe to be true, your preferences and dislikes, your fears and imagination. This is all informed by country, culture, gender, town, ancestors and family history, groups you belong to, and your personal experience. The guideline of Svadhyaya invites you to observe your outer nature of who you are in the world, which is always changing, and to realize your unchanging inner light of awareness. 

The first step toward self-improvement and self-refinement is looking at yourself honestly and objectively. This can provide a glimpse of who you are. Every comment you make about the world, about another person, about an event, about life, is a projection of yourself and a clue to your interior landscape. The world is your autobiography. The world and others simply reflect back to you what you are seeing, not what is there. It is as if wherever you look, there are only mirrors that show you pictures of yourself. You cannot love or hate something about another person or the world unless it is already inside of you first. The world gives you what you see. As you change, the world changes with you. 

Traditionally, Svadhyaya meant learning and repeating a mantra chosen by your teacher. You can connect with your inner-guru and choose your own mantra. The mantra OM is the most common mantra and its repetition connects you to the divine. It can be any word or statement that resonates with your heart-mind, like Shanti (peace) or Santosha (contentment). It can be a quality you admire in another, like courage or graceful. It can be a word that resonates with your inner heart,). It can be an affirmation, intention or sacred wish. As you meditate, you can silently repeat this mantra and allow it to imprint on your heart-mind. 

This niyama also invites you to study ancient scriptures or even inspirational biographies that are meaningful to you. This allows you to focus on your inner nature and cultivate those qualities that are already a part of your true self. As you shift your attention to your true nature, belief systems begin to fall away, and you become free. This allows you to greet each moment purely (Saucha) with beginners mind.

Journaling can also be beneficial to cleanse the heart-mind of emotional disharmony. Rereading your diary may also be helpful to reveal patterns of behaviour and shed some light on the mechanisms of your conditioning. There may be a tendency to blame what is outside of you and then justify what you are thinking or feeling. Every event that life presents to you is a precious opportunity to learn the truth about yourself. Often it is the people “that drive you crazy” that hold the greatest potential of learning for you. If you are courageous enough to trace the disharmony back to yourself, you can begin the process of self-study which brings you closer to your true essence. 

In western culture, we tend to analyze, fix, and control just about everything. If we don’t like something about ourselves or our lives, we keep trying to figure out what is wrong and then fix it, all the while maintaining control to keep things as smooth as possible. This really means to keep things the way we like them. Eastern thought invites you to let go of needing to understand and fix but to instead be the witness. To watch yourself act and respond. To watch your thoughts and your emotional disturbances. This ability is what gives you clues to your conditioning and to the inner stories you have created about yourself and your life.  As you practice Yoga on the mat, you are invited to develop the witness and to be the watcher of your experience in the poses. This is a mirror of how you are in your life.  The ability to bring the witness into play on the mat and in your life allows you to step outside of ego limitation and to discover your true nature. The profoundness of watching is that you begin to ‘know yourself’ and this brings healing to your life. 

There is a cute story about God creating human beings. God was worried that he would get no rest as the humans would want to talk to him and want things from him. So God went to the elders to ask their advice. They told him to hide on top of Mount Everest, or the moon, or deep in the ocean. But God was still concerned as he knew how resourceful humans would be. Then one elder whispered in his ear and God shouted in delight, “That’s it! I’ll hide inside of each human; they will never find me there!” We suffer because we forget this truth. We continue to identify with our outer nature and forget we are really the Divine hiding inside. Yoga is a path of peeling away the layers to our inner light and Svadhyaya invites us to observe the outside to discover the inside. We think we are what we are on the outside, our role, our job, our culture. But we are really the Divine hiding inside.  Svadhyaya is self-study and about knowing our true identity as Divine and understanding our outer nature too. We can do this by watching the way we project on to others, the way we react and by courageously looking at life as it is. This process of knowing ourselves creates a pathway to freedom. The ability to shift your identification from your outer nature (ego) to the witness, and finally to your true self as Divinity itself, is the joy of this jewel of self-study.

OM MANI PADME HUM ~ May the jewel in the lotus be realized

Make a change.
Feel the heat of resistance
Melt away old habits
And burn through ruinous conditioning.
Offer negative behaviour
In the fire of tapas
And chart your course toward freedom.
~Nicolai Bachman 

Tapas, meaning to heat, has the potential to create a new habit, a new skill, a new way of being, and a new pathway in life. This guideline of tapas invites you to stand in the heat of discomfort in order to be dismantled and changed through self-discipline. It is this heat that will incinerate impurities in the body, mind, and emotions, and will transform your life. 

First you need to make an intention to commit to a positive change in your life. This could be exercising more by committing to do Yoga Asanas (postures) every day or going for a walk and being in nature more. This could be committing to eating healthier and possibly eliminating something unhealthy in your diet, like caffeine or junk food. This could be breaking an old habit like biting your nails or grinding your teeth. These habitual behaviours can stagnate your life. You can commit to learning something new and showing up to practice every day. I recently was gifted a Harmonium for my birthday and I have committed to practicing every day. My teacher has instructed me to start practicing scales. Although I want to get right into the fun stuff and learn to play a song, I know that it requires practicing scales first in order to prepare for the song playing. This reminds me of a quote from the movie-The Great Debaters: “We do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do.” Ray Charles was asked later on in his career if he still practiced and prepared for concerts. He replied that he played scales every day, because when the scales were in his fingers, he could play anything. What are you practicing for? What are you doing today, to prepare you for what you want to do tomorrow. 

Once you commit to something, then you can make a plan of action. Through the discipline and effort you will burn through the old negative harmful pattern and create a new pattern or skill. When you are trying to break an old habit with a new positive habit it creates friction and creates this priceless heat of discomfort. At first it can be uncomfortable, but knowing that this is good for you may encourage you to continue. You can consciously challenge long-standing patterns of behaviours through the practice of Tapas. The inevitable pain or discomfort (dukha) will produce the sweet nectar of positive, lasting inner transformation. 

This niyamas not only speaks of your personal effort, but also to those cathartic times of almost hopeless desperation when you find yourself in the pain of unexpected loss or debilitating sickness, or when you feel your life has been turned upside down. It is these times that shape and meld you into someone of depth, strength and character. Even though you cannot control the outer world, you can control the way you react to life. Tapas invites you to choose fearlessly and to open ourselves to the experiences. This is the greatest gift life could offer us. You can let these times break you down or break you open. It is Yoga that invites your hearts to break open and it is through your daily practices and your ability to stay in unpleasantness that prepares us for all of life. 

Tapas eventually changes your nature, turning you into a cauldron that can withstand any of life’s challenge. In the path of Yoga, healthy change is necessary for progress to occur. I invite you to commit to a daily practice of Yoga. It can be a seated meditation, or even one sun salutation, or singing a chant. Even three minutes a day has the ability to transform your life. As Pattabhi Jois reminds us, “Practice, and all is coming.”

Curling up with my kitty cat and hearing him purr is pure contentment. It invites me fully into the present moment and warms my heart. The guideline of Santosha, contentment, invites us into this place of calm abiding. Santosha is like a tall tree so rooted in the earth that great winds cannot topple it. No matter what is happening on the outside we can practice gratitude and non-seeking to help us stay rooted in this jewel.

It is longing that keeps contentment out of our grasp. It seems we are often getting ready to live instead of being fully in the present moment. When we are little we can’t wait to get big, when we are big, we can’t wait to get out of the house, then we can’t wait to get through school or get a job, then we can’t wait until our vacations, and finally, we can’t wait until retirement. We also tend to look at other peoples’ lives and see what is missing in our own. We look across the fence and see what we don’t have, rather than look inside the fence and enjoy what we do have. When we expect the world to meet our needs, we turn outside of ourselves to find sustenance and completion. We expect our partners to fulfill us, our jobs to meet our needs, and success to solve all of our problems. And when it doesn’t we continue to play the “if only” game, looking for that one more thing. We let our contentment be managed by all these uncontrollable variables. As long as we think satisfaction comes from an external source, we can never be content. Looking outward for fulfillment will always disappoint us and keep contentment one step out of reach.

The Yogis tell us that things are neutral. It is the personal labelling we put on these things that makes them appealing or repulsive to us. It is our need to satisfy our preferences that keeps us from contentment. True freedom and contentment begin to find their way to us when we can see things as neutral and not spend so much energy manipulating things according to our preferences. A 116 year old man, who, when asked the secret to his longevity, replied, “when it rains, I let it.”

It is not easy to stay contented in this culture. There is always the next thing to get or to upgrade. Or there is the rush of modern life that prevents us from slowing down to smell the roses. Practicing gratitude protects us from our own pettiness and smallness and keeps us centered in the joy and abundance of our life. The mystic Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you say in your entire life is ‘Thank you’ that would suffice". When we cultivate gratitude even when we are content, we strengthen that attitude and make gratitude easier to access when needed. Gratefulness does for our heart center what food does for our bodies. It nourishes us and creates a sense of fulfilment. Slowing down, stepping back, and appreciated the little things in life creates inner happiness. Nicolai Bachman said “Gratefulness is feeling great and full of joy with who we are and what we have”.

There is paradox to Santosha: The more we seek it or need it to look a certain way, the more it eludes us. It is easy to be content when we feel great and things are going our way and we like ourselves. But what about when there are interruptions or chaos, or we feel sad or lonely? Discontentment is the illusion that there can be something else in the moment. There isn’t and there can’t be. The moment is complete, right now, just the way it is. Being content with our discontentment is itself a gateway to the calm depths within. This paradox of not seeking contentment, allows us to appreciate what we have. Swami Rama said it beautifully, “Contentment is falling in love with your life.” In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy embarked on a long journey to discover that she already had contentment where she was.

When we are purely with the moment (Saucha), the moment is complete. We miss contentment when we do something in the moment to fulfill an expectation for another moment. Can we practice Yoga to simply enjoy the movement and breathe in our body, instead of practicing to get our bodies to look a certain way? Can we wash the dishes and simply just wash the dishes in that moment? When action is complete in the moment, and the process is enjoyed for the pure joy of the process, action becomes being, and being becomes contentment. Then we can then live fully in the tranquility of contentment. Life is complete the way it comes to us in each moment. There is nothing missing. When we fully come to understand this, we sink into contentment.

The jewel of Saucha, or purity, carries a two-fold meaning. First it invites us to purify our bodies, our thoughts, and our words.  And second it asks us to seek purity with each moment by allowing it to be as it is. The more we are able to purify ourselves, the more we are able to meet each moment fresh and new. 

Purifying ourselves can take on many forms. We might do increased physical exercise, or increased water intake, a day of juice fasting, or perhaps a day of cleaning out closets. Maybe we will choose to spend a day purifying our tongue so that we speak nothing of harm or untruth for the entire day. Whatever form purifying takes, it also begins with an intention to “lighten” the load we are carrying. Maybe your body carries poisonous toxins from a poor diet or your mind carries heavy baggage of victimhood or unforgiveness. Maybe your home and workspace are full of clutter and junk. And all of these loads weigh down your body, mind and spirit. The guideline of purity invites us to move into ease, to do what it takes to get rid of this heaviness, wherever we find it in our lives. The Yogis also advocate a vegetarian diet as it aligns with Saucha. It supports nonviolence and promotes sattvic qualities such as virtue, kindness, intelligence, and purity. 

We can also “come clean” by admitting something that we have been holding in or by expressing deep emotion in a nonviolent. This purges the heart-mind of pent up feelings. Mourning the death or suffering of a loved one cleanses our emotional body. Apologizing is extremely cathartic too as it weakens egotism. This niyamas also invites us to forgive ourselves and others. This is one of the most generous gifts we can give ourselves.  There is an Aramaic translation of the Lord’s Prayer that interprets the line “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others...” to “Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ guilt”. I love this translation as I feel the power of freedom that these guideline share with us. 

Perhaps the most difficult place to practice purity is with ourselves and all our expectations and illusions. Deborah Adele said “Instead of striving to become someone lovable, what if we loved ourselves fiercely as we are?” Being pure with ourselves means we are not afraid of our thoughts or our feelings, and we do not have to hide from ourselves. When we become safe with ourselves we can then be a safe place for others. We become a person who can comfortable and compassionately sit with another without the need to fix them. 

Purity is not our attempt to make something different than it is; rather it is to be pure in our relationship with it, as it is in the moment. We are asked to be with life, with others, with things, with the day, with the weather, as they are in the moment, not as we wish they were or think they should be or expect them to be. To be pure with something, we need to let go of ideals, illusions, and expectations. When we find ourselves stuck in a traffic jam, disappointed with our meal, tripping over messes in the house, or dealing with a crabby family member, we are invited to simply be with these times in a pure way. 

We need to give ourselves time to “catch up” with ourselves. We often enter a new experience with the clutter of the past leftovers or even future preparations. We are missing out on the fullness of life lived in the richness of what is immediately before us. I know my “efficient self” sometimes juggles so much with my parenting and work/ home life that I try to utilize every moment to be productive. Even trying to do one more thing before I need to be somewhere and then I end up being late and frazzled. Hurrying, multi-tasking, and busyness, all symbols of success in our culture, are killers of purity. It is a practice to give yourself “time” between activities and take “pause” to watch a breath. Saucha invites us to breathe in the sweet closure of the moment so we can enter the new moment fresh and new. 

Purity asks that all of us be in one place at one time. That our heart and head are unified, our thoughts, actions, and speech are congruent, and we are in the present moment. As we cleanse the heaviness of waste and clutter, we begin to feel lighter, more spacious and expansive. Our bodies become more alive, our minds become more clear, our hearts more compassionate.

APARIGRAHA~NONPOSSESSIVENESS

Aparigraha which means nonpossessiveness, can also be interpreted as nonattachment, nongreed, nonclinging, nongrasping, nonacqisitiveness, non hoarding, and noncoveting. It can pretty much be summed up as “letting go”. It applies to our attachments to material objects, people, our bodies, and our thoughts. 

The fewer the attachments we carry with us, the more we are free to enjoy and engage and live every moment before us to the fullest. Just like the more breath we let go of, the more room there is our body for the fullness of the next inhalation. The more we generously share and give away, the more expansive and light we become. Pay attention to your breath. Let the simple act of inhaling and exhaling teach you about the fullness of breathing in life without the need to hold on to it. What if we could trust life like we trust the breath? What if we could take in all the nourishment of the moment and then let it go fully, trusting that more nourishment will come? It is when we get too attached to something we can no longer receive the enjoyment or nourishment. Like the breath, when it is held too long, it becomes toxic. The journey of life is towards freedom. A bird cannot hold its perch and fly. Neither can we grasp anything and be free. 

The nature of the realm of Aparigraha is impermanence. Everything changes. Watching the breath teaches us the transience of all things. Our ego feeds on grasping and constructs our identity and can hold us hostage to our belongings. As we accumulate material goods, fame, fortune, and so on, our ego becomes stronger. When we realize how this superficial identification of ourselves is based on outer quantities instead of inner qualities, it is time to turn inward. Everything is always changing and invites us to change too. This means to learn and to grow and to flow with life. It invites us to let go of controlling what we can’t control and to turn inward to connect to our true nature, our true self and realize we already have everything we need right now. Just like the U2 lyrics from the song Beautiful day: What you don’t have you don’t need it now.

The sadhus of India recognize how easy it is to become attached to things of this world so they take vows of renunciation. But what about the rest of us who live in the world with all of its excess. For those of us who choose to stay immersed in the world, loving and living fully without becoming attached is not an easy thing.  

Krishna Das said to practice with the little things so we are prepared when the bigger things come along. Notice when you cling to experiences, emotions, thoughts, habits, and beliefs. Then practice letting go. Even coming back to the breath and making a sigh breathe, completely exhaling, is practicing letting go.

Our expectations keep us captive and often disgruntled, and yet we choose our attachments rather than our freedom. Anything we cling to creates a maintenance problem for us. The material items that we hoard, collect, buy because they are on sale or take because their “free.” All take up space and demand our attention. Storage boxes and sheds become an easy way to fool ourselves. Subtle attachments come in the form of our images and beliefs about ourselves, about how life should be, about how others should be. These images keep us in bondage to our learning and growth. Clutter in our physical space blocks our ability to physically move, while clutter in our minds blocks our freedom to expand and have space for the next thing life wants to bring us.

The word attachment can be traced to a root word that means “to nail”. Attachments are like nailing ourselves to our need for someone or something to continue to be the same and to always be there for us in the same way. Aparigraha invites us to let go and to pack lightly for our journey though life and to practice divine play, experience full intimacy and contact with the moment, and then to let go so the next thing can come.

Nonattachment does not mean that we don’t care or that we somehow shut ourselves off from the pleasures and joy of life and each other. In fact, nonattachment frees us up to be immersed in appreciation of life and one another. We are asked to let go of the clinging to the thing, not the enjoyment of the thing itself. Life is a banquet and we are free to feast. Like the breath, we are invited to breathe in deeply, enjoying the fullness of the inhalation, and then to let go just as deeply and enjoying the release of the exhale.

Aparigraha invites us to not be greedy with the earth’s resources. The “shop till you drop” attitude feeds our bottomless desire to acquire. We are bombarded with advertisements pushing us to buy stuff that we often do not need. We can rein this habit of accumulation by carefully deciding to buy only what we will really use and resist the temptation to purchase impulsively. Less using means less need to manufacture which reduces our impact on the earth and our environment. We are temporary custodians of our belongings. Do they possess us by demanding our time and energy to take care of them? Aparigraha involves letting go of attachment to our possessions and not shopping for its own sake. Many people live with so much less than we do. Releasing unused or extraneous possessions to those who need them is an act of kindness and generosity. Lightening our load also frees up time to spend in other ways, especially developing our yoga practice and cultivation a more inward orientation. And the more we experience our pure light of awareness, the less interest we will have in material possessions.

As Micheal Stone says in his book "Yoga for a World our of Balalnce": Even though society often tells us that success in life is to look a certain way, to have money and to be economically production, there are many forms of work that are just as important as making money. Taking care of parents is a form of success; being a good parent is a form of success; simply being kind to others is a form of success. These deeper forms of success are too often forgotten in consumer culture, ad nth effects on families and communities have disastrous. Consumerism and greed have led many people to find more value in life in material things than friendships and family and community. We don’t have to continue in this momentum. The past nourishes or constrain us and the future calls us. Every action we take in the present is an actualization of the future. Can we enjoy some consumer comfort without lapsing into greed? Can we become not just economic leaders but moral leaders? Can we be servants of servants? I

“Love is what is left when you’ve let go of all the things you love”~Swami Jnaneshvara

“It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“What we try to posses, possesses us” ~ Deborah Adele

Brahmacharya is conserving vital energy, especially sexual energy, in order to channel it in moreproductive directions. When we overindulge in anything, it wastes our energy. We need energy to be mindful and awake in our life. We need energy to reach our goals and dreams. Whether we find ourselves overdoing food, work, exercise, or sleep, excess is often a result of forgetting the sacredness of life. The fourth jewel literally means “walking with the divine or God” and invites us into an awareness of the sacredness of all of life. This guideline is a call to leave greed and excess behind and walk in this world with wonder and awe, practicing nonexcess and attending to each moment as sacred. Brahmacharya has also been interpreted as celibacy or abstinence. The ancient teachings say that our sexual energy is our most vital and potent energy and should be used wisely. The sexual act should be treated sacred and can there be used for love and healing. 

Our lives, in this culture, are full of excess. Supersize meals, big screen televisions, abundance of technology, computers, cells phones, closets full of clothes, and jam packed schedules. This need to fill every moment and every space comes from a feeling of lack. Overindulgence snuffs out the life force like too many logs on a fire overpowers the fire. As we begin to peel ourselves out of our web of excess, we may find we have been burying emotions that are uncomfortable to be with. This habit can become addictive and then the object we use to comfort now begins to control us. When we find the courage to be able to  begin to peel ourselves out of our web of excess we can start to let go of things and habits we no longer need and confront what we have been suppressing. This is what frees us from the habits and addictions that control our lives. With more space, externally and internally, we feel more peaceful and connect to joy that only comes from an inner experience. We are here in this world, in part, to feel enjoyment and pleasure. Practicing nonexcess preserves and honours this life force with us, so that we can live with clarity and sacredness. 

If we find ourselves living in the extremes of addiction, excess, and overindulgence in any place in our life, then fasting, celibacy, or abstinence can be very useful to bring us back to the fullness of pleasure. Fasting and celibacy are both strong practices to pull in the reins, find our center, and return to a place of balance. By over indulging in food it can dull the senses of taste. By taking one day to juice fast can give our digestive organs a rest and remind us to be mindful about what we feed our bodies with and tune into the wisdom of how much food our body needs. A day of silence is very powerful to create clarity and create mindfulness with what we say to others and to ourselves. I love the feeling of returning home after camping and feeling so grateful for my bed and my shower. We take abstain from something it can restore us back to gratitude and awakens our senses. 

When we stop and reflect on our lives and the world, we can see the innate intelligence and mystery to life. Every task becomes an opportunity to mindful and aware.  When gratitude and wonder sit in the heart, there is no need for excess. Where excess overdoes us, overextends us, and takes us way from ourselves, seeing everything as sacred firmly roots us and balances us. It is the simple things that stir our soul and bless us with happiness. The wind in the trees, the colours of the sky, the touch of a loved one, the delight of a child, a shared moment with a friend, can fill us to overflowing. This is expansive and humbling, much different than the satiation of excess. This jewel of Brahmacharya allows us to see the sacred in the ordinary and the ordinary in the sacred.

Namaste

Asteya or non stealing, calls us to be generous to ourselves and others. Being generous with our selves does not mean indulging all of our desires but it asks us to really ask what we need and not to take more than we need. The more we have the more we have to worry about.

This week in our Yoga classes we discovered that practicing Asteya on the mat means being generous with our breath. And that sometimes means doing less in our poses so that the breath can flow more freely. Of course we continue to practice Ahimsa, non harm, and also Satya, by being honest with ourselves and not using more energy than is needed in a pose. I remember taking a class many years ago with a yoga teacher named Rod Stryker and he taught us be efficient in our practice by using the least effort but gaining the most benefit. I believe this follows the practice of Asteya. We always complete our practice with the chant Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu. This is a prayer that offers the benefits of our practice with all beings. As Saint Francis said” It is in giving that we receive.

When we live by the adage or mantra of “less is more” we simplify life and then have more time for ourselves to relax, to reflect and also to be present with others. When we allow the monkey-mind to live in the past or future, it steals the present moment. If we are living in fears and lies, our dissatisfaction with ourselves and our lives leads us to look outward, with a tendency to steal what is not rightfully ours. We steal from others, we steal from the earth, we steal from the future, and we steal from ourselves. We steal from our own opportunity to grow ourselves into the person who has a right to live the life they want.

We steal from ourselves with all of the demands and expectations we place on ourselves. This steals our own enthusiasm. All self-sabotage, lack of belief in ourselves, low self-esteem, judgments, criticisms, and demands for perfection are forms of self-abuse in which we destroy the very essence of our vitality. We are captured in a culture where our very identity is tied up with our accomplishments. In this rush to get to the next thing, we have left no time for ourselves to digest and assimilate our lives; this may be our biggest theft of all. We need time to catch up with ourselves. We need time to rest, to reflect, to contemplate and digest all of our experiences so that we can be more present with ourselves and others.

We steal from others when we feel a sense of lack or discontent with ourselves and then we compare ourselves with others. We steal from others when we judge them before we have even got to know them. If we feel jealous we may steal someone’s good moment or good mood because we are not feeling the same way. When someone is sharing some good news we may steal their moment by trying to one up them. We steal someone’s time by monopolizing the conversation and not letting them get a word in. Especially when we are angry we feel a need to make our point and we may not be able to even hear what the other is saying. To ensure peace in our mind is to not covet what belongs to another. Krishnamacharya said, “not only possessions can be stolen, but also time can be stolen from others. Do not gossip or indulge in idle conversation, thereby wasting others’ time”.

The greatest gift we can give another is our presence. Can you be fully present for someone no matter what the situation?. Whether they are happy or sad. We can be generous with others by lifting them up. Yogi Bhajan said “we can be forklift with others”. We can brighten another’s day by taking a moment to listen, to sincerely compliment them or to simply smile.

We steal from the earth every time we don’t appreciate what we have. Nothing on this physical plane does or can belong to us. To “own” something then, becomes a form of stealing. Imagine instead that everything in our possession as something precious that is on loan to us, and we are asked to care for it. Nonstealing implies more than not taking what isn’t ours. It is an inherent understanding that from the moment we are born, we are in debt to this gift called life. The ancient Vedic scriptures speak of taking nothing without giving something back, as a betrayal to the earth.. Before you buy something new, first ask if you really need it, and then in turn give something you have away. This is a great practice that I try to live by which helps tap into universal abundance.

We steal from the future when we don’t consider the affects of our actions. Native wisdom teaches to make decisions as if they mattered seven generations into the future. Deborah Adele said “we are an insatiable, collective, giant hole that we can’t seem to fill. The excess in our bodies, our calendars, our closets, are all signs that we are living as if there is no tomorrow and no one to live here after we are gone”. When we only focus on what we don’t have we lose our sense of gratitude for what we do have. Stop to appreciate the beauty of nature and the wonder of the seasons. Appreciate our ancestors who sacrificed so much for the future. We are now the caretakers of the earth to create a better future for all of our children. Our children are now faced with a huge mess to clean up. It is heart breaking but we can all make a difference right now by learning from the native wisdom and making decisions based on the future of our children.

Asteya asks us to get excited about the possibilities for our own life. When we attend to our own growth and learning in the area of our interests, we are engaged in the joy and challenge of building ourselves. From the fullness of our own talent and skill, we automatically serve the world rather than steal from it. When we don’t know what we want or we don’t have the courage to pursue it, we get sidetracked from our own dreams. This jewel demands that we become capable of stewarding what we ask for. Seek mentors and learn from people who have already accomplished what we are seeking. It is not accumulation of things that ultimately gives us satisfaction. It is to live the life we are meant to live. When we have the courage to live the life we are meant to live then a world of possibility opens to us.

When we take more than we need, we are, in effect, stealing. This is deeply entwined with consumerism. There are many reasons why we may continue to over buy things we do not need. Our need to emulate others, to indulge ourselves sensually, to escape feeling the reality of our circumstances, or to fill up a feeling of lack inside. It is deeply engrained in our psyche that we will overcome or even satisfy our unsatisfied mental state by something from the outside, which is ultimately not true. Ghandi said, “We are not always aware of our real needs, and most of us improperly multiply our wants and thus, unconsciously, make thieves of ourselves. One who follows the observance of Non-stealing will bring about a progressive reduction of his own wants. Much of the distressing poverty in this world has risen out of the breaches of the principle of Non-stealing”.

David Wolfe, a well known raw food activist, follows the ancient Taoist Immortals philosophy of renunciation, living with the Earth, discipline, as well as abandoning attachment to worldly pleasure, wealth, and reputation as a path to longevity and health. He says that having less is more and defines true wealth as a peaceful state of mind, abundant physical health, spiritual connection to source energy, emotional wellness, to have knowledge of oneself, knowledge of one’s environment and finding and following your mission in life. He also says wealth is found in serving others and it cannot be hoarded, only shared. True wealth is not created by what one has acquired, but by what one gives away. It is when you give that you truly receive. Just like Albert Einstein said “ The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving. We can cultivate Asteya by being generous, by letting go of what no longer serves, and by being content.