How do we know we have souls? How do we know this body contains a soul? It is said that it is not that the body has a soul. It is that this soul has a body. When we look at it this way, it means that we are the souls who are bearing witness to the unfolding of this life. We are the observer, the consciousness, the sakshi. As the soul, we observe our experiences with a sense of objectivity, without bias, without prejudice, without hesitation. We bear witness to what is rather than denying or minimizing or altering the truth. We observe with an openness to learn, and to take action if necessary. Whatever emotions or feelings or sensations or thoughts or patterns come up, we observe them. We bear witness to them. We do not run away. Our society has encouraged us to run away from who we are. That is why we find it very challenging to sit still and meditate and spend time with ourselves. That is why we use so much of our time on shopping or alcohol consumption or playing games or surfing the internet, so on and so forth. It is hard work to bear witness. But it must be done if our goal is liberation and lasting happiness. In our practice today, we will practice bearing witness to our thoughts, our emotions, our sensations. We will observe what the body is telling us. We will take on the perspective of the soul witnessing the experiences of the physical body. We will not escape. We will confront whatever the present moment brings. We will face reality head on, with courage and a sense of adventure. As Ram Dass said, "Be Here Now". As a soul bearing witness to the experience of our own body, we may be tempted to run away from the discomfort. But if we run away from the discomfort, we run away from it all. Whether in a hip-opening pose or a backbend or an inversion, we may feel want to pull back to what we have always known. But if we choose to sit through the discomfort rather than run away, we may find that we can and we do grow from it, that we may stretch ourselves far and beyond what we thought we are capable of. Similarly, as a soul who has the capability to bear witness to what happens to other bodies, we may feel the need to protect our vulnerable hearts and choose not to think about the difficult things. We may want to stay in our comfortable bubble of ignorance. When we are told about the suffering of other animals, when we are asked to watch Earthlings or get hold of other pieces of information, we may say we do not want to look and we do not want to know. We distrust our own capacity to sit still and bear witness. We want to run away. As souls, our connection to the universe and to each other is deeply rooted. The universe hears our wish. If we choose not to look and not to know, if we choose not to feel and not to connect, then it is indeed what happens to us. Not only are we disconnected from the plight of others, but we are also disconnected from ourselves and our purpose and the meaning of it all. We deny one, we deny all. Our self-imposed desensitization means that yes, we may protect ourselves from knowing hard facts, we avoid the discomfort of having to make changes in our lives, and yet it also means we deny the beauty of waking up to our own power and capacity for limitless compassion. In yoga asana, we emphasize alignment. To stand tall, to twist with ease, to invert with strong grounding all require proper alignment. More important perhaps than the alignment of the body- how we stack the shoulders above hips or put the neck in neutral position or turn the elbows in- is the alignment of our souls. Have we aligned our beliefs with our actions, our truth with our choices, our lives with our intentions? Our progress in yoga is not measured by the number of asanas we have mastered but in how much happiness and freedom we allow others to have. Our progress in yoga means that there will be challenging situations difficult to bear. To want to run away is normal, but the choice in which we make determines the road ahead. Run away and we deny ourselves and others our humanity, our soul, our power, our capacity to be kind. Bear witness, bear it all, discomfort in the body, pain in the heart, stirring in the soul, and within these growing pains, compassion arises and life's meaning takes root. Bear witness and you will discover just how powerful you are, not in altering the present reality, but in changing the future by the choices you make now. Bear witness and you will find how much strength this heart holds, how much you are able to care, how limitless is the depth of your soul.
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Recent studies reveal that animals have feelings. Shocking, right? To me, it is shocking that studies need to have been made to show something that was so obvious. Any one of us who have spent any time with an animal, either through observing them or living with them, knows that they indeed have feelings. They are souls. They have different moods. They can be happy or sad, excited or disappointed, playful or angry. They dream. They have preferences. They remember things. They have individual personalities. They also protect the ones whom they love. I have a dog named Scrappy and he is quite a character. Many say his name suits him. One time, I was getting a home massage. All was fine and peaceful until the masseuse started to make the chopping motion to massage my back. Then Scrappy became hysterical. He barked loudly and jumped in between me and the masseuse. And then I had to reassure him. I said, "Scrappy, it's ok. Be nice." The words "be nice" are familiar to him. I tell him that when I notice he is starting to get agitated and might bark or even pounce on another dog. So when he heard those words that day that I was getting a massage and he thought I was being hurt, he tilted his head to one side, confused, not sure what was going on. Even though we did not speak the same language, we were able to communicate with each other. One way to see this interspecies connection is that soul is more dominant than the body. As for the massage, I no longer get them at home because Scrappy is quite the self-proclaimed bodyguard. Scientific studies showing that animals have feelings- don't we already know that? Is it not obvious that all beings, including animals, wish to protect the ones whom they love? When you practice today, dedicate your practice to someone you love, someone you would protect and keep out of harm's way. Let today's practice be an offering. Feel the bond you have with this person. Feel the connection. Feel the gratitude. Think of this person when you do your urdhva danurasana. This is someone you are willing to bend over backwards for. When you come to virasana or hero pose, consider what it is that makes one a hero. When you think about it, a hero is really not that different from us. The hero merely takes action to protect the ones he or she loves, like us. The hero perhaps has a broader definition of who they love, including not only immediate family and friends, but even strangers, seeing them as souls worthy of protection. When you come into gomukhasana or cow face pose, consider that like us, cows too wish to protect the ones whom they love. But unlike us, they are unable to do so because of human prejudice and domination. Dairy cows used to produce milk, cheese, ice cream etc. undergo forced impregnation. For nine months, they carry their baby inside their womb, just like humans. After she gives birth to her baby, the baby is taken away from her within days, never to be seen again. Even though she feels the same desire as us to protect the ones that she loves, the fact that she exists only as a slave to the animal exploitation industry simply does not allow this to happen. The practice of yoga is to see all beings as souls, and in this commonality we work towards finding oneness of being. Thinking of the person whom we love and whom we wish to protect may inspire us to let other souls do the same, to allow them to love whom they love, to allow them to protect whomever it is they wish to protect. Being vegan is one important way of expressing this choice. By being vegan, we oppose mothers and babies being separated from each other. By being vegan, we drop our prejudice that we are somehow better than animals. By being vegan, we choose to see animals as souls. By being vegan, we choose love and we choose to protect the ones whom we love. What is a soul? How do we begin to define what a soul is? Perhaps a good place to start is to define what it is not. The soul is not the skin and the flesh and the bones. The soul is not the physical body. The soul is not the mind or the intellect. The soul is not even the personality or identity that we get so attached to. And yet we often deduce ourselves into tiny fragments, to this body or mind or personality, forgetting our true nature as a soul. We sometimes feel we are not good enough. We are attached to certain aspects of ourselves- our looks or accomplishments or even possessions. We become competitive. We become that which we are not because we have forgotten that we are souls. And then we deduce others too. We discriminate. And here in the Philippines, the discrimination is very prevalent in the form of classism. Based on someone's job or title or financial status, people are treated better or worse. I have heard that certain places do not allow housekeepers to take the same elevators as everyone else. This is the sad reality of deducing others to "less than". And then we continue to deduce others whom we perceive as even more different from us. We deduce animals to objects. We refer to them as "it". Even with our companion animals whom we love so much, we say we are their "owners", as though they were objects to be possessed. We go on this path of deduction and separation, saying "beef" to disconnect us from the fact that who we are referring to are cows, "bacon" for pigs, and so on, deducing souls into mere objects, a reflection of our own tendency to project our own insecurities. Maybe there is a better way to live. Maybe we need to awaken. Maybe we need to remember what we are here for. You and I, we are souls. They who breathe, who are alive, who are sentient, they are souls. We are souls sharing the same space, sharing this same home. Maybe it's time we remember that. When we practice asana, we may catch ourselves struggling sometimes. And though struggling is a very human experience, being attached to it, thinking we are nothing but this struggle is how we sell ourselves short. We are so much more than our struggles that are temporary. We are so much more than our perceived flaws that are superficial. We are so much more than our insecurities that are a mere result of disconnection that can be resolved. To bring ourselves to a place of connection, we start by practicing seeing ourselves as precious beings. Say this to yourself: "I am a precious being. I have a right to be here. I am enough. I have enough. I am whole." The power of our thoughts can change the way we see ourselves. And when we see ourselves as whole, we project this into the world around us. We see every being, no matter how similar or different from us, in the same way- that they are precious, that they have a right to be here, that they are whole. We move from thoughts to words. We choose words carefully so that it reflects connection rather than discrimination, respect rather than degradation. We see that the word "meat" to refer to dead animals is derogatory. It strips away who the being once was, and deduces him or her to a mere nothing. "Meat" is not just "meat". It is the decaying flesh of someone whose life was taken away. "Dairy" is not a product, it is the secreted milk of a mother who at her own will would have chosen to feed this milk to her own child. We move from words to action. We consider the impact of our choices. When we consume animals and their by-products, we are removing ourselves from our connection to them. We are putting on blinders in order to continue to separate and humiliate and objectify. When we choose a different path- when we choose to be vegan- we start to heal the disconnection that we have within ourselves. We acknowledge that our true nature as souls means that there is no need for us to hurt others or take advantage of others or treat others as "less than". We heal the disconnection between ourselves and others- in that we see the more important similarities than the surface-level differences. What is a soul? How do we treat ourselves as souls? There is nothing else we need to do other than to realize that you, me, them- all of us- are souls. We are all precious. We all have a right to be here. We are whole. There was a short story that came out in 1948 in The New Yorker. It was very controversial at that time, so much so that people wrote hate letters to the magazine and people unsubscribed. The story is called The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. The story is set in a small town of about 300 people. Every year on the same day, they follow a tradition. People would have their names written on pieces of paper and one person would get picked. But unlike the lottery that we associate with winning big prizes, this lottery puts the person picked on death row. All the other people would participate by stoning this person to death on the same day. In this story, they say it is tradition, that things have always been done this way, that it is the natural order of things. As yogis, we often chant the mantra Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu to mean may all beings be happy and free. And this does not mean may all beings be happy and free- except the ones who have to be sacrificed in the name of tradition once a year. No. We mean what we say and we say what we mean. All beings means all beings, without exception. As long as they are beings who live and breathe, then they are souls who are in our realm of concern. In our asana practice, we get to observe the subtleties of our human experience. We bring into our conscious mind the thoughts, patterns, and actions that may have gone unnoticed for so long. We get to experiment with our own bodies. When we inhale in a certain pose and exhale in another pose, is it because we have been told to do so, or is it because we have tried several ways of doing it, and finally took the variation that made sense to us? Are we doing things simply because we have always done them the same way, or are we doing things from a place of consciousness, intention, and deliberate action? Take for example, doing dhanurasana or bow pose. When we get into the pose, do we mindlessly do it, without paying attention to where we may be putting the emphasis, to whether we are balanced or not? We can try doing the pose lifting only the upper body up first, knees grounded down, then see how it feels. Then we can try doing the pose lifting only the legs up, chin and chest grounded down. Do we notice that we may have a tendency to lean more on either the upper or lower body? Is it a conscious decision or something we do simply out of habit, maybe a habit that has not been investigated? Once we are able to bring this to our attention, then we can derive conclusions from our investigation, and take action from a place of conscious choice. A choice is not truly a choice if we never had the opportunity to look at alternatives and know the many options that we are choosing from. One of the things I often hear is that eating meat and other animal products is a choice. It makes me wonder if it truly is a choice. Has the person making the statement done a thorough investigation? Has this person taken the time to seek information, to watch documentaries like Earthlings, to read books like the Food Revolution, or perhaps the simplest and most direct investigation of all, has this person looked into the eyes of an animal and not seen his of her soul? One of the most deeply-ingrained prejudices that we have in society today is our prejudice against animals. We have been told that using them, abusing them, and killing them are all part of tradition. We have been told that it is normal. We have been told that this is the natural order of things. We have been told that this is the way things have always been. How are we different from the characters in the story? Whereas we think of their yearly tradition and say, "how could they", have we taken the time to look at our own actions and asked "how could we?". In the story " The Lottery", it is very easy for us to perceive the violence that is inflicted in the name of tradition because we are removed from the reality of the situation. In the story, it is not happening to us, and we are not the perpetrators. It is a tradition for the fictional characters but not a tradition that we ourselves have. Can we perhaps challenge ourselves to think of our actions with the same distance? If eating meat, dairy, eggs and other animal products were not part of our tradition, not part of what we have always done, would killing animals for reasons of taste, convenience, and habit then be something we would choose for ourselves? Or maybe we can conduct our investigation from the other extreme end, and remove all distance altogether. If we held a pig in our arms, would we not want to cuddle him rather than kill him? If we looked into a cow's eyes and saw her longing for her calf, would we not want her to be able to nurse her baby rather than steal her milk? If we see a male chick, would we not want to see him grow up rather than be grounded alive as it is standard in egg production? Traditions per se are not right or wrong. Not just because something is considered a tradition, something has always been done, something is considered a habit that is deeply ingrained means that it is right, or that we should keep doing it, or that it is just to other souls. Yoga is anarchy. It is self-rule. It is using our own faculties, our own senses, our own moral compass to decide what we should continue doing in our lives. Letting go of a habit or a tradition can be scary. It could mean that we have to learn completely different ways of doing things. But in so doing, we may find that we open ourselves to a life that is fuller, a life that is more compassionate, a life that is more connected to others souls. Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all. This mantra is a declaration. Antu means may it be so. Because we say it, then we mean it, then we will do everything that we can to make it happen – even if it means we let go of traditions, even if it means we question everything that we know, even if it means we have to turn our worlds upside down. Note: Consider this my full disclosure. This month's focus is challenging for me to teach, not because the topic does not resonate with me, but because I am fully invested in what it means to see animals as beings. I've been vegan for 5 years now, and the main thing that drew me to Jivamukti was and still is its strong position on animal rights activism. I would go as far as to say that I chose to become a Jivamukti Yoga teacher and teach only Jivamukti because I value this platform in which I could speak in behalf of the abused animals. All other things I do, in asana and assists etc are all supporting roles to my main motivation. If I sound preachy, please do not take my lack of eloquence as a point against animals. Let me own my own faults but please think of the animals and do your own research. You don't have to look too far. It's everywhere. Whenever I walk into a yoga class, I can see that in the safe space where we all practice, none of us would choose to harm the other. I believe this with all of my heart. Animal rights to me means that we simply invite the animals to this room, to this space where we wish no harm to others. Coming into this human form is quite a blessing- to be born, to feel joy, to have freedom to be who we are. In many ways it is a privilege, while at the same time it is also our birth right. I think, though, that one of the pitfalls of taking on this human form is that with it comes a strong attachment to the ego. We want to feel good about ourselves, to the point that we may hurt others to be able to achieve that. We get so attached to our egos that we develop prejudices against those whom we perceive as different from us. We convince ourselves that we are "better" than others because it's what the ego craves. hanam esham kleshavad uktam - Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (PYS IV.28) The greatest obstacle to the practice is one’s own prejudices based on one’s own preferences. Yoga is oneness of being. It means we let go of the prejudice that feeds the me-versus-you or us-versus-them mentality. As a culture, our prejudice against animals is so deeply-ingrained. We say someone is an animal if they did something horrible, as if "animal" were a derogatory term. When in fact, the word animal comes from the word anima, which means soul. For all of us in this Earth who have sentience, for all souls, it is our birth right to live and love and fully manifest who we are. We are here to explore the highest potential of our humanness, as other beings are here to explore the highest potential of their being, whether they are cats or dogs, elephants or giraffes, fish or lobsters, locusts or frogs, pigs or cows, chickens or monkeys. All beings have souls. If we are interested in oneness of being, then we must be willing to examine our long-held unquestioned beliefs and habitual patterns of action. Could it be that we use animals because we see them as objects rather than souls? Could it be that we eat animal flesh and secretions, rip out their skin for leather or fur, confine them in cages and aquariums for our entertainment- because we never asked questions? It is time to investigate. For the record, animal experimemtation is cruel and is another way we deduce souls into objects. That said, one experiment is relevant to our topic of animals as souls. This experiment was conducted on rhesus monkeys, also known as macaques. Below is a passage from the book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, written by Drs. Sagan and Druyan: "In a laboratory setting, macaques were fed if they were willing to pull a chain and electrically shock an unrelated macaque whose agony was in plain view through a one-way mirror. Otherwise, they starved. After learning the ropes, the monkeys frequently refused to pull the chain; in one experiment only 13% would do so - 87% preferred to go hungry. One macaque went without food for nearly two weeks rather than hurt its fellow. Macaques who had themselves been shocked in previous experiments were even less willing to pull the chain. The relative social status or gender of the macaques had little bearing on their reluctance to hurt others." These monkeys have never had to take ethics courses. They don't go to church or subscribe to any religion. And yet, the compassion was innate. How can we say they have no souls? How can we use the word "animal" in such a derogatory way when they hold such a strong moral ground? These monkeys can feel suffering, and many animals do feel the suffering at the hands of many humans. The animals whom we have enslaved for their flesh and their milk and their eggs and their skin etc are currently suffering, because we as a species have denied seeing them as souls. Yoga is about establishing a practice, including letting go of our prejudices. Think of someone whom you have discriminated against at one point in your life. It does not matter why. The ego did not know any better at that time. It does not matter who this being is, a human soul or an animal soul. Do your best at this moment to let go of that prejudice, by seeing that this being deserves love, just as you yourself deserve love. The more you practice, the more that the lines of discrimination and judgment will blur and fade away. It does not matter if you are working on eradicating racism, sexism, heterosexism, or speciesism. The thing with letting go of prejudice is that they all start to connect at one point. Once we start caring, we find it easier and easier to include other group of beings into our circle of compassion. Perhaps you yourself have been the recipient of prejudice at one point. You may be familiar with the pain that comes from being treated like an object, your feelings disregarded, your well-being unimportant in the eyes of your perpetrator. If that is so, then why not be like an animal, like the macaques who would refuse to cause another being pain, because you know what that feels like and you are not willing to subject someone else to it? Fear breeds ignorance breeds prejudice. Let go of fear and let courage be the antidote to prejudice. Find in your heart the courage to be open, the courage to investigate, the courage to know, the courage to let information guide your decisions. Please watch the documentary Earthlings. Bear witness. Animals are souls. They feel pain. Just like you do. Please honor that. Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu May all beings, including animals, be happy and free. And may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way that freedom and to that happiness for all. |
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March 2020
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