Om asato mā sad gamaya
tamaso mā jyotir gamaya mṛtyor mā amṛtaṃ gamaya Om shanti shanti shantih Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. This verse is like a mantra or a prayer or a plea. It’s looking into our humility and saying, I’ve lived my life with illusions and confusion, and I now want to be open to another way. I am ready. I will surrender. Please help me. We may go through life without clarity, similar to looking out a glass window that is dirty or fogged up. We have to exert a lot of effort to squint, to see through the other side, and even then, we make these mistakes because of that layer in between that obscures our vision. This is when we are stuck in our minds, when we have to calculate everything, when everything is all mind and no heart. If we live this way, everything feels difficult. Even empathy would appear like a thing we do, the yamas or ethical precepts a checklist of things we tick off. Even when we try to “do the right thing”, it comes from an intellectual conclusion, which is not bad per se, but is certainly effortful. When we are stuck in the mind, we may consciously choose not to be homophobic or not to be classist or not to be sexist because we think we have to let our morality keep up with the times, with what is widely accepted as the right thing. But then, it’s still a “to do” list. If we, however, have a clear vision with no obstruction, if we connect more with our heart instead of relying solely on the mind, then we get to feel more completely. We do not discriminate against others— be they from another species of race or gender etc— not only because of a logical conclusion, but because we feel innately that it is what’s natural, that we are all a part of each other, that we are connected, that we are not so separate. In this state of clarity, we need not exert effort to understand empathy or train ourselves to be compassionate, because it would be plain and simple that that is who we really are. No fogged up vision. No obscured view. All real. All light. All immortal.
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In the Indian mythology Purāṇas, the path of light is described as narrow, constantly being challenged by the darkness that surrounds it. It means that if we are yogis interested in enlightenment, then the path we take is going to be very different from what is considered the norm. In the path we take, we are conscious not only of our actions but also the motivations behind them. In this path, we strive to eradicate pride, arrogance, and selfishness.
This constant introspection and self-checking may seem like a lot of work, and it may even give the appearance that not doing any of the work feels easier and freer. However, when we look deeply, we would understand that the path of darkness— being unaware of our pride, arrogance, and selfishness— is not true freedom because we can never be free when we are unable to see clearly. Your yoga asana practice is an opportunity to observe and do a self-check. What are the intentions and motivations behind the actions you take? Are you driven by ego or humility? The need to perform or the ease of practice? Complacency or the sincere desire to challenge yourself? It is said that the path of light is described as narrow, but if you have a glimpse of this path, and you are interested in this path, know that this path already exists for you and is already carved out for you. You simply need to walk through it. PYS II.3 avidya asmita raga dvesa abhinivesah panca klesah
This yoga sutra enumerates the hindrances to freedom from suffering, two of which are essentially the opposite sides of the same coin. Raga is desire or craving or attachment, and dvesa is aversion or hatred or inability to withstand unpleasant circumstances. The desire or aversion can be small scale, like scratching an itch or wanting to change the position of your legs in meditation because of your intolerance to the discomfort, or long-term and large scale, such as to build an empire, to conquer a territory, to dominate the world etc. It is interesting that in prisons, solitary confinement is given as the ultimate punishment, whereas yogis who are interested in enlightenment voluntarily go into isolation, shutting off senses, so they can confront their desires and aversions, one by one, as they arise. To the mind that is not ready, having nothing else but our desires or aversions to confront is torturous. For the yogi, the same desires and aversions— the observation and transcendence of it— are paths to freedom. Fortunately, we do not have to go into complete isolation to start the practice of observing both desires and aversions. We can start the practice simply by observing how often desire or aversion comes up, paying attention to their characteristics, and seeing them for what they are. Life is going to constantly provide us with opportunities to deal with desires and aversions. If we are not conscious of them or if we have no interest in freedom, it may feel as though we are being thrown into uncontrollable waves, and we have nothing to do except be swept by them. But if we are invested and committed in our enlightenment, then we see that the same desires and aversions are here to train us to keep our minds serene, that we don’t have to follow the old patterns of our knee-jerk reactions, that we can instead be still, and find peace not despite the desires and aversions, but find peace through the desires and aversions. And that is how we become free from the prisons of our own minds. When I was a kid, my mom heard about this kid who wore a Superman costume, got so much into the character that he ran through a glass window thinking he’d fly, and ended up hurting himself. From our point of view, we see it very clearly that the Superman costume is just a costume, the character just a role one plays.
According to spiritual teachings, what we tend to think of as “ourselves” or what we associate with ourselves— our name, gender, nationality, the personality that we project, the persona that we create, the number we see on the scale, the amount we see on our bank account etc— are also just costumes that we wear. They are the outer layers, but that isn’t who we really are. Who we truly are, what is unchanging and immortal, is a soul. Everything else is just a role, and when we attach too much to that role, we also end up hurting ourselves. Observe your body and thoughts while you practice asana. If you can observe them, then it shows you that you are not the body or the thoughts. Furthermore, notice how you tend to act as though the body or the thoughts are all that you are. Notice the attachment towards projected accomplishments and the despair towards perceived failures. The storylines you create make it so that you believe you are these external things. Remember, these are costumes. Om asato mā sad gamaya,tamaso mā jyotir gamaya,mṛtyor mā amṛtaṃ gamaya,Om shanti shanti shantih Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. Om peace peace peace. One of my talks (focused on biodiversity and how human activities negatively impact the environment) was based on the information provided by these two sources: Would you use your left hand to cut off your right leg? The question seems silly, because if we are emotionally healthy, we would never conceive of inflicting bodily harm to ourselves. It is apparent to us that we will not benefit by harming ourselves. However, when it comes to treating others, we take on a different position. That violence comes up in our thoughts, maybe even in words and actions. As long as we see “others”, that will be a challenge for us to not harm them.
The environment is one such “other”. We think the environment is a resource for us to exploit. And so we cut down her trees, we wipe out her oceans, we pollute her air. In reality, what we do to the Earth is like cutting off our right leg with our left arm— we harm only ourselves. The biggest contributor of environmental destruction is animal agriculture. As detailed thoroughly in the documentary Cowspiracy, when we consume animal products, we emit greenhouse gases that are far more than all transportation combined. It’s time we shift the way we treat the environment. Instead of thinking that the Earth belongs to us, we have to start realizing that it is we— all beings— who belong to the Earth. We can take concrete actions to support this mindset. The easiest way we can do this is by switching to a completely plant-based diet. Would we use our left hand to cut off our right leg? Of course not! Then let’s stop using our human intelligence to destroy our environment. Neither make any sense. Neither our body nor the entire planet we live in is an “other”. One of the most profound and unlikely spiritual experiences I had was sitting back at the planetarium Griffith Observatory watching a show. In the presentation, it was explained that people throughout the ages looked up at the sky looking for answers. It made me feel so connected to all of life that it closed the barriers of time and space. And my fascination with astronomy carried on.
In the documentary The Farthest, they told the stories behind the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space missions. After the main mission of Voyager 1 was completed, it continued in outer space, and at one point they turned the camera to take a photo of the Earth, which is now known as the Pale Blue Dot. From a scientific point of view, that photo gave no new discovery, no new insight. But as a human being seeing that photo, we get to see precisely how small we are in the scale of the universe, and how we are all connected to each other within this very small space that we occupy. Very often, our view of the world is limited: what I want, what would benefit me, what can make me happy. In this pursuit, we separate ourselves from others. We put ourselves in a box, and others in another. The emotional distance we create makes it appear as though we are not like each other. And yet if we take on a broader view, if we remember the Pale Blue Dot, we can see so clearly that we are not so separate, we are not so far from each other relative to how far away we are from the rest of cosmic existence. We are all interconnected, and yet how often we fail to see that. May we take on a broader view, far beyond our selfish tendencies, so that we can recognize we are not that far away from each other. Some of the talks I gave during class this month are based on these 2 lectures. Here they are: I wasn’t a cat person before. For many years, I thought cats were boring and all looked the same. Well, things changed and I now have 3 cat animal companions. Two of them I adopted from a friend who found them wrapped in plastic thrown in the trash, and one I found myself while walking home from class one evening. Now, it’s very clear to me that they are safer with me than they were before. But they don’t know that. Their wild nature is still there. There are times I’d notice that three of them are gathered around the window, and I’ll see that they’re looking at a bird perched up on a ledge across. For them, staying in a 31-square condominium unit probably feels like prison. Almost every single time that I go home, the moment I open the door, the cats will try to escape. Sometimes one, sometimes two, and when I’m really really lucky, all three would like to run out the door at the same time. So that’s my routine. They would go to that corner and this corner of the hallway, I’d chase after them, and eventually I’d coax them into going back inside. There are times that I’m tired, or I need to go to the bathroom, and I want to get annoyed at these cats for delaying me. I want to get annoyed, but I end up just finding the whole thing amusing, because they are so clueless. And it helps that they’re super cute, so I can’t bring myself to be seriously annoyed at them.
The focus of the month is about souls and enlightenment and being one with all— and these are concepts that I feel are very hard to grasp. But this is what I think. Enlightenment, put simply, is to love everyone. Just as I love my cats. You see, other people around us will do what they want based on their perspective, based on what they think is going to make them happy. And loving them means that no matter what they do, regardless of how far they stray, we keep the door of our hearts open. We accept them in our hearts unconditionally. And through this acceptance, there is no desire to control, no need to use our power. One more thing about this loving everyone bit is that it includes ourselves. No matter what we do, regardless of how far we strayed, what mistakes we made, what embarrassing things we got up to, we accept ourselves completely, we keep the door of our heart open for ourselves. And when we can love all, then that is connecting to the soul, that is enlightenment. The other night, because I was so tired from the day, I slept from 7pm to 8am. It was deep sleep and I woke up completely refreshed. Do you sometimes get to sleep like that? How was your sleep last night? Do you remember your dreams? Was it a dreamless sleep?
Here is a trick question, where are “you” when you’re in dreamless sleep? What about when you’re dreaming, where are “you”? Now at this moment that you’re awake, where are “you”? Yoga philosophy recognizes these 3 states: jagrat (waking), swapna (dreaming), sushupti (deep sleep). Another trick question: Which one is “real”? In the context of yoga, “real” is defined differently. It does not mean material or tangible, rather it refers to something that is unchanging. The only state that is “real” is a fourth state called turiya (samadhi) or cosmic consciousness. That is the state that does not change. To use an analogy, it’s like traveling among 3 cities, but your home— where you truly belong— is the state of cosmic consciousness. Another analogy we can use is of one actor playing different parts, the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states are roles that the actor plays, while samadhi is his true nature. It is the only thing that is real. In the state of turiya, time and space become immaterial, the attachment to the “self” falls away, there is no longer anything “personal” because one feels completely at home in the universe, one feels united with God, one experiences the kind of consciousness that is not bound by this body, this mind, this identity, or this incarnation. This is what is referred to as enlightenment. |
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