One of my adopted cats has white fur. He has never taken a bath his whole life that is 3 years. All he did was lick himself clean. And this cleanliness is impeccable. He is so white that sometimes I can’t find him in my small studio apartment, and it takes me a while to realize he was sleeping in the bed, because he would blend in perfectly with the white bed sheets, almost as though he were invisible.
The yoga sutras speak of siddhis or powers or accomplishments, and one of those powers is the power to be invisible. My cat already nailed it. He’s perfected it. As for the rest of us, being “invisible” can be quite a feat. Our entire world is set up for human beings who live in these times to do the opposite. We have Facebook and Instagram and SnapChat so we are always visible. We like buying clothes that make us look attractive so we will be noticed. We want to have some kind of a “grand entrance” when we enter a room. We even know people whose footsteps, whose stance, whose way of carrying themselves draw so much attention that their mere presence announces “I’m here!” When we visit places, we see vandalism, people writing “so and so was here, at this date, with this person”. We yearn to be seen and to be heard and to be acknowledged. It is not “wrong” to crave attention. It is the human condition. The yogi’s path is to work with this human condition. Notice when a small child is throwing a tantrum. They scream and shout, making themselves as visible as they can possibly be. This child is not “wrong”. This child simply has some unmet needs and feels they have to act out. We are the same. We yearn to be visible when there is something inside of us we haven’t yet worked out. We crave attention when we feel there’s an incompleteness in our lives that weighs us down. We torment ourselves with anger and internally comparing ourselves with others. We defile our speech by saying hurtful words about others or to others. We create harm through our day-to-day actions that may not have ill intent but are unconscious just the same. This heaviness weighs us down, and this heaviness brings attention to us, because we know no other way. The yogi has the ability to be invisible, in that they are attuned to their lightness. They walk into a room quietly, and leave the room just as quietly. Sometimes they even wear clothes that make them not as noticeable, almost like a uniform. When they move in the mat, it is almost as if they are floating. Not only because they know how to engage mula bandha, but because they know how and where to redirect their energy. They do not gravitate towards greed; instead they use only what they need. They are not attached to sensory pleasures; instead they are able to enjoy temporary things without clinging. They do not makes choices that harm others such as eating meat, dairy, and eggs; instead they eat plant-based that is not only light in the body, but also creates the lightest possible footprint on the earth. The yogi with a deep practice is secure in themselves. That is why they crave no attention, and that is why it may seem to outsiders, that they are almost invisible. The power to be invisible does not have to be a supernatural power. It is walking the human path in such a way that we are at our lightest. We are light in our thoughts, in our words, in our actions. We cause as little harm as possible. As far as disturbing the world is concerned, we yogis refrain from it, as though we are invisible.
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