Tag Archive for: yama

Self-reflection through the Study of Yamas and Niyamas: Brahmacharya

The religious study component presents some very interesting areas for self-reflection.  I consider myself to be an Agnostic (one who holds the view that any ultimate reality-as God-is unknown and probably unknowable).  I would probably be best served to have some real in-depth discussions concerning the agnostic and atheist (one who denies the existence of God) definitions.  At any rate I have some very strong beliefs regarding the concept of God. Organized religion is a concept that I don’t believe in and do not support. I have no faith based system (belief and trust in and loyalty to God; belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion; firm belief in something for which there is no proof).  I consider myself to have a belief system (a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing; conviction of the truth or some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon, when based upon examination or evidence).  Additionally, I consider myself to have a spiritual outlook (Spirit: akin to blow, breathe; an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms; supernatural being or essence).  With this said, areas for further discussion and evaluation are: religion, faith, belief & spirit.  With respect to God, I look at the Sun as fulfilling this ‘category’.  Without the Sun (God) there is nothing else on our planet, Earth.  The Sun (God) makes everything possible—without the Sun (God) there is no Prana (lifeforce/breath).  This relationship (faith, religion & spirit) and associated challenge(s) was recently discussed in the Denver Post-April 4, 2011, Fitness Section, shedding additional light on a very personal and emotionally charged topic.  Question: Who/what keeps the Earth, Solar System, Universe functioning?  With this said, we move to another area of the religious, faith, belief & spirit discussion—Evolution, Creation and Intelligent Design.  I am a firm believer of evolution.  Not to be over-looked and a topic for another paper is the big-bang theory—how was the universe and our solar system created?  What additional forms of life exist “out there?”

The self restraint component of Brahmacharya continues to be a very interesting personal study:  Primarily my diet and lifestyle (if I remember correctly, it has been said, ‘we are what we digest’).  By choice, I have a very simple lifestyle and a clean diet.  By simple definition I am a vegetarian (have been strict for the past four years & hypocritical-ate fish-since 2001–then a number of years ‘on and off’ since 1976).  Other areas of self restraint/abstaining from as it relates to lifestyle, includes but not limited to:  alcohol of any kind (Jan. 2000), gluten (Jan. 2009), sugar/high fructose corn syrup, soda, fast food, tobacco and most forms of strict western medicine.  These are several of the very important components of my lifestyle/diet that I am of aware of on a daily basis.  By my own admission I am very strict, rigid and focused with regards to my diet and ingestion of nutrition.  I leave room for moderation and self-evaluation based upon each individual situation.   Equally relevant, in my opinion, is the concept of moderation (vs. abstaining from)—I am continually striving for more moderation (balance) as it relates to my pursuit of a ‘quality’ life.

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Self-reflection through the Study of Yamas and Niyamas: Santosa

The Niyama discussion relates to the concept of Santosa (contentment).  I am generally very content and satisfied with what I have (and/or don’t have).   Recently this was brought to light in two separate situations both relative to my passion for bicycling.  FACT: I was not accepted into the 2011 Leadville Trail 100 MTB race.  This process involved a lottery.  I have numerous ‘connections’ in the cycling community that I could have called upon to get me into the Leadville race, however, I decided not to lean on those connections.  I have totally accepted this situation—I am content, able to concentrate and tranquil.  FACT: Shortly after this event I had an opportunity to purchase a fully-loaded MTB—a dream bike, but way too much bike.  The price was right, however, the timing was not due to personal financial circumstances.  After a significant amount of self reflection I discovered I was content with my current MTB—an adequate MTB, that gets the job done and will continue to provide me with the ability to ride and race.  I am content with my decision—I cultivated Santosa relative to this specific situation.  As I grow older I am more content with my business (a pizza concept)—focused on what we have vs. continually looking for ‘what might be.’  With an appreciation of Santosa I challenged myself to start the re-invention process.  Embarking on this YTT process along with my Aroma Touch therapy training I have fulfilled two components of the very challenging and dynamic re-invention process.  This re-invention is a function of the overall economic environment, aging process and a general desire to introduce athletes and ‘agers’ to the wonderful benefits of yoga.

This was a very interesting exercise in self examination.

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Practicing Non-Grasping: Introduction

When Derik said that the Yamas were listed in order of precendence, I knew I had to start at the end.  My job, my life, and my sloppy self-reflection skills all demanded that I take it easy on this one.  So, I went straight to the end: aparigraha. The three versions of the sutras I had access to (How to Know God, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood; The Heart of Yoga by TKV Deshikar, and The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Swami Satchidananda) all had slightly different takes on sutra 3.29.  I decided to skirt the connotations of accepting gifts and reincarnation, and take the approach of examining grasping, greed, and outcome-driven actions within my individual life.  I was a little bit intimidated by how intertwined all the yamas seem to be in human behavior, if not in concept.  I was not able to come up with a testable hypothesis or question for this experiment, and instead just decided to keep the awareness of the yama as much as possible while going about my job.

My job entails several levels of grasping, outcome-oriented action, and greed.  In the most general level, having a job at all is something I do in order to accomplish a standard of living for my family that I’m not willing to let go of.  Beyond the practicality of money and all the life-giving or frivolous things it can buy, I have a huge stake in my identity as a responsible parent, doing what needs to be done.  Part of my pride as an individual (in other words, ego) is in struggling through hard situations to achieve higher goals.  If my family and I experienced life as easy and enjoyed every minute of it, I would definitely feel guilty; as if we were way too spoiled and there was something else I should be taking care of.  Likewise, resignation to my family’s suffering without trying to resolve it (a nongrasping acceptance or giving of circumstance over to a higher power) seems lazy and misguided as well.  I’m sure there are other options for how to approach making a living for a family, but I don’t understand them right now.

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Overcoming Unhealthy Attachments: Experiment

With excitement in my undertaking and dedication to my personal growth, I set off with Desikachar’s words on my mind: “When we are attentive to our actions we are not prisoners to our habits”(Heart on Yoga p.6). My experiment happened in a rather linear style where I created a table highlighting a thought for which I was grasping, leading me to question why I desire that outcome and further, what affirmations can I raise to counteract those thoughts? A few examples from my experiment chart include:

A thought that has me stuck, grasping for an outcome.

Why do I desire that outcome?

What thought waves should I raise instead?
1. I need my house to be clean I like to maintain a good image of my space and myself. I take pride in my house. I have a beautiful home just as it is.
2. When I have a friend over for dinner I need my meal to be perfect. I see my meal as a reflection of myself. I can’t wait to enjoy a wonderful meal in the company of a great friend.
3. I want the woman that I am dating to contact me, I haven’t heard from her. I enjoy our communication, it’s reassuring to know that she’s thinking about me, and I have come to expect it. I am loved by me and that is fulfilling.
4. I feel as if I’m gaining weight and that my body doesn’t feel as good as it once did, so I want to loose weight I have not been exercising as much and therefore, I just don’t feel as fit as I like. I will practice self-love and treat my body with respect because she’s beautiful.
5. I am worried and nervous about sharing this work with my yoga peers. It feels vulnerable to share my thoughts on what I am working on (weaknesses) because I could be judged. I am a work in progress and by sharing and expressing myself I open up new opportunities for growth.
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Exploring Truth: Introduction

A few days after I made a commitment to implement satya, truth, into my daily life, I found that I’d slowed down my speech and made a greater effort to actively listen to my interlocutor. I thought that maybe I’d continue in this vein, but over the next two weeks, satya seemed to sneak up on me in forms that I had not anticipated. I began to refine my understanding of the Yama, and to explore more deeply various relationships through the lens of satya. I noticed a consistent struggle with the concept of satya in two relationships in particular: my relationship with my work environment and my relationship as a bicyclist with motorists on the road. Because satya has taken on personal meaning for me, I’ll first describe how I have interpreted it in my daily life, and then I’ll offer two examples that demonstrate how satya has transformed how I work in my job and how I ride my bike.

Satya is the second Yama. According to T.K.V. Desikachar, “yama” can mean more than simply an ethical precept. It can mean “a ‘discipline’ or ‘restraints,’” and Desikachar further suggests, an “‘attitude’ or ‘behavior’” (98). In particular, the Yamas refer to an attitude we adopt toward others: in this way, Satya confronts language, communication, and the ego in the tricky process of interacting with the world.

My colleagues and I had discussed in our initial meeting what satya means and our own understandings of how it might apply to us: why did we choose this Yama? My struggle with truth manifests itself overtly: often, it is obvious that I am not telling the truth. I hyperbolize, overstate, stretch, bend, and spin what would otherwise be true. We agreed to ponder the question: What is my motivation for non-truth? When and where does it happen? I hypothesized that I exaggerate for social reasons – for humor or shock value for example – in order to augment others’ perceptions of me. Through this experiment, I realized that also commit non-truth by omitting the truth.

In my process of examining satya, I began to consider the space that non-truth occupies. I find it useful to use the words “fabrication” and “omission” to describe that space. A fabrication is the creation of something that was not already there: for one who lies about the world her or she lives in, fabrication creates distance between the self and the world – between the subject and the object – the same subject-object distance that Derik described during his discussion of ahimsa. In his discussion of satya, B. K. S. Iyengar offers the following analogy, “as fire burns impurities and refines gold, so the fire of truth cleanses the yogi and burns up the dross in him” (33). Non-truth is rubbish. It is extra. I will examine my relationship as a bicyclist with motorists on the road from this perspective of fabrication.

Satya, as a restraint, means to control and limit non-truth. As I discussed, this can mean to refrain from amplifying the truth. It also implicates truth that should be spoken, but it not: omission, the negative space that non-truth occupies. I will examine my relationship with my work environment from the perspective of omission.

Non-truth, lies, fabrications, and omission prevent the subject from being fully present in the world. Satya asks the practitioner to confront the world.

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