Bhakti Gamya

She who is attained only through devotion.

adorations to Lord Shiva

ahimsa- not causing pain

The pactice this week for raja yoga homework is the first limb of the eight limbs of yoga - yama, or abstinence. The specific yama practice I am doing is ahimsa. Ahimsa is not causing pain. We usually think of ahimsa as non-violence, but not causing pain covers a lot more area.



Negative thoughts cause pain; If not to another, then to ourselves. Negative actions/deeds cause pain that is ususually more obvious. Then there is also negative speech which is usually more obvious too. In the yoga sutras, Sri Patanjali says that in the presence of one firmly established in non-violence, all hostilities cease.



For me, the toughest one is not causing pain in my own mind and body. We are to replace negative painful thoughts with positive thoughts. Even seemingly simple things like saying I am not capable of that, or I am this way or that way, or they don't like me. or i am ugly. on a very subtle level i create a lot of internal pain, which in this case, means violence to myself. Somebody said something to me this morning and I immediately felt myself get irritated. thinking they are such complainers and why do they always have to pick at things that "arent working."



So I remembered my practice and I replaced this negative thinking of the person with something that benefited both me and them. It works. But it is not easy, it takes practice - and it also takes a willingness to be happy and let the thing go. Staying strong and rising up in the face of this discomfort- and then accepting the peace, feelign free in the peace, this too is also important.


Finding and relating to this person from a place of compassion and peace. They too are peace at their very core they are just not present to it and neither are they doing any work to realize this. But like they say in Landmark, there is a whole set of things that we don't know we don't know. There are things we know we don't know like nuclear physics, but then there is a whole field where we don't know what we don't know, and I get frustrated with this when I encounter it in other people. But I have to remember that I was in that place, and still am. without compassion for another we cannot realize or grow any further.



When we think we know something we stunt further learnings. The teachings are there, but the learnings take humility to be seen/experienced. Sometimes I want to go to the most remote location and meditate and be in nature, leaving the discomfort and frustration of a worldly life, but I remember that this is exactly where the transformation happens, in relating with the world from inside the world. Otherwise, sitting by the side of the river, i can have all these concepts and ideas about what it might be like to interact with the world but I wouldnt actually be practising it so i would be no better off.



Swami Satchitananda says that being prepared is only half-way there. We have to practice. we have to take just one thing, one discipline, one truth and use it, practice it, see how it goes. This too is ahimsa. not causing pain to my peace by consuming so many things that spiritual digestion becomes constipated.



we need to chew our food, mindfully and completely before we can take another bite.

Ryokan : Poetry

In my youth I put aside my studies

And I aspired to be a saint.

Living austerely as a mendicant monk,

I wandered here and there for many springs.

Finally I returned home to settle under a craggy peak.

I live peacefully in a grass hut,

Listening to the birds for music.

Clouds are my best neighbors.

Below a pure spring where I refresh body and mind;

Above, towering pines and oaks that provide shade and brushwood.

Free, so free, day after day --

I never want to leave!


*


Yes, Im truly a dunce

Living among trees and plants.

Please dont question me about illusion and enlightenment --

This old fellow just likes to smile to himself.

I wade across streams with bony legs,

And carry a bag about in fine spring weather.

Thats my life,

And the world owes me nothing.



*
Like the little stream

Making its way

Through the mossy crevices

I, too, quietly

Turn clear and transparent.



--From Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan, translated by John Stevens. Published by Shambala in Boston, 1996.