Character Development

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering character development.

It is the mind that makes one wise or ignorant, bound or emancipated.

                                                                   -Sri Ramakrishna

Mental habits are like ditches in the mind. They have to be dug laboriously. But they can also be filled in and new channels can be dug. Take resentment for example. It does not burst full-blown into the mind; it grows. At first you simply expect people to behave towards you in a particular way. If they behave in their own way instead, you get surprised, then irritated. You are digging a little channel in consciousness.

In the early stages, this channel may be only an inch or so deep. Thought may flow down it, but it may also flow somewhere else. Also, the walls are still soft and crumbly; they may cave in and fill the channel a little - for example, when someone you dislike says something kind. There  is an element of choice. But every time we respond to a situation with resentment, the channel gets a little deeper. Finally there is a huge Grand Canal in the mind. Then anything at all is enough to provoke a conditioned resentful response. Consciousness pours down the sluice of least resistance.

We can dig new mental channels - kind ways of thinking instead of resentful ones, patience instead of anger. Every time you try to return good will for ill will, love for hatred, you have dug your new, beneficial channel a little deeper. Transforming character, conduct, and consciousness is not a moral problem. It's an engineering problem.

Words to Live By: Inspiration for Every Day – Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to use the experience of your Yoga practices to work on transforming your character.  Use the breath to remind you that you have a choice in how you respond and use the same level of concentration (dharana) you bring to your asana practice to notice when you need another second or two to make an informed decision to be in the moment and choose a beneficial path.

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003