Greetings Sadhakas,
Greetings Sadhakas,
This week in class
we are considering Aparigraha, the fifth Yama.
It is no little
wisdom for you to keep yourself in silence and in good peace when evil words
are spoken to you, and to turn your heart to God and not to be troubled with
the judgment of others.
- Thomas a Kempis
Most of us
appreciate praise, but it is disastrous to become dependent on it. If we are
going to allow our security to be bolstered up by the praise, appreciation, and
applause of others, we are done for. I have heard about a well-known movie star
who goes to sleep at night with a tape of recorded applause playing. This is
going to make him more and more insecure.
Why should we get
agitated if someone ignores us? There are, after all, advantages to being
ignored. We can go anywhere in freedom. Nobody recognizes us - how good it is!
In life, there are occasions when we are ignored and sometimes forgotten. That
is the time for us to remind ourselves, "Why do I need anybody's
attention?" This attitude can be cultivated skillfully.
Even those of us
who are the most sensitive to praise and appreciation can learn to be so secure
within ourselves that the word rejected can be expelled from our dictionary.
The one person who will never reject us is the divine Self within, and that is
enough to make up for all the rejections we may have to undergo at the hands of
everyone else.
Words to Live By:
Inspiration for Every Day – Eknath Easwaran
The homework is to review Aparigraha, the
fifth Yama. *Parigraha means hoarding or collecting. To be free from hoarding is aparigraha. By
the observance of Aparigraha, the yogini makes her life as simple as possible
and trains her mind to not feel the loss or the lack of anything. Then everything she really needs will come to
her by itself at the proper time. The
life of an ordinary woman is filled with an unending series of disturbances and
frustrations and with her reaction to them.
Thus there is hardly any possibility of keeping the mind in a state of
equilibrium. The sadhaka (seeker,
aspirant) has developed the capacity to remain satisfied with whatever happens
to her. Thus she obtains the peace which
takes her beyond the realms of illusion and misery with which our world is
saturated.
*Paraphrased from BKS Iyengar
Blessings,
*Paraphrased from BKS Iyengar
Blessings,
paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
360.834.5994
www.rushingwateryoga.com
Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington
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