Lead me from the Unreal to the Real
This is a great time to be be considering such things as we just recently had Halloween, which is all about disguise and trickery. The other day I tried generating some AI images of a person blissfully practicing yoga. The above is one example of what AI came up with! Kind of compelling in a Dali-esque way, but clearly distorted and impossible. As the human race and technologies become more clever, how can we be sure that what we are seeing is real? How often in our personal lives have we thought something to be one way and later discovered it was not what it seemed?
We cannot necessarily trust that what is popular is “real”. The media, personas, and propaganda of all kinds can be well-curated and manipulative. Yoga asks us to go towards what is real. Drop into your body and observe the sensations there. Like the breath, those sensations are real-time and a touchstone of direct experience.
Lead me from Darkness to Light
Also in October, we had 2 eclipses. The eclipses are wondrous events and capture our attention, but they also involve blocking out our luminaries, the sun and moon. They take us into momentary darkness. We might ponder: how is our consciousness being eclipsed? What would it look like or feel like to have the the light of our consciousness shining consistently? We practice the various limbs of yoga to purify and clarify, in other words, to remove that which veils the truth. Those “veils” can be our own biases, opinions and prejudices that keep our view narrow. To see reality as it is requires an expanded view beyond our own self-interests. BKS Iyengar says in Light on Life: “There is only one reality, but there are many ways that reality can be interpreted.” One essential ingredient needed to move toward the सत् / सद् (sat/sad), the Truth, is the “desire to know Truth.” That desire has to be very strong, and cultivated and reinforced day after day. The prayer above reinforces that desire to move in the direction of Truth.
Lead me from Death to Immortality
prayatnaśaithilyānantasamāpattibhyām || 2.47 ||
By relaxation of effort and meditation on the infinite ( the āsanas are perfected).
This yoga sutra points us to one of the many ways we can move from death to immortality, especially while practicing asana. BKS Iyengar again in Light on Life says: “Death is certain. Let it come when it comes. Just keep working. The Soul has no age. It doesn’t die. Only the body decays. And yet, we must never forget the body, since it is the garden we must cherish and cultivate.” So we can touch the infinite in every asana and we can remind ourselves of the beacon of light within us. This, of course, is not limited to asana practice…it is available anytime, anywhere!
Shanti means “Peace”. This is one of many shanti mantras taken from the Upanishads (this one from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad) where the last phrase of “peace, peace, peace” is added when chanting. Let us come to to a place of peace within ourselves so that we can contaminate others with that same vibration. Our individual sadhana has an influence (which is mostly unseen) on the world around us. When all seems hopeless, don’t forget that. The quiet quest for Truth, the private practice you do at home has an effect that reaches beyond your mat.
