Out of Our Heads and Into the Moment

It is astonishing how much suffering we cause ourselves by tripping over the hypothetical situations in our own minds. We often take things personally that have absolutely nothing to do with us. We hold on to it, spin a tale, make drama, react to the stress, and later find out that it was all just in our own minds.

Example: I left a lot of dishes in the sink when I left last night, (which is not typical for me at all) and when my roommate didn't answer my texts this morning my head fabricated all sorts of garbage, such as "she's angry at me", and all the way to, "maybe I left a burner on and the house exploded". At this stage in the game, I witnessed those thoughts and didn't start to panic and blow up her phone. Which is good, because she was actually at a very high-stress business meeting on her day off. What a foolish thing the human mind is.

We do this same torturous action to ourselves over and over. Everything is personal. Really, though, is it?? Even when people direct anger towards us in an otherwise personal way, we have to realize that their view is colored by an entire lifetime of actions, reactions, history and whatever mind-garbage was floating through their mind clouding their view at the time.

It amazes me sometimes how the average person can even drive a car without crashing into everything... with all that clutter and hypothetical drama threatening their view in every moment!!

According to Eastern philosophy, the way we label this part of our self that is so selfish, easily-threatened and deluded, is the "ego", or "small-self" or "self" with a lowercase s. The "Self", the "highest Self", or "big-mind" in Buddhism denote the part of us that is interconnected and whole, at one and at peace with Reality and the entire Universe. It is the part of us that knows our mind is sometimes and maybe quite frequently ridiculous.

Practicing meditation and yoga poses helps us to get in the habit of connecting with the expansive, Universal side of ourselves, and helps us to witness the ego in all of its insanity. The Universal Self is the sane part of each of us. The more we practice, the more deeply we connect and then we build a new way of viewing the world that encourages our greatest potential and saves us from surrendering to unneeded stress created by the funny functioning of the human mind. This thing should come with an owner's manual.

A few Poems by Mary Oliver to Savor

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

The Sun

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone--
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance--
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love--
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed--
or have you too
turned from this world--

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Is getting to your roots getting in the way of your yoga?

Many of us find it an interesting & enriching process to study our family tree. We enjoy tracing our roots back as close to the source as we can. We get into our Irish-ness or Italian-ness or other-ness by practicing various traditions, purchasing cultural items or cooking traditional recipes. It helps us to feel more connected to our families, and to others of the same background. How can such a connecting practice limit us in regards to yoga and spiritual progress?
In and of itself, the sense of connectivity derived from studying our geneology isn't detrimental. That is, as long as we are mindful not to allow it to limit us. How would it limit us? If we begin to identify with our blood heritage, we may become too attached to it as a label, a limiting concept of "who we are". This can trap us in all sorts of limited ideas of what we can or can't do, what we are supposed to look like, act like, and so on.
In addition, while helping us to feel more connected to others, it creates a seperation between us and others of different roots. This is the same for all labels we may identify with and falsely take our sense of self from, mistaking them for some sort of permanent and abiding situation. Rich, poor, Jewish, Christian, pagan, male, female, artist, secretary, librarian, gay, straight, vegan, meat-eater, American, French; the more we repeat these labels to ourselves, the more entrenched in concepts we become.
Granted, rarely do people change genders, and we can't change our blood heritage. Yet, most labels can & will change over time as we grow. Spirituality may or may not change, but at least hopefully evolves. Labels can feed the ego by creating a false-sense of conflict, fragmentation and a false-self that is thought of as seperate from others. How do we deal with this in a yogic sense?
It is good to understand & learn about your family heritage, if it interests you. But watch that you don't develop a sense of judgement or seperation from others. Watch that you don't judge traditions as right or wrong, better or lesser.
Also, reflect on other pieces of your experience, such as spiritual lineage. The majority of the world can trace its spiritual heritage to the Middle East or Asia. As you study, keep an open mind & again watch out for any judgements of value.
As we try to trace our roots back to our source we can keep the ego in check by putting it all into a broader perspective. We can look at ourselves as a member of the human family. We can see the oneness in our smiles, tears, pain, and love. We can see that we are mammals, and contemplate our connection to all other mammals. We can look at ourselves as animals, and see our similarities as members of the animal kingdom. We could look at ourselves as earthlings- members of planet Earth, along with the other animals, trees, plants, rocks, and tiny, tiny creatures.
The majority of the world's people believe in one Source of life, one Universal Creative Intelligence. Can we accept that no one type of people has a monopoly on This? Can we believe that we all can connect in our own distinct way? In this way maybe we can enjoy our uniqueness & diversity, and at the same time see ourselves, and all of creation, as part of the same whole?
That is the ultimate goal of yoga. Union, oneness, universal perspective. So, from the yogic perspective, enjoy what you enjoy, but be on the lookout for any practice or concept that fosters the sense of seperateness within you. That false sense of seperation is the root of all craving & suffering.

Quietness, by Rumi

Here the poet Rumi speaks of awakening as a death to the old ideas, materialistic ways & confusion of symbols with The Way. Quietness is the Presence, wordless, labeless Being in the now, pure existence.

QUIETNESS

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone born into color.
Do it now.
You're covered with a thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you've died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.

-Rumi
taken from "The Essential Rumi", by Coleman Barks