We all have capital N – NEED for security, for safety – for relationships we can depend upon.  While it is obvious that no relationship can be guaranteed to provide 100% safety, or security – and no relationship is impervious to lesser or greater betrayals, most of us expect that our families will be the relationships we can most rely upon. Not all people experience their family in this way. Consider the 34 year old mother of two who said, “I remember growing up watching families on t.v, how they were there for each other, supporting each other. It was completely alien to me. I’m still trying to figure it out with my own family” Or, as one man pointed out, “I still think of family as something to escape from.”

It can be really difficult to acknowledge family as a place of  wounding or betrayal, difficult to remain in relationships that hurt and yet, also very hard to think to think about walking away. I’ve spoken to  number of people who have chosen to distance themselves from family because they were keenly aware of having to pay a hefty price for remaining a part of their family. There may have been a number of spoken or unspoken ‘rules’:  do not remember, do not challenge, tolerate intolerance, do not be authentic, do not feel your feelings, etc. There’s many reasons family members might clash. On the recent survey I have been circulating, some of those reasons included: “I’m gay. There’s no room for that in my family.” “My mom and I got along but only if I did things her way.” “I married a black African man. Goodbye family.” We can choose to ‘forgive’, we can choose to be silent, we can choose to suppress or hide parts of who were are. We can choose to maintain family relationships – but at some point, remaining in the situation may begin to feel a lot like self harming — this seems especially the case in families where betrayal and abuse are not distant childhood memories, but continue in the present.

Whilst reconciliation in families seems considered the ideal, possibly because our connection to tribe and family is such an integral part of our sense of identity – it is not always possible or desirable. Sometimes we cannot safely raise issues with family so that they can be resolved. Sometimes connection only provides further opportunities for shaming, blaming, abusing, harming. Sometimes family members are absent through death, divorce or disconnection and we can’t connect even if we want to. We’re told that acknowledgment of hurts, apology and forgiveness may lead to reconciliation – but they are not always possible. We may have made previous efforts to reconnect, and been greeted by a closed door. Relationships involve two people and one person cannot carry the responsibility to heal, grow and nurture a relationship on their own. Knocking on family doors until knuckles are bloody does not feel good. Neither does opening the door only to get sucker punched.

I often think of the Buddhist ideal of Ahimsa.  Ahimsa, is the awareness and practice of non-violence in thought, speech and action. It advocates the practices of compassion, love, understanding, patience, self-love, and worthiness.  So what’s Ahimsa got to do with non-Buddhists or with family estrangement? Ahimsa could be considered an interesting framework through which to consider our responsibility to ourselves as well as to others.  A pretty cool part of the idea of Ahimsa is that its not limited to how we treat others, we are included. How we treat, respect and care for ourselves matters too. Ahimsa is also not just about behavior. Behavior springs from the internal – the things we think and feel, things we say. Ahimsa suggests that it is important to adopt an attitude of gentleness, of ‘do no harm’ to self, not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally and spiritually

This idea of ‘do no harm’ is very powerful when considering whether or not to maintain any relationship, including those with family. The idea that we can put ourselves first, and that indeed we must do so, opens a sense of ‘permission’ to protect and care for self. It means we don’t have to be doormats or victims if that is the price of maintaining family relationships. It means its ok to take ourselves out of harms way. It’s ok to put distance between ourselves and other people who would do us harm; even if those people are our family. Ahimsa means we do not have to allow others to wreck havoc in our lives and stand idly by and allow it. I really like what the following woman had to say, both because she is able to acknowledge that trying to reconnect doesn’t seem possible in the moment but also allows room for things to change in the future: “My daughter cut me off when her father and I divorced. I’ve tried to reconnect, but each time I get nothing but anger and blame. I’d love to be able to work it through, but  I have to stay away from her until something changes.“

No one can tell you if reconciliation is a desirable goal for you in your family circumstances and only you can determine whether distancing from a family member is genuinely a decision based on self love and the need to protect self. It may also be worth remembering  that decisions need not be frozen in place forever. It may be we need distance in order to protect and care for ourselves today and at the same time, it is possible to leave a door open in the event that people or circumstances change, as they so often do.

• Is the price for connection with family ever ‘too high’?
• How do you care for yourself in relation to your family?

Vet inte vad som hände, men yogapracticen bara försvann.
Det jag känner märkbart är att man mår INTE bra utan den.
I yoga pratar man ju mycket om ahimsa, att inte bruka våld mot sin kropp, mot miljön mot sin omgivning.
Att inte utföra asana träningen är det samma som att inte följa ahimsa. Jag är inte snäll mot min kropp eller mitt sinne.
Jag lägtar efter att komma igång igen och nu ska här yogas och inspireras på yogans väg. Tre dagar kvar…

“In fact Caitanya Mahaprabhu said blaspheming a devotee is like drinking poison. Praising devotees and Krishna is like drinking nectar. So if we have actually a position of humility and pridelessness which Prabhupada is emphasising here in, then we can actually understand what is the spiritual principle of ahimsa. What is actual non-violence? Para upkar. Really living for the welfare of other living beings. As long as we want to be the master, as long as we want to be controller, as long as we have this desire for possession for pratistha, as long as we have this desire for enjoyment either on the gross or subtle levels then we are impelled to various activities that unnecessarily hurt other people’s hearts or disregard other species of lives hearts.”  – What Exactly is Non Violence SB-02.07.37

When we show compassion towards animals, how many of us show compassion towards little insects as well and protect them from being harmed? Those little insects that are living in our homes with us, usually they are not welcome and are killed by us human beings intentionally and unemotionally. These insects also have the will and the right to live.

They have the freedom to be anywhere on earth even in our homes. When we buy a house it doesn’t mean that we also own the space and the earth. These little insects have been living here at this space and on this earth for many generations long before there were any houses or buildings. We think that these little insects are invading our property and space, but actually we are the ones who have invaded their living space and destroyed their homes.

Shouldn’t we respect these little insects and allow them to live harmoniously with us in our home – a place we call ”our house” just because we have to pay lots of money to the bank and we have a piece of paper stating that ”we” are the owner of this property.

Even though we might pay to build a house, we don’t really own the earth and the space inside and outside that building. Who is the real owner of the earth and the space in the first place? Not the developer, not the land office, not the government, not the people, not the animals, not the insects, not the plants, not the birds…

It belongs to nature, and it allows everything to be on it and in it, it allows every thing and every living being to utilise its resources. Nature didn’t sell this earth and space to anybody, so how come someone came to us and sold us the land and told us it is ours now?

All the plants, insects, birds and animals were living here for a long, long time before we human beings explored this place and took the land, and built houses on it.

How come now after we have invaded their living space we are merciless towards these little insects that come into our homes and we try to get rid of them or kill them with chemical and poisons? Are they not living beings too? Maybe they are not as intelligent as human beings, but they do have the sense of taking care of their baby insects and feed them. They know what team work is and collect food for their whole community, share their food and protect themselves from danger and harm. Isn’t this is far better than many selfish and ignorant human beings ?

On top of non-harming (Ahimsa) towards animals and insects, if every human being was selfless, wise and compassionate towards other living beings then this world will be a truly better place.

“yoga is just stretching”.  No, Yoga is yoga, just stretching is just stretching. 

Now,  I will explain in a way that makes sense to me: Yoga is a way of going about things.  Yoga is systematic, yoga has other parts other than the physical postures (asanas).  I’ve spoken about the Eight Limbs of yoga before; they are what makes Yoga not “just stretching”.  Some people who know that I practice Yoga ask me “do you practice Yoga everyday?”  My initial response is “no”, because what they’re usually asking is if I practice postures; if i do the yogic exercises.  That is what I am answering “no” to.  In the beginning, i would have meant “no”, entirely.  Now, after studying and learning more about Yoga, i find that I am answering “no” about postures, but the real answer is “yes, i do practice yoga everyday”.  Now that i know that, i find myself answering in that way, and if i feel that it is welcomed, I’ll explain.  The beauty of Yoga is its philosophy, its path; to get you to your truest self, to help you to happiness, to help you to detach; not let yourself become so attached to anything, to control the fluctuations of the mind, to come to peace. 

How do you practice Yoga, how do we practice Yoga?  Why is it just not stretching?  Because of the philosophy.  Because of the Eight Limbs; Yamas (restraints), Niyamas (observances), Asana (postures), Pranayama (breath practices), Pratyahara (sense withdrawal), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (enlightenment).  Because of these Eight Limbs, because of the other things going on, that is what makes it different.  In Yoga, we practice non-competitiveness. We learn to look into ourselves, and watch our own progress and make sure to not push ourselves beyond our limits, beyond our edge.  We appreciate what others are doing around us (whether that is postures or at work), and if we get jealous, we work on not being jealous.  we work on being happy for those that we feel are excelling, we don’t use that as a way to feel bad about ourselves and push ourselves past where we are.  If you push yourself past where you are, you could hurt yourself and that is not practicing the first Yama (restraint) which is Ahimsa (non-harming), and it is not practicing a few of the Niyamas (observances) such as, Santosha (contentment), or Tapas (discipline).  This is what makes Yoga, Yoga.  It may seem like a lot to be thinking about while you are practicing postures or just living life, but when you chose to live a yogic lifestyle, and you begin to understand these Eight Limbs, you start to realize that they all just lead to the next, and they are so complimentary to each other that they just become common sense and second nature.

If you are not practicing the postures (asanas) every day, but you are observing the restraints (yamas) and observances (niyamas) then you are practicing Yoga.  If you are practicing the postures (asanas) but you steal, or are a bully or you lie then you are not practicing Yoga, you may be doing Yogic postures, but Yoga is more than it’s postures.  if you think that you are better than anybody else; superior in some way, not seeing the divine in everybody, then you are not practicing yoga, even if you practice postures everyday…that is my understanding.

But we should talk about the postures.  as far as the Asanas (postures), the physical, it is also strength-building, and massage.  There are postures we do that absolutely build strength, strength of body and of mind.  It is the strength of the mind that is my favorite part.  When you stand in Vrkshasana (Tree Pose), you are strengthening your legs, you are strengthening your core, you are strengthening your arms, and you are strengthening your mind.  How are you strengthening your mind?  By focusing.  Balance postures are such a wonderful and immediate way to see if you are focusing, it’s a wonderful time to practice Pratyahara (sense withdrawal).  When you work on balance postures and your mind is wondering, you will find pretty quickly that you will fall out of the posture.  When you focus, when you are concentrating on what you are doing, the posture, you will stay in it longer.  This sort of practice affects your focus for the rest of the day.  The more you practice something, the better you get at it.  So, you find yourself having trouble focusing on a project at work or during a conversation, just remember  how you focused in Tree Pose and do that, bring it into your life, not just on the mat, or wherever you practice your postures.

So, do i practice Yoga everyday?  Yes.  do i practice postures (asanas) everyday, no.  I know that since i began my journey on the Yogic path, i am more truthful, more content, more observant, more calm, more understanding, more a lot of things.  And, again, yoga helps with yoga.  I used to get mad at myself for not practicing the postures everyday, then i realized that went against the principles of yoga, and that Yoga is so much more than the physical.

I hope this explains some of the difference

namaste, kory

Ahimsa means “non-harming” in sanskrit; the language of yoga. Ahimsa is the first Yama. Yama means “restraint”, and the Yamas are the first limb of the Eight limbs of Yoga.

I bring this up now because I am tearing my hands apart, literally. So, here’s the relationship, if it isn’t obvious already, it has to do with Ahimsa, non-harming.

First, here’s some context…I am on the Yogic path and with that comes paying attention to and trying to live according to the eight limbs of Yoga. I will digress and briefly list the Eight limbs; Yamas (restraints), Niyamas (observances), Asanas (postures), Pranayama (breathwork), Pratyahara (sense withdrawl), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (union, enlightenment).

The other Yamas are; Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-stealing) and Brahmacharya (sexual moderation).

The Niyamas (observances) are; Saucha (purity), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (Discipline), Svadyaya (self-study), Ishvara pranidhana (devotion).

But, I am writing today to talk about Ahimsa, which is nice because it is the first one, the first yama, so that works out…ok, here goes. There’s obvious non-harming, like, don’t kick somebody else in the shins, don’t smack somebody when you’re angry. Those are physical. Then there’s the verbal harm we can do, like taking out our anger and frustration on others, and at a deeper and more harmful lever; verbal abuse and such…Then there’s the more subtle levels, the less obvious, like talking about somebody behind their back.

It seems, in all my yoga studies, those are the levels that are spoken of and attended to first. But, what about how we treat ourselves? What about how we beat ourselves up, mentally and physically? That is what I’m writing about today. I have dealt with depression my whole life. I’ve been beating myself up forever. I’ve gotten a lot better about it over the years; I’ve been paying more attention, trying and working hard to stop. Since I was very young, too young to remember, really, I’ve been picking at (augh, it sounds so gross, but I’m gonna say it anyway) my fingers, picking at myself. I used to get bitten by mosquitoes like it was their job to only bite me, mostly my legs…and i would scratch my legs to the point of bleeding, then i wore knee socks until i was in about 3rd grade to cover the scars. I’ve been picking my cuticles for as long as i can remember. When I was about 24, I stopped, somehow I stopped. Then I started again, probably prompted by a cut that scabbed then I picked it and it all started again…horrible, gross, i know.

In 2006, I quit drinking and I was still picking away, mostly my thumbs (sounds funny, but that’s what i did, it’s ridiculous) down to the knuckles. gross. A couple weeks after I quit and had kept it up (I’m a little over three years sober now) I caught myself picking my thumbs and thought “you quit drinking, you quit drinking for God’s sake. If you quit drinking you could quit picking yourself apart.” So, I decided that every time I caught myself picking I would snap a rubber band on my wrist 50 times, not for the pain, but for the distraction. I did it. I committed and I did it. Some time later, who knows when, I started again and I started to realize that my picking was a big indicator of my stress and anxiety. It’s a weird thing, because there were times when I was picking that I didn’t really feel nervous or anxious, but I must have been, something was happening. For a while, I had just gotten to a point that I was only picking my thumbs. I had at least gotten to the point where I left the rest of my hands alone.

Well, I’m back at it, with a vengeance. It’s horrible. I am tearing myself apart. I’m tearing every finger on my hands apart. I think of Ahimsa (non-violence), and how much trouble I’m having. Why am I doing this to myself? What does it mean, and what will it mean when I get past it or through it? It’s the hardest step, to me, so far. The first step, is the most difficult for me.

When I quit smoking, the last time ( I had quit twice before) it was the easiest time. I had been loving smoking, just loving it, but knowing, at the same time, that I was disappointed that I was smoking again. So, during that last week of smoking, heavily, I kept talking to myself about why I was doing it, asking myself, really. I had started studying Yoga about 6 months before the day I quit the last time and Yoga made that quit easy, so easy. So, as I said, while I was smoking and loving it, I was also talking to myself; going over it, asking why? What was I getting out of it, why was I doing it? What need or desire was I fulfilling with cigarettes? I started to really think about Yoga and what it meant to me and the potential I thought it had in my life. I thought about what I was learning about Yoga and that smoking contradicted what I wanted in my life; the path I wanted to travel. I promised myself that I would quit at the end of the job (which was only a few more days, I free-lance). I continued to smoke and have those conversations with myself for those last few days and when the day came, the first day off that job, I did quit. And it was the easiest quit. Yoga got me there. Yoga helped me see what I was doing and why.

I believe I need to do the same with this horrible habit of tearing myself apart. I will get through this. I know that the awareness is the biggest help and really, the first step. I am truly causing myself harm, but knowing this is how I will get better. That awareness is one of the greatest gifts that I have received from being on this Yogic path. Acknowledging that this harm I’m doing is something I really am doing to myself is a step.

I know that Yoga helps me through all of this and helps me find peace and joy. So, I pay attention to all these restraints and observances, but I am having a hard time with this first one, a little bit. But I know how much Yoga has helped me before, in specific situations and daily, on the whole…it’s interesting to watch myself go through all of this, and live along this path. It’s a good lesson for all of us, that we can be on the path but not perfect at it. Sometimes, just the awareness of the path is comforting, and knowing what you can do to stay on it and travel it better is a wonderful thing.

namaste, Kory

David Williams, 1970s

That’s David Williams, who went to India in the 1970s and met Pattabhi Jois, becoming the first non-Indian to learn Jois’ entire system of asanas (postures), now called Ashtanga.

Today he lives in Maui, halfway up to its spectacular volcanic crater, and that’s where my wife and I caught up with him a few years ago. We were in Maui and called him. He said ‘come over’. We went to his house. He showed us some pictures of himself in pretzel positions during the 1970s and 80s.

Then he chased out his three Bernese mountain dogs and we threw down our mats in his garage, where he taught us Ashtanga yoga for the next couple of hours. Later, we went to get some Vietnamese food and heard his yarns from yonder.

He told us a lot that day that my wife and I still talk about. With his thick Carolinian drawl, David is simultaneously wise and funny. One issue that he has strong opinions about is hurting yourself.

Western yogis today–the kind you see with tight Prana pants stretched around their firm buttocks, mat under one arm, Starbucks Venti Latte in the other–hurt themselves a lot. All the time, in fact. I have hurt myself.

‘Of course,’ you say. ‘Yoga is stretching, so sometimes you overdo it and hurt yourself.’

Wrong!

As David put it to us: If you went to a ‘real’ yogi on some Himalayan mountain top and told him that you had injured yourself, he would not understand. He would look at you as though you were crazy. It would sound as stupid to him as it would sound to your pastor if you told him that you had hurt yourself praying.

The dumbest and most dangerous “yogi” in the world

Which brings me to this article in the New York Times about “yoga competitions” and to a man named Bikram Choudhury. I wrote about Bikram in The Economist a few years ago, but that was in the Business section and I had to give it that kind of slant. Today, let’s talk about something more important.

Bikram is an extremely smart businessman–he has made Bikram, a specific series of asanas in a hot room, into a big brand.

He is also an unbelievably stupid and dangerous “yogi”. He’s not a Yogi at all, really. And you need look no further than this nonsense about ‘yoga competitions’, which–surprise!–was his idea. He and his wife want to make yoga an Olympic sport, in fact.

Introducing: Satya and Ahimsa

As regular readers of The Hannibal Blog may remember, yoga is really about stilling your mind, as Patanjali described it.

Yes, in order to do that, you might want to prepare yourself physically–ie, with asanas–because, as the Roman poet Juvenal said, mens sana in corpore sano, a healthy mind in a healthy body. But you want to spend just as much time and effort on the other seven of the eight limbs (= Asht-anga) of yoga.

The first, and most urgent, of these limbs is yama, or ethical guidelines. And two of these are:

• satya, truthfulness, and
• ahimsa, non-violence.

Now let me explain to you what, for most people, happens in the first five minutes in a Western yoga studio:

1. They look around at all the other, fitter, slimmer, lither bodies and get competitive. Their ego (one of the naughty things that Patanjali warned us about) flares up. They lie to themselves: ‘I can do what he can do; I can get into Lotus.’ By lying, they have already dropped satya, and are thus no longer eligible to move on to a higher limb such as asana. They should really leave the room.
2. Having lied to themselves (and the others in the room), they now become violent toward their own bodies. They pull, push … and hurt. Thus they have dropped ahimsa as well. Now they really should leave the room. But they never do, because everyone else is doing the same thing.

Back to David…

So save yourself some time, money and above all hurt and ignore Bikram. Please.

Instead, find yourself a real yogi, such as David.

When my wife and I met David, he no longer looked like the dude in the 1970s picture above. He looks like a middle-aged guy with long hair–less boring but otherwise as physically imperfect as the average guy his age. And yet (why “yet”?), he loves yoga as much as ever. That’s because he decided years ago that stretching is not what yoga is about.

He wrote an open letter about it. He begins:

… First, and foremost, I hope you can learn from me that in your practice, “If it hurts, you are doing it wrong.”…

Eventually, he gets to this issue of competition (or even comparison):

…I am occasionally asked if someone is “good at Yoga.” I quickly respond that the best Yogi is not the one who is most flexible, but the one who is most focused on what he or she is doing… It is with some sadness that I have observed people “competing with their Yoga practice.”…

After all, he continues, what good is yoga is you only do it while you’re young and fit–ie, “good”–and then stop when you get older and stiffer?

… The key is being able to continue practicing Yoga for the rest of your life. … those who continue are the ones who are able to figure out how to make it enjoyable… The others, consciously, subconsciously, or unconsciously, quit practicing. It is my goal to do everything I can to inspire you to establish your Yoga practice not just for the few days we are together, but for the rest of your life….

…My goal is to convey the idea that the greatest Yogi is the one who enjoys his or her Yoga practice the most, not the one who can achieve the ultimate pretzel position… what is really important is what is invisible to the observer, what is within each of you….

… and onward to life

Now take everything that David and I have said above and replace the word yoga with … whatever you please.

How about sex? Do you ruin your enjoyment of it by competing or comparing yourself? Do you sacrifice satya and ahimsa to pretend that you’re a superwoman/superman? Do you “quit”, or want to quit, when you get older and less responsive?

How about friendship? Are you competing with others and comparing yourself based on how popular you are? Are you investing in acquaintances merely to nurse your “network”, even at the expense of other, real, friendships?

How about… [insert whatever is on your mind]

If that sounds familiar, you have sacrificed satya and ahimsa and are not ready to move on to the higher stages of being alive (= yoga). When you rediscover satya and ahimsa, in a garage in Maui or wherever else, you remember what you’ve been missing.

My Teacher would often ask me, ” What’s the rush? “. Then I thought, what does that mean? I didn’t understand what he was really saying. It took me months to figure out the lesson in the question. Impatience is himsa. My impatience with my asana practice was an act of cruelty toward my Self. I now understand. The mat is a mirror. A reflection of our progression on the path. If we are truly to progress we must sincerely want to look into the mirror. We must make a choice and select the act of ahimsa. We must then choose to be kind and gentle with ourselves. This act on the mat will overflow to our life off the mat, which is where yoga is really practiced.

Ahimsa can be translated as nonharming, nonkilling or nonviolence, and is what I think of as the foundational yama because it provides the basis for the other four.

The most common discussion that arises from ahimsa revolves around whether to eat meat or other animal products or not, and it can be a hotly contested debate. We touched on that, but focused more on how ahimsa taps into the other yamas because it’s a thread throughout all aspects of our lives.

For example, when we think about satya, or truth-telling, we’ve talked about the “Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” test. The second element, kindness, is rooted in ahimsa. Just because something is true doesn’t always mean we necessarily need to speak it. Many of us know somebody who is blunt, almost to a fault, somebody who speaks truths that can be harsh. 

The difficulty can often be in discerning the necessary part of speech, and here we rely on ahimsa as the foundation of our decision. If we speak and tell this truth, will somebody be harmed? If that is the case, then will somebody also be harmed if we don’t speak? In many cases, the answer is clear at that point. In others, it only becomes more difficult to discern the approach most in keeping with the yamas and niyamas. 

As we move to bramacharya, moderation, we return again to ahimsa. Brahmacharya is the practice of avoiding extremes in all things. Patanjali recognized that too much of something can be as bad as too little. Whether it’s food, sex, money, alcohol or responsibilities, the path to balance lies down the middle. By going to one extreme or the other, we often are harming ourselves.

In “Breakfast With Buddha,” a wonderful novel by Roland Merullo, protagonist Otto Ringling loves food. And throughout the novel, we see how his relationship with food changes as he travels a path toward enlightenment.

More pragmatically, going to either excess or scarcity affects who we feel, how we act and how we think. Either extreme tends to focus our mind on the area is which we are out of balance. Think of those days when we forget to eat and all of a sudden realize we’re starving and don’t have time to get food. That’s all we can think about. And yet on the days we stuff ourselves, we also find our mind focusing on how badly we feel because we’re too full. In both cases, we’re causing harm to our bodies. 

We also, in our ahimsa practice, can apply it to our thoughts. How many of us have had thoughts chiding ourselves for not meeting an expectation, whether it be our internal standard, an authority figure’s priority or a societal expectation? Advertisers bombard us with so many images of what it means to be attractive, to be desired and to be a success. Thanks to digital editing and computers, these images don’t even have to be rooted in reality. When we beat ourselves up for not meeting the impossible standards, aren’t we  forgetting to practice ahimsa towards ourselves? 

How would our lives change if we could embrace this yama in our thoughts? On the mat, we embrace this practice by listening to our bodies, letting go of competition, letting go of expectations and letting go of judgement. Off the mat, we practice by accepting ourselves for who we are. Not excusing ourselves from responsibility, but accepting that we are at this point on our yoga and life journey. We can always take a step down a different path, but we must travel any path one step at a time. There are no shortcuts on this journey, no ways to avoid the challenges we face as we move closer to living a yogic life. Ahimsa allows us to change our behaviors, guiding us down the new path we have chosen. If we approach every action with nonharming in mind, we allow ourselves the chance to make the choice that’s consistent with our yoga practice on and off the mat.

… the settling of the mind into silence.” ~ Sri Dharma Mittra

This past weekend was the first of four long weekends of Sri Dharma Mittra’s 500 Hour Life of a Yogi Advanced Teacher Training.  I honestly don’t even know where to begin, word’s cannot describe the beauty and transformative power of the experience’s over the weekend.  Sri Dharma Mittra in his Life of a Yogi Teacher Trainings is imparting the complete classical teachings of Hatha-Raja Yoga.  This isn’t a training to be a fitness instructor; this is training to become a life scientist, a friend to all, a Yogi.  Sri Dharma and his senior teachers in the humblest of studios with the humblest of manners guide you on a journey into your very heart, lighting the way for you to discover your true and divine nature.

Compassion is Dharma Mittra Yoga’s core teaching atop the foundation built on the Yama’s and Niyama’s.  Dharma has said on numerous occasions,  “There can be no success in Yoga without the Yama’s and Niyama’s”.  The full eightlimbed yogic path is illumined through the Life of a Yogi Trainings, you not only get to see the path, but are trained by one who’s already reached the goal, Self-Realization.

Apart from numerous asana classes, there were pranayama and meditation sittings, workshops on the Gita, Sutra’s and yogic philosophy, training to aid one be a better teacher and even a Kirtan with Krishna Das.  This weekend was simply amazing.

Click here for more information on the Life of a Yogi Teacher Trainings.

For all the philosophical discussion of the yamas, what matters is living them out in our daily lives. One of the benefits of practicing our yoga off the mat in this way is it can really transform us. In fact, until we start practicing yoga off the mat, it can only affect us so much.

One of the benefits of our group is we have different perspectives because of our different backgrounds and experiences.

For example, I tend to struggle with blending satya (truth-telling) and ahimsa (nonharming). I can be very blunt, and I’m a chatterbox, which means I often say things that don’t meet the “Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” test. I admire those who do pause and think before they speak, who are careful to follow that path in their words even when it’s difficult.

Yet a group member who does this well reminded me today of the flip side of that practice. For those who are focused on the kindness element of speech, the challenge can be to say something true and necessary even when it’s difficult.

In many cases, speaking a difficult truth can be a kindness. That doesn’t make it easy. And even when something is a cosmic kindness, for lack of a better description, that doesn’t mean the recipient will always take it that way. Those are perhaps the most challenging situations.

Often times, speaking or not speaking in difficult situations is a result of our past training and experience. Those mental ruts, or samskaras, kick in and we find ourselves falling back into old patterns. It can be challenging to change our reactions, especially once we start back in the pattern. While we can try to avoid those ruts, in the long run, we need to find a way to process through our samskaras and fill them in so the ruts are no longer there. When we don’t, when we choose instead to stuff our issues back behind the door and nail them up, we set the stage for them to come back in a bigger form.

That recurring cycle is at the heart of karma. When we can deal with a situation in a yogic manner, practicing nonattachment, we don’t generate any new karma. That’s a challenging standard. More often, we muddle through and generate some new karma. In situations we handle poorly, we often will see the challenge reappear in magnified form later in our life’s path. If we’ve learned better ways to handle our emotions, we might get through it fine. When we have another reaction that doesn’t address the issue, we might find ourselves starting a new cycle again.

With each cycle, the challenge gets bigger. Sometimes the consequences are greater. Sometimes the challenge is just tougher. Each time we pass through that cycle, the ruts become more deeply ingrained. The next time through, we have to approach the challenge that much differently in order to steer our way out of the rut.

In some cases, the challenge is not a key part of our lives, and we can limp along without resolving it. It likely will affect where we begin the next cycle, both in form and standing. But it might not have a noticeable effect on our current path.

In other cases, we run into the same wall many times. Each time it gets thicker and higher. We do more damage to ourselves with each collision. At some point, we reach a stage where we must deal with our challenge in order to continue living our lives in a way we can accept. We often must “hit bottom” to realize this.

Some years ago, I had a third try at a personal challenge, and once again my actions and reactions weren’t what was needed for it to end well. That particular incident didn’t cause me huge problems, but it planted some seeds. Five years later, I had a professional challenge on my plate, one I knew would be made more difficult because it involved a person with whom I was not on good terms because of my earlier personal collision. It ended in disaster, leaving me questioning many things in my life, things I had thought I would never question.

Yoga became my refuge then. As I turned to yoga to help me through that troubling time, I stepped down a different path, one that led me to changes personally and professionally. And yet, working through many of the underlying causes of the actions and reactions that led to that meltdown, the one personal challenge that planted the seeds for that disaster got shoved to the side.

About 18 months ago, I found myself in a situation with some similarities, and dealt with it with minimal negative effects. Yet I knew, deep down, that my actions and reactions were very much rooted in the same samskaras — the better ending was because the outside circumstances were different in a couple of key respects. Still, if you believe there is always a reason for the people and events in our lives, you could consider that a chance to change things, to try out new actions and reactions.

A few weeks ago, I found myself in a situation that was similar to the three earlier ones. The differences that marked the most recent manifestation were not there. And with the ability to step back and observe that I’ve gained from my practice on and off the mat, I recognized the pattern while it was in its early stages. After some thinking and some journaling, I decided what specific steps I could take to avoid the behaviors that had caused problems in the past and took them. It was scary in some ways, but changing the process was the first step.

The second step was not being attached to the results of my actions, and I was pleasantly surprised that when the process played out and the superficial results were similar to the ones in the past instances, it didn’t feel the same. Changing the process changed how the result manifested. Also, one yoga book has a passage on negative emotions that suggests we allow the emotions to arise and bubble up, experiencing them fully. It states that only by experiencing the emotions without attaching to them can we stop generating karmic ripples. By adopting that practice after the superficial results manifested themselves, I feel like that rut got just a little less deep. It’s not filled in, and down the line the same challenge will arise again. The challenge, as always, will be recognizing it before going too far down the well-worn path and responding in a manner that stays on the new path I’m walking. But it’s a challenge I feel more able to meet now than I did a week ago.

As we work through the yoga sutras and begin practicing off the mat, we recognize more and more of these opportunities to alter our path in life. The yamas and the niyamas also better equip us to work through the challenges that face us in our everyday lives, allowing us to fill in those karmic ruts.

How have you noticed your off-mat practice influencing your approach to life and its challenging situations?

So, I had the opportunity to see the movie Where the Heart Is. The screenplay, written by Lowell Ganz, is based on the novel by Billie Letts. I got hooked in by the plot of a woman living in a Wal-mart, and came away with a fine example of a yoga philosophy ~ Satya, or Truthfulness.

The main character gets pregnant at 17, left by her boyfriend, lives in a Wal-mart, and has her baby there. But, then her life begins to turn around. She makes friends who take care of her, she works, develops a passion for photography and falls in love. But, she doesn’t think well enough of herself to claim it. She lies to the man she loves and he leaves. She, of course, is miserable. Then, her old baby-daddy comes back into the picture as a horrible wreck: drugs, broke and having lost his legs in a train accident. He tells her he wishes he could go back and undo the lie he told her on the day he left her. He said he couldn’t feel the baby’s heart beat. He says he now realizes how one lie can change your whole life….

Because of it, she finds her love and admits her lie. They live happily ever after.

How often do we lie? Small lies, big lies, lies to ourselves? This is one of the foundations of yoga practice: to be truthful. Like so many habits we have, lying, even white lies, is one to look at in ourselves. I think many times, it is a protection habit that could be left behind. The yogis honor Ahimsa, non harming, above all others, but it is a fine line with lying. As with our heroine above, she felt that she was protecting her lover from a life less than her idea of perfect for him, but it was his choice to make, not hers.

How can we honor truth in our lives and still be gentle?

It was after I first went vegan, which was the beginning of 2005. Unfortunately, due to some heinous food allergies, I’m no longer vegan. (The wheat allergy makes faux meats next to impossible, amongst other things). Anyway, I was a hard core vegan. Everything was animal-free, down to my toothpaste. I still keep as much of my life as vegan as possible because I really do think it’s a better way to live. But in 2005, I was a newbie vegan looking for veg literature and role models. You can’t really find a better veg role model than Michael Franti, who takes the principle of ahimsa into every aspect of his life. He lives peace. He breathes it. He was one of my first vegan inspirations. Then I heard his music and it was awesome! Here’s the issue of Herbivore where I first heard of Michael Franti.

You are sitting in your living room, minding you own business, reading a news paper, while you wife is busy cooking food and your kids are playing in the next room.
Suddenly some one enters your house slaps you on the face, hits you wife and kids for no reason, what will you do?
In most cases you too will react and hit that guy back.But had it been for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, we would’ve been expected to invite the guy to hit once more on the other side of the face without even asking the fault.Non-violence is not the answer to anything.Humming the tune of Non-Violence or Ahimsa is disgrace to sacrifices made by martyrs like Rani Lakshmi Bai, Tantya Tope, Bhagat Singh, etc.
This country can no longer be called Hindustan or the place of Hindus because unfortunately, Hindus are the most oppressed people than other communities.This is the only country the world which turned a significantly major community into a minority to support other communities who have done nothing for the progress of the nation.
Signatures that divided a nation still has its reprecussions, people are still being killed.The fire which was lighted more than 60 years ago has still not died down and it will not die down till the people of this country raise thier voices against every injustice being done to them.Be it Political Party A, B or C no one is good enough to lead this nation.
Our country has been robbed time and again by rulers from different countries or of other races. We are still being robbed today by these political parties day after day.
Ask your self, do you really deserve to live in this nation, which will soon come to the verge of more partitions and bloodshed?

http://www.dukhsukh.com/2008/10/nathuram-godse%E2%80%99s-speech-at-trialhis-principle-of-peace-was-bogus-gopal-godse/

In addition to being a yogi and studying Advaita Vedanta, I am a member of a Unitarian Universalist church. I am also a father. Most of us have veterans in our ancestry; some may also have peace activists, war resisters and conscientious objectors. Do you have family members or friends serving in the military today?  What does Veteran’s Day mean to you as a yogi or yogini, as a member of your faith community or as a world citizen and human being?

Ahimsa is the Sanskrit word for non-harming. It not only refers to not harming others, but ourselves. It is a concept not limited to physical harm, but emotional harm and cruelty. It is often described as “non-harming in thought, word or deed.” That is a tall order! Most of us are accustomed to thinking in terms of Us versus Them. Of being fearful of the The Other. Our brains are wired that way, according to Robert Ornstein and James Burke’s book The Axemaker’s Gift which says our brain development is also the reason for our societal development. Learning to chop bits of stone to make axes–apparently to make way more axes than anyone would ever need for hunting purpose–develops and reinforces the same parts of the brain that help us DISCERN. It enables us to separate things into categories and hierarchies, subcultures, societal structures, government, specialties and subspecialties, military organization, college majors and minors, etc.

This skill also hard-wires us to be judgmental, not only of others but ourselves. This is contrary to a belief in Ahimsa. The way to practice Ahimsa is to practice love. One specific tool is to bless every situation and relationship. When so-called negative thoughts or negative emotions arise, we learn to heal ourselves by practicing self-love. Self love is not just navel gazing. How can we create peace in the world if we are not at peace with ourselves. Once we are at peace with ourselves we must also practice peace with our families. When you can practice peace in your family, it is appropriate to bring peace to your communities. It is a big stretch to get to “love your enemy.”

Stinking thinking is met with awareness, self-calming, acceptance and an appropriate response to the situation. One way to describe that appropriate response after blessing has taken place is to serve the situation. In Advaita, or non-dualism, there is no “other”–All is One. Service to “others” is by definition service to ourselves, and service to all. In Vedantism, service is called Seva. It is also part of the bond of union we recite at my church–”In the freedom of the truth and in the spirit of love, we unite for the worship of God and the service of all.” Unitarian Universalists have a pompous slogan, “Deeds not creeds.” My Catholic wife counters with “Creeds and deeds” pointing out that the Catholics as a group have probably done more service in the world than any other religious organization. This gets into an Us versus Them situation, so I am not going to get into a pissing match. Let’s leave this discussion to a future post!

I have to continually remind myself that when I engage in harmful thoughts about myself, I subsequently harm those around me–when I am self-loathing, I am grumpy, grouchy, cranky and generally a big annoyance to my family and friends. I find myself a little to rough when I swat the cat, or nudge the dog out of the way. (I love my pets.)

I don’t have any family or personal acquaintances in the military now. My father was 4F during the action in Korea. My uncle was a sergeant in the 8th Army stationed in London during the Blitz. My mother’s father was in the Engineers in World War I, but served with our enemy, the German Army. He had a miserable time hiking back home to Hanover at the end of the war, suffering abuse from Bolsheviks. My relatives never discussed their war experiences with me or my parents.

I came of age just as the Selective Service registration was reinstated. I frequently passed the War Resisters League office on Lafayette St. and Bleecker St. in Manhattan’s East Village. I met with a counselor there and learned about the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCC) http://www.objector.org/. I knew I was a pacifist. As someone who expected to rely on federal financial aid for college, I registered, and on the advice of the counselor, I wrote on the postcard that I was a conscientious objector. I also began to establish a record of my pacifist beliefs in case I needed to produce documentation and testimonials. In college I received war resistance training from a Quaker minister, and participated in anti-war rallies on the steps of the campus library and the federal building. Yes, I had my consciousness raised, and considered becoming a war resistance counselor myself.

The draft has not been reinstated, but the Selective Service System still registers young men. The system has not gone coed yet, so with a daughter entering college next year, it has not been a concern. I do feel a bit like a hypocrite by not having this discussion with my daughter. Instead, when my thirteen year old son asks me for permission to play Teen and Mature rated video war games, I have the talk with him about deciding what kind of person he is and what choices he wishes to make about violence and war. Frankly, our girls typically don’t need to engage in this ethical debate until they become mothers or have brothers or boyfriends considering military service.

If you wish to open a dialogue with your children, The Church of the Larger Fellowship has age appropriate links. When you explain your views to a child–on war and peace, the military and diplomacy, duty and conscience–you discover that you have to find creative ways to convey difficult concepts in a clear fashion.

In a few years your children may be considering military service. At the rate we are going, we may still have military personnel stationed in various countries in the Middle East and other hotspots where Al Queda operates. A friend of mine has a son who is a Navy Seal. A recent assignment was in the Philipines winning hearts and minds by building schools to counter the influence of anti-American terrorists linked to Al Queda. If they are using Navy Seals, this must be considered dangerous work. I consider myself a patriotic American, and I acknowledge that soldiers are necessary for the defense of our country. As a pacifist, and now a yogi practicing Ahimsa, I have an internal debate about how to reconcile my beliefs with “reality.” It is a fine debate and one that will continue to be important to me. This is a matter that concerns me every day when I read the news. I am sure I will be posting more on this.

Why not take this annual opportunity to open a dialogue with your child about what it means to serve your country?

Dr. Gabriel Cousens, author of Conscious Eating, Spiritual Nutrition, and Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine (Probably the Raw Foodie we find our raw philosophies most aligned with)

Dr. Cousens strikes upon a number of important concepts regarding the synergysm of Raw Foods and Yoga.

He touches upon the nadi’s, the 72,000 psychic and energy channels within the body, which become clogged by a multitude of means, such as sensuous living, lying, etc.  The nadi’s must be strengthened and purified through yogic practices so that we are prepared to handle the increased vibrations of higher states of consciousness.  You wouldn’t plug a 100 volt appliance into a 220 volt outlet would you?

He also touches upon Isvara Pranidhana, recognizing your body and mind as mere instruments to the hand of the Lord.

If you’re into Raw Foods and Yoga, how have the lifestyles intersected in your life?

~Raw Yogis

Do I uphold the yama (moral rule) of ahimsa (non-violence)? My automatic answer is, “Of course.”

When I think of non-violence, my mind leaps to egregious examples of violence. Murder. Arson. Chasing cats with vacuum cleaners. I’d never do any of that.

But then I read books that define ahimsa broadly. In addition to not harming other living beings, it also means not harming the environment or yourself. So, you’re violating ahimsa if you blithely eat takeout food using throwaway plastic containers and utensils, or if you’re still kicking yourself over wasting your 20s in a misguided relationship.

Which leads me to Halloween. We typically give trick-or-treaters the usual stuff, from fun-size M&M packs to Hershey miniatures. They’re cute and nostalgic; who can resist candies with names like Mr Goodbar or SweeTarts? But of course “milk chocolate” is barely chocolate, just a crazy amount of sugar and the bad type of fat. The appeal of cheap candy lasts for 15 seconds. It’s not worth it!

So why give that junk to innocent, impressionable little kids? Might that be a violation of ahimsa?

This year I got raisins for trick-or-treaters, plus a bag of milk chocolate squares (the raisins looked too earnest). Then, at the last minute, someone else in my household got a box of Ferraro Rocher chocolates for the kids. So, we ended up being kiddie sugar suppliers again.

Maybe it’s no big deal. Despite my eating a ton of mainstream candy as a kid, I was always twig-thin. My childhood penchant for sugar petered out in college, with no residual ill effects; I did not lose my teeth or become an adult junk-food junkie. In fact, I cherish my memories of trick-or-treating and gathering a ridiculous amount of loot. Would my memories be as colorful if I’d never chewed a Tootsie Roll or nibbled a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup or salivated at the mere sight of Jolly Rancher Watermelon Stix?

Still, if it were up to me, I’d banish mainstream candy. It’s too sugary, too artificial, and way too plentiful.

Did you know the majority of people on planet Earth are at war?

It’s true.

But it’s a war with no name. And it’s silent and sneaky. Very few people talk about it. There’s no protests, or political action to bring it to an end. But it takes plenty of hostages and casualties. It cuts a path of destruction on all seven continents. There’s no place it does not reach…

This my friends, is the Great War. The murderer of souls. The sniper of happiness. The assassin of freedom. The destroyer of self-acceptance.

That’s right. I’m talking about the collateral damage we drag through our lives. The absolutely violent thoughts and actions we take against ourselves every day. The unkind words. The self-neglect. The hyper-critical and unfair attitude we have about our actions and/or appearance. The public and/or private flagellation we suffer at our own hands.

Let’s not forget the way we pass our own misery on to the next generation so that it may flourish… through our actions, we show them how to be self-defeating and self-loathing. We teach them that that’s how life is for most people.

One of the worst fall outs of this war is the way we’re so willing to believe anything negative about ourselves at the drop of a hat, while being unable to accept a compliment or be proud of our achievements.

We are displaced people. Displaced in our sense of Self.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of it. Because all of this adds up to an unacceptable abuse of human rights.

Worse – most of these campaigns of self-hatred are conducted behind closed doors. Of course, some do make it out into the streets too, where we drink excessively or take drugs, or lay our self-disgust at the feet of others.

But almost everyone else is engaged in their own internal warfare. And so we try to relate the best we can, limping along, tending to our war as well as those belonging to the people we love.

And sometimes we mistake other people for combatants in our war. So, we take the fight externally and make them the enemy. At last, someone tangible to fight with – the driver of the car that cut you off, your lover, your friend, your parents, your boss, the rude waitress… and so on.

Appalling isn’t it? And yet, so very difficult to control. This war has agents everywhere!

The big question for me is this: How are we ever going to make peace with other people if we can’t even make peace with ourselves?

Y’know, Ahimsa (non-violence/non-injury) is the first of the five Yamas (restraints) of Patanjali’s system of yoga. The very first discipline to master, for developing consciousness on the path to enlightenment.

And yet, it seems to be one of the hardest things to do. We can sympathise with the trials of others. We give money and/or service to charities. We’ll give a guy on the street food or cash. We’ll help someone change a flat tyre.

But we can’t stop looking in the mirror and thinking about all the ways we are “deficient”. Can we?

And to win, we have to find a way to make peace with ourselves. Have to!

I’m still working on it. What about you?

~Svasti

I understand that this Friday a film is to open. Called This Is It! it is of Michael Jackson, on stage rehearsing for his proposed last series of concerts to have been given in London. Some of the footage, I understand, was shot days or even perhaps the day before he died.

Is it just me or is there something macabre and morbid about this? Someone is, of course, going to make a lot of money out of this and that is normal, but the lure is echoed in the advertising for the opening: “Come and see Michael’s last moves.”

We all are going to die and no one of us knows what will be our last day. Amongst us are our public figures whose last day may well be spent, well, in public. The politicians, the athletes, the “stars” of our culture will all have their last day and it might well be spent doing their public thing. And yet ….. I remain uneasy with this Jackson movie. Why am I uneasy?

It is not Michael. Often dismissed as weird he was an utterly amazing talent and superb entertainer. A one of a kind. He presumably knew his rehearsals were being filmed and was OK with it.

It is not the movie makers. Destined to make a packet off a dead man they are simply doing what anyone in their position would do. Object to them and you need to object to every performance of Schubert’s 8th symphony, the famous “unfinished symphony.”

It is the potential movie goers. That’s it, I guess. Some may go out of a genuine desire to pay respect in some way; others to admire “the moves” once again. That’s fine. But, I fear, others will go to gawk. Look at the “dead man dancing.” Moonwalking his way into the grave!

We struggle with death. Laugh, cry, rage, or ignore? Here’s how to avoid the struggle.

Dying happens. It happens to our bodies. As biological organisms our “time will come.” Dying for us is as dying for a dog, a whale, a mushroom, or an oak. Biological being entails dying. (Will researchers ever render this statement false? If so a whole range of new issues will arise.)

But human dying is different from that of a dog or a whale or a mushroom or an oak. Humans know they are going to die.

This knowing is death. Death is our knowledge of our dying. Specifically, death is my knowledge of my dying.

The real issue thus is not how to cope with dying, but how to cope with death.

Christian faith makes a stunning claim and extends an offer. Paul writes that “Death is no more.” Dying remains so what does this claim possibly mean? It means quite simply this:

• there is more to our dying than death.

What is the offer?

Embrace this vision and both dying and living are transformed. A new reverence is possible; a new respect; a new desire to cherish all life. This is known in some religious traditions as ahimsa. What difference does it make? It makes all the difference. Of it we can truly say: This Is It!

My appologies for having taken so long between posts.  Life is always finding ways to fill itself; lately it’s been the college application process and preparing for the Dharma Mittra Yoga 500 Hour training which begins in just a few weeks.

Last night after dinner I sat reading Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi’s For Pacifists; a beautiful little book originally published in November of 1949.  For Pacifists is pieced together from a number of Gandhiji’s writings expounding Satyagraha, his philosophy of non-violent resistance.   Ahimsa, the foremost Yama of Yogic Philosophy serves as the root of his philosophies on non-violence.  Though not even a third of the way through, the brilliance of Ghandiji’s treatise shines bright.

Here are some of the highlights thus far:

Non-violence is a term I had to coin in order to bring out the root meaning of ahimsa.  In spite of the negative particle ‘non’, it is no negative force. .. but a force superior to all the forces put together.  One person who can express ahimsa in life exercises a force superior to all the forces of brutality.

It is not through strife and violence but through non-violence that man can fulfil his destiny and his duty to his fellow creatures.

The real love is to love them that hate you, to love your neighbour even though you distrust him… Of what avail is my love, if it be onl so long as I trust my friend?  Even thieves do that.

Let there be no can’t about non-violence. It is not like a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseperable part of our very being.

Non-violence is not an easy thing to understand, still less to practise, weak as we are.  We must all act prayerfully and humbly and continually ask God to open the eyes of our understanding, being ever ready to act according to the light as we receive it.

May you find peace in these words, peace in your hearts and peace in your world.  May you be ever and always open and receptive to the grace of God.

Namaste

~ Raw Yogi

During a break at school I leapt from my seat and headed out the door for some dinner.  Driving up the road and glancing in the rear-view-mirror now and again.  There was my professor on a Harley motorcycle just behind me, his long blonde hair whipping in the wind.  I pulled into a parking lot and he followed.  Park my car, grab my wallet, and it turns out that this long-haired Harley riding professor is going to the same restaurant as I am.  Stepping off his bike, it’s obvious he’s well over six feet tall and built like an NFL linebacker.  Taking a better look at his bike, yeah, it’s a Harley and, yeah, he has a yoga mat tied to the back of it with a red bandana.

“I haven’t been here in like six years.  What do you get?” I asked.

“Can’t go wrong with a Cafe Rio salad,” he replied as he ordered. “No meat please.”  Hmmm this guy who looks like he can lift his Harley above his head is ordering a salad for dinner, hold the carne.

“Yeah I’ll have the same as him.”

Turns out my professor, Marty Mendenhall, Ph.D., LPC, is a longtime vegetarian.  Not only that but Marty completed his doctoral program at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in San Francisco specializing in spirituality and consciousness. He also completed a two-year post-graduate certificate program in Socially Engaged Spirituality at Saybrook. He has been employed by the Utah State Department of Juvenile Justice Services for twenty-two years working to incorporate and nourish the spiritual roots of restorative justice in the programs that he directs. Marty is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Phoenix and provides mental health services for children who have been removed from home due to abuse and neglect. He owns and operates Mendenhall Martial Arts and Holistic Health Center in Pleasant View, Utah, where he advocates the harmonious development of mind, body, and spirit. He is a former Utah State Bodybuilding Champion and is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer.

I asked him a few questions.  The interview goes as follows:

WasatchVeg (WV) When did you decide to be vegetarian?

Marty Mendenhall (MM) Approximately 20 years ago.

(WV) What led you to choose to live on a plant-based diet?

(MM) There are a number of factors but I choose to live on a plant-based diet primarily for spiritual reasons. I was born with a peaceful compassionate temperament and a sensitivity toward and affinity for nature. I also entered mortality with a profound curiosity regarding the meaning of existence and the possibility of continuation of consciousness beyond the death of the physical body, which naturally led to questions about how one should conduct oneself during mortality. Searching for wisdom on the preceding topics led to a burning interest in the world’s wisdom traditions. As I explored the religious scriptures of the world I found most suggest that votaries avoid the consumption of animal flesh. I remember being particularly inspired by the doctrine of ahimsa as enunciated in the Vedas. As you might know the practice of ahimsa is simply the practice of non-harming. In the Vedic tradition it takes on a more expansive meaning to include having no ill feeling for any living being. Later Pali manuscripts posit that ahimsa be accompanied by camaraderie, freedom from anger, and aversion to ill will. It further requires that one not utter words that are either harsh or hurting. By this definition ahimsa includes subtle as well as overt forms of non-violence. The Buddhist Mahaparinirvana Sutra says, “The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion.” Buddhism is built on wisdom and compassion. Out of compassion flows wisdom and out of wisdom flows compassion. In my opinion Buddha dharma can have profound social, ethical, philosophical and religious implications therefore it is important to me to contribute in some small way.

(WV) How do you feel about the decision you’ve made (physically, emotionally, spiritually)?

(MM) My decision to abstain from eating animal flesh is the right one for me. I feel better physically. I live an especially physically active life. Physical activity has been a form of meditation and refuge for me over the course of my life. It is not uncommon for me to be engaged in some form of exercise or intense physical activity for several hours a day. I require fuel that can sustain long hours of physical activity. My body functions most efficiently when the bulk of my caloric intake consists of complex carbohydrates i.e., fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans lentils, and rice.

While it’s true that I draw energy from my thoughts, feelings, and consciousness to fuel the functions of my body, I also recognize that I need energy from the nutrients in the food I eat. It has become apparent to me that my mental, spiritual, and emotional processes depend on having a healthy physical body. A vegetarian diet affords me the best opportunity to maintain a healthy physical body and a vibrant lifestyle.

The concept of the affects of emotions and stress on health are not new; the relationship between the physical and psychosocial well-being has existed throughout history and across cultures. Hippocrates taught that curing a patient required a knowledge of the “whole of things,” of mind as well as body. Emotions and physical health are interconnected as are all things. When my physical body is healthy and I am true to my own personal moral and ethical code, my emotions are balanced. Meditation is the foundation of my emotional stability. In Buddhist practice it is taught that if one does not practice the five precepts: The practice of non-harming, the practice of not taking that which is not freely given, the practice of abstaining from harmful speech, the practice of abstaining from intoxicants, and the practice of abstaining from sexual misconduct, it is not likely that one may uncover any penetrating truths during meditation. Meditation is a foundational practice in my life; therefore, any method that helps me to practice in a more skillful way I am willing to do.

From a spiritual perspective it is important for me to live in such a way that creates and nourishes an inner environment that is conducive to accessing the Ultimate Ground of Being. If my physical body is healthy and my mind is not distracted by afflictive emotions the energy of Life can flow through me for the benefit of others.

(WV) Is your decision to be vegetarian connected with any other lifestyle choice(s)?  In what way?

(MM)Yes, as I have already indicated I believe in the interconnectedness of all things. I am concerned for the welfare of all beings that inhabit this planet and the planet itself. My lifestyle and the decisions I make in my life are founded on the principles of peace, loving-kindness, wisdom, compassion, joyfulness, generosity, forgiveness, patience, and diligence.

(WV) Have the people close to you been supportive of this decision?  Concerned about this decision?  Antagonistic?  Irritated?  etc.

(MM) The people I choose to surround myself with are supportive. As a means of diffusing possible arguments concerning the “rightness or wrongness” of eating a primarily plant based diet I sometimes mention that I do not believe human beings are suited for meat consumption. Examining the animal kingdom one observes that vegetarian animals do not have claws whereas carnivores do. Vegetarian animals perspire through the skin whereas carnivores perspire through the tongue. Vegetarians do not have large front teeth, but have molars for grinding food. Vegetarian animals have intestines that are ten to twelve times the length of their bodies whereas carnivores have intestines that are only three times the length of their bodies. Carnivores have strong stomach acids to digest meat whereas vegetarian animals have weaker acids. These comparisons inform me that as a human animal I am not suited for the consumption of meat; therefore I choose to include only plant-based foods in my diet.

To be continued…

O objetivo deste texto é discutir as ligações do vegetarianismo com o yoga. Não pretendo discutir as diferentes linhas do vegetarianismo; no que diz respeito ao yoga, é suficiente considerar vegetariano toda e qualquer pessoa que exclua a carne de sua alimentação cotidiana, seja qual for sua origem (boi, peixes ou aves). Ovolactovegetarianos e frugivoristas, dois extremos do vegetarianismo, coincidem neste ponto, apenas para deixar as coisas mais claras.

O vegetarianismo tornou-se, sem dúvida, um tema espinhoso. Mais do que simples opção alimentar, trata-se também de uma ideologia. Muitas pessoas levam muito a sério a máxima que diz que “você é o que você come”, em especial os vegetarianos. O veganismo, como é conhecido o ativismo vegetariano, usa argumentos de ordem ética e filosófica para defender a exclusão da carne da alimentação cotidiana. Não são poucos os que fazem essa defesa de forma virulenta e também não são poucos os que trazem isso tudo — vegetarianismo, ideologia e virulência — para dentro do yoga.

Índia

O vegetarianismo encontrou campo fértil entre os praticantes de yoga do ocidente. Inicialmente, isto se deve ao fato do yoga ter-se originado num país associado ao vegetarianismo. Ainda que a Índia não seja uma nação vegetariana (pelo menos 60% da população não são vegetarianos), a proporção de vegetarianos naquele país é muito maior do que em outros países (no Brasil, estima-se que pouco mais de 5% sejam vegetarianos).

Desconheço os motivos que fazem com que tantos indianos não consumam carne, mas a explicação que me pareceu mais razoável foi dada por meu professor: consome-se pouca carne na Índia por razões econômicas — num país pobre e com população gigantesca, imagine as dificuldades físicas e econômicas para fornecer carne a todos. Há poucos motivos para crer que os fatores éticos, religiosos e filosóficos tenham precedido os fatores físicos e econômicos na definição das opções alimentares dos indianos, principalmente porque no resto do mundo estes fatores sempre precedem aqueles. Portanto, não parece correto tomar os costumes indianos como justificativa para a associação entre yoga e vegetarianismo. Isto sem falar que a forma mais tradicional de se preparar o chai, uma das bebidas indianas mais tradicionais e mais apreciadas por praticantes de yoga, leva leite — o que restringe grandemente o vegetarianismo dessas pessoas. Prossigamos.

Ahimsa

O principal argumento a favor da associação entre vegetarianismo e yoga diz respeito ao conceito de ahimsa, que faz parte das bases éticas do yoga. Ahimsa pode ser interpretado como “não-violência” ou “não causar danos”. O vegetarianismo é visto como uma das principais formas de exercitar e manifestar ahimsa. Assim, se o yoga exige a prática de ahimsa e o vegetarianismo é uma forma de ahimsa, então todo praticante de yoga deve ser vegetariano. De fato, muitos professores colocam isto como uma obrigação (link 1, link 2 e link 3).

É necessário, a partir disto, analisar esta idéia (a associação entre yoga, ahimsa e vegetarianismo) à luz dos princípios e propósitos do yoga.

Como muitos leitores devem saber, Patañjali coloca o yoga desta forma:

I,2: Yoga é a supressão das oscilações da mente

No Hatha Yoga Pradipika o parágrafo I,2 traz o seguinte:

o ensinamento do Hatha Yoga é somente um meio para a realização do Raja Yoga.

O Gheranda Samhita reforça esta idéia nos parágrafos I,4-5

Não existem amarras como as da ilusão (máyá). Não há força como a que provém da disciplina (yoga). Não há amigo mais elevado que o conhecimento (jñána). E não há inimigo maior que o sentimento de individualidade (ahámkara). Da mesma maneira que se aprende o alfabeto, com a prática podem-se dominar todas as ciências, mediante o domínio do Hatha Yoga adquire-se no final o conhecimento da verdade que libera a alma da escravidão.

Yoga é, portanto, ao mesmo tempo o conjunto de práticas (como no caso do Hatha Yoga) e o estado obtido com estas práticas (como quando Patañjali se refere ao Raja Yoga, ou “yoga real”). Ainda que o primeiro significado prevaleça, como acontece modernamente, ele só faz sentido na medida em que coloca o indivíduo no caminho da realização do “estado de yoga”. Patañjali, por exemplo, coloca os asanas como uma preparação para a prática de samadhi e Svatmarama, em seu Hatha Yoga Pradipika, é enfático ao dizer que o Hatha Yoga (i.e. as técnicas descritas por ele em seu tratado) é um meio para Raja Yoga. A grosso modo, samadhi e raja yoga podem ser entendidos como kaivalya (libertação), que é o propósito do yoga. Suprimir as oscilações da mente significa obter a libertação e desprender-se das influências de maya — sejam elas originadas externamente, pelas influências do mundo, sejam originadas internamente, por ahamkara.

Ahimsa é um dos yamas ou princípios éticos do yoga, conforme os Yoga Sutras, de Patañjali. Os yamas são o primeiro dos oito membros do yoga. Patañjali assim explica estes oito membros:

II,28: Assim que as impurezas forem removidas pela prática das disciplinas espirituais — os “membros” do yoga — a visão espiritual do homem abre-se para o conhecimento iluminado do Atman.

Em seguida Patañjali enfatiza a importância dos yamas:

II,31: Estas formas de abstenção são regras básicas de conduta. Precisam ser praticadas sem restrições de tempo, lugar, propósito ou leis de casta.

Logo, pode-se deduzir que praticar yoga implica a prática de ahimsa. Pode-se discutir de que forma essa prática acontece, pois há sempre o risco de transformar yamas e niyamas em “prisões éticas e morais”, nas quais o indivíduo confunde o dever com o bem, mas deixarei esta discussão para outra ocasião — de outra forma eu me desviaria muito do objetivo inicial deste texto. É suficiente, para este texto, admitir que yoga inclui ahimsa, seja como prática (ou “lei”), seja como conseqüência do desenvolvimento de uma mente iluminada. Deve-se analisar agora se a prática de ahimsa obriga automaticamente o indivíduo a ser vegetariano. Recorro aqui a alguns trechos do livro “Caminhos para Deus”, de Ram Dass. Neste primeiro trecho, Ram Dass deixa claro que ahimsa não é um conceito tão simples como suas traduções mais comuns fazem parecer:

Existem níveis de sabedoria, e não é totalmente inconcebível para mim que assim como um cirurgião pode realizar uma operação e criar dor para finalmente aliviar o sofrimento, a destruição pode ter o seu propósito.

(…) Ao trabalhar com ahimsa, temos ainda que compreender de alguma forma as forças de Shiva no mundo, o aspecto de Deus que é a destruição e o caos no universo. Nós como humanos temos que nos esforçar para praticar ahimsa, enquanto que ao mesmo tempo temos que desejar honrar um dharma que pode algumas vezes exigir a violência. Tudo o que podemos fazer é prestar atenção o mais cuidadosamente que conseguirmos para saber qual poderá ser o nosso próximo passo.

Toda a nossa tentativa para honrar ahimsa é abastecida com complicações e contradições. Por exemplo, fui, por um longo tempo, vegetariano, o que parece ser uma atitude delicada, do tipo ahimsa. Mas eu tomava leite. (…) Ken [amigo do autor] olhou diretamente para mim: “Sabe, você bebe leite. Se gosta de leite, precisa ter bois.” E de repente senti a realidade da minha situação. Para manter uma vaca produzindo leite, ela precisa ter bezerros de tempos em tempos, e a cada vez que fica prenhe, metade dos bezerros que nascem são machos. O que você pode fazer com eles? Pode alimentá-los até que morram de morte natural, mas este não é o caminho natural. Ali estava eu: um vegetariano, mas ainda cúmplice com o destino daqueles bois.

Por muito tempo usei sandálias [de couro] que vinham do ashram de Gandhi; elas tinham um pequeno que selo que significava que no ashram eles usavam somente vacas que tinham caído mortas na rua. A vaca tinha morrido de uma morte natural, de modo que os yogues podiam usá-las em boa consciência. Mesmo assim, parece um pouco… vocês sabem… E agora temos essas novas informações de como as plantas ficam quando você coloca uma faca perto delas — a nossa dieta está ficando cada vez mais reduzida.

Imagine, por exemplo, um esquimó, um indivíduo que vive numa região inóspita que dificilmente produz vegetais para a alimentação. Praticamente toda sua alimentação depende de carne. Tornar-se vegetariano num lugar desses significa morrer; a opção pelo vegetarianismo nessas condições seria uma violência contra si próprio. Pode-se argumentar que a maior parte da população tem hoje meios de dispor de uma enorme variedade de alimentos e, portanto, pode escolher. De forma análoga, um esquimó dos dias atuais teria condições inclusive de deixar os lugares inóspitos e viver em lugares onde poderia prescindir de alimentos de origem animal. Numa cidade, você pode ir a uma churrascaria ou a uma quitanda — a escolha é sua. Tudo depende de como você encara suas opções alimentares, de como as pratica e de como as leva adiante.

Por exemplo, se você é o filho mais novo de uma família acostumada há várias gerações à tradição do churrasco ou do peixe, talvez o conflito entre a sua opção pelo vegetarianismo e o costume deles seja mais danoso a ahimsa do que a simples conformidade com esse costume. Ou talvez sua opção os leve a abandonar naturalmente o consumo dessas carnes. O fato é que é impossível chegar a qualquer conclusão desde fora. A dimensão social de ahimsa decorre de sua dimensão interior e, paradoxalmente, as escrituras deixam isso claro ao não especificar formas de praticá-lo. Cabe ao indivíduo interpretar e praticar ahimsa. A aceitação simples de que o vegetarianismo é um regra que decorre automaticamente de ahimsa contraria boa parte daquilo que é ensinado no yoga.

A explicação de Ram Dass sobre ahimsa reforça esta idéia e traz à tona o aspecto mais importante deste yama: não se trata de prática superficial, mas de prática interior, um exercício constante de autoconsciência, que deve conduzir a uma transformação interior. E aqui devemos lembrar de Patañjali novamente: toda e qualquer prática (yama, niyama, asana etc.) só pode ser chamada de yoga se de fato conduz o indivíduo à libertação. A obsessão por ahimsa pode tomar uma dimensão tal que o indivíduo torne-se violento e intolerante consigo mesmo e com os outros — exatamente como alguns vegetarianos fazem ao defender e expressar sua opção alimentar, chegando ao ponto de chamar de violentas todas as pessoas que consomem carne. Assim como algumas pessoas dizem que existem diversos yogas porque existem diversos tipos de pessoas, é correto afirmar que uma determinada opção alimentar é adequada para determinados tipos de pessoas — mas não é correto afirmar que aquela opção é adequada para todos ou, pior, que é obrigatória e que as pessoas que não a adotam devem ser repudiadas.

No mesmo livro Ram Dass prossegue falando de ahimsa, para que não haja dúvidas de que ahimsa não é sinônimo de vegetarianismo (grifos meus):

Tudo que posso partilhar, ao lidar com o assunto de ahimsa, é sugerir que tudo que fizerem, façam do modo mais consciencioso que puderem. Quando os nativos americanos matavam um animal para comer, eles o ofereciam aos seus deuses, e agradeciam ao animal por doar sua vida a eles. Eles matavam para sobreviver e para poder realizar o seu trabalho, e isto está em harmonia com a sua compreensão da maneira como a natureza opera. Isso traz consciência para o ato.

Porém, ainda não acho que existam regras simples para uma dieta “espiritual”, pois, à medida que passamos por estágios diferentes de nosso yoga, as práticas remodelam nossos corpos e as nossas necessidades físicas, e geralmente descobrimos que a nossa dieta muda. Quando ainda estamos muito aprisionados no pensamento mundano e no peso mundano, precisamos somente daquilo que a Organização Mundial de Saúde diz que é necessário.

Esta última frase de Ram Dass pode servir de base para uma crítica ao vegetarianismo atual, que busca ser “espiritual” (i.e., ético e filosófico) e que tão facilmente se perde em panfletagem corrosiva, ditada desde cima. Da forma como ele se manifesta hoje, o vegetarianismo tornou-se mais uma ideologia do que uma opção alimentar. É cada vez maior o número de pessoas que optam pelo vegetarianismo não porque refletiram e resolveram estas questões para elas mesmas, mas porque foram fisgadas pelos noticiários que pretendem denunciar os horrores da indústria alimentícia e porque não querem participar disso. É um desejo legítimo, mas, como no caso de Ram Dass com o leite e a sandália de couro, é bem difícil ter certeza se somos ou não somos parte daquela estrutura que abominamos ou se apenas nos revestimos de uma casca de bom mocismo em relação aos animais. Não surpreende, por exemplo, que os “alimentos saudáveis” tenham se consolidado como mais um segmento da indústria alimentícia — da qual a produção maciça de alimentos de origem animal faz parte. E as coisas ficam um tanto mais complicadas se lembrarmos que as plantas também sofrem — por que sofreriam menos do que um peixe ou um boi quando as arrancamos do solo e as comemos?

O fato é que a absoluta coerência na opção pelo vegetarianismo ideológico implicaria abandonar a vida nas cidades e alterar uma série de hábitos — que vão desde a escolha do vestuário até os meios de transporte, passando por itens banais, como ler e-mails, dormir e divertir-se. Mas todas estas coisas são, afinal, meios de dispersão ou, nas palavras de Patañjali, causas de oscilações da mente. Portanto, o vegetarianismo pode ser um meio de afastar-se do propósito do yoga e não um meio de realizá-lo.

É claro que há yogis sérios e realizados que são vegetarianos. Além disso, é natural defender os hábitos que consideramos bons e as idéias em que acreditamos. Essa naturalidade tem a ver com o propósito do yoga. O estado de yoga está associado a “fazer simplesmente”, que é algo bem diferente da forma como o homem moderno age. O homem moderno age por algum motivo e com algum propósito e assim, pelo fato de submeter suas ações ao peso do passado (motivo) e do futuro (propósito), jamais se liberta deles, jamais vive o presente com suas ações e, portanto, jamais atinge kaivalya. O vegetarianismo, como qualquer outra prática, pode ser considerado uma prática yogi na medida em que conduz o indivíduo à libertação. O paradoxo — e é de onde surge toda a tensão atual — está no fato de que esse valor do vegetarianismo perde-se no momento mesmo em que um indivíduo sugere que tal prática é obrigatória para todos os praticantes de yoga. Afirmar que o vegetarianismo é bom convida à discussão, à experimentação, ao auto-estudo — o indivíduo é levado a experimentar o vegetarianismo, a estudar o próprio corpo e a própria saúde, a observar-se constantemente enquanto o pratica. Afirmar que o vegetarianismo é obrigatório para um grupo específico de pessoas elimina a discussão antes mesmo que ela surja e tudo o que resta ao indivíduo é seguir a regra e esquecer-se de si. Em outras palavras, o vegetarianismo torna-se um problema quando ele se torna mais uma ação comum, com causas e conseqüências que serão regurgitadas, celebradas e defendidas diante de outras pessoas. A partir daí ele se torna não um motivo para união, autoconhecimento ou libertação, mas para divergência, obscurecimento da consciência e dependência. O vegetarianismo, tal como é praticado atualmente por muitas pessoas, mais obscurece do que ilumina e, portanto, tem pouco a ver com os propósitos do yoga.

Mas e os benefícios do vegetarianismo?

Não descarto aqui os benefícios que o vegetarianismo pode trazer ao yoga, é claro. Em verdade, concordo com a maioria deles porque já os experimentei, mas o carnivorismo também tem vantagens, assim como a macrobiótica, o jejum, o respiracionismo e tantas outras formas de nutrição, umas mais exóticas, outras menos. Sempre haverá dúzias de razões práticas, nutricionais, éticas e filosóficas para seguir qualquer dieta. Por exemplo, a prática física do yoga exige alimentação leve, que com freqüência exclui carnes — porque têm digestão mais lenta, porque alguns tipos pesam mais no estômago do que alimentos de origem vegetal etc. Emocional, filósofica e espiritualmente é possível que também haja benefícios, mas prefiro que isso seja avaliado individualmente, que escolhas deste nível sejam feitas com consciência e que de fato elas possam ampliar a percepção do Ser. Infelizmente muitas pessoas ainda pautam suas escolhas nutricionais por aquilo que o Globo Repórter diz.

Neste sentido, faço minhas as palavras de Ram Dass, citadas anteriormente: “tudo que fizerem, façam do modo mais consciencioso que puderem”. Yoga não é vegetarianismo. Yoga não é comer isto e deixar de comer aquilo. Yoga é consciência. Mais do que isso, yoga é consciência da própria consciência e também consciência da consciência que se conscientiza de si. Superadas essas diversas camadas da consciência revela-se finalmente o estado de yoga e a alimentação tem pouco a ver com isso.

Como dizia o Nazareno: Nada há, fora do homem, que, entrando nele, o possa contaminar; mas o que sai dele isso é que contamina o homem. (Marcos 7: 15)

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