Listen to Vancouver based Yoga Teacher, Tim Stringer (www.timstringer.com). Tim Stringer was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and more than a year later, he speaks about the role of yoga in his healing journey, and the impact of his diagnosis on his sense of purpose and his relationship with others.
Written by Drishti Point Founder- Farah Moolji Nazarali
“India is mad with all the madness of reality.”
On a typical day in the month of May when the weather weeps in the morning and the sun plays hide and seek in the clouds, I sit down with a pot of chai and begin to feed my hunger for India. I have recently returned from a spiritual pilgrimage in India, and I can’t seem to satisfy my thirst for all things Indian. As I feast through various chapters of a book of traveler’s tales, my own memories come alive, and my longing to return grows stronger.
India is a marvelous place, teeming with people and with life, full of soul and spirit; a veritable universe unto itself. What I remember most of India is not her masala smells, nor the colorful saris, but the pulse of her heartbeat- the rhythm of life and the reality of our humanely existence in plain view for all to see.
Before going to India, people warned me about the smells, the garbage, the heat, the poverty, the traffic, the chaos, and the daily difficulties that most travelers face. Yet my own eyes revealed a different reality; and made me realize that what most people see in India reflects their own identities. For India is like a stark mirror that does not allow our conditioned ideas to survive. India has the effect of breaking down all our expectations, stripping us of all our ego identities, and leaving behind the only thing that cannot be taken away- our humanity- dignified, glorious, and precious.
My own fears were unmasked the very first hour on which I touched my feet. on Indian soil. After meeting my driver at the gate, we exited the airport, and in the outside, covered corridor, I saw a young boy no more than 8 years old, lying face down. We walked right passed him without a glance. I wondered if he was alive or dead. It didn’t matter. Nobody stopped to ask if he was alive. Nobody cared. I cared but I dared not break the conventions of a different culture and country. I was overcome with a sense of loneliness. The stark reality of India (life and death, richness and poverty side by side, enlightenment and greed) touched my own sense of mortality and my own fears of dying alone.
This is India- the India that unmasks all that we cling to until we surrender, and in that moment of surrender, the sweetness of India is revealed in the smell of sandlewood, in the kindness of a stranger, or in the comfort of a chai on a hot, sweaty day.
Slowly in the days that followed, I began to see the effect of India on Western eyes; that some continue to hold on to their cherished ways and end up hating India, and those that open themselves up end up leaving a piece of their heart behind.
Garbage. It is probably the first thing you will notice, and perhaps the first thing you will smell. In India, garbage is a fact of life, and one that is not hidden away behind doors under the kitchen sink or buried deep in landfills far away from sight, but here by your feet, and all around you. There aren’t any public trash cans or municipal garbage collection programs; mostly families burn their garbage in small piles (sometimes by the side of the road), and the plastics that don’t burn remain. The countryside is awash with plastic litter (plastic bags, plastic plates, plastic cups). But, those that see India as dirty are in denial because the truth is, India lives in its garbage, and if we, here in North America were to live in our garbage, this country would be far more ugly than India.
Poverty. Poverty exists alongside wealth and it is an undeniable reality of life. In our gated neighborhoods and closed communities where we socialize with friends from the same social background, and rarely speak about class or interact with homeless or street people, it is easy to forget that poverty exists everywhere, even in our own cities. Yet, in India, wherever we go, we see the destitute reality of impoverished families. It is a fact that makes most Westerns feel uncomfortable. I believe our discomfort lies in our inability to accept that no matter how much money or lack thereof we have in our own country, in India we are considered rich. And, it’s true. Compared to the bottom billion, our ability to fly halfway across the world puts us in the top percentile of the world’s wealthiest. This seems to bring out the miserly in those that cling to their rupees and insist on never offering anything to the street children or the deformed. I was appalled at Westerns feeling cheated by having to pay insignificant amounts because locals charged tourists more. For those that allow it, India will strip you of greed and attachment, as you realize that the people who have nothing have something that most Westerns lack.
Death. Death is a fact of life, though one that we rarely think about. In India, death seems just around the corner whether it is in the Indian-style U-turn across four lanes of traffic, or in the dire dysentery that seems to visit most foreigners. Death is always present, and I’m certain that at some point during a visit to India, most people wonder if they will ever see home again. In the proximity to death, India leave her enduring mark. Few come from India unchanged. My own fears of death revived in me a desire to live and a desire to understand the ephemeral nature of our physical existence.
Chaos. For those accustomed to living in linear time, structured roads and regulations, and schedules that rarely get interrupted, India is chaotic in the best of times. Traffic includes pedestrians, road workers, bicycles, bicycle carriers (often carrying enormous loads), bicycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws, motorcycles carried entire families, scooters, cars, taxis, local buses often filled to double capacity, air-conditioned tourist buses (which also double as airline buses as they shuttle pilots and airplane staff from airports to hotels and vice versa, tractors, animal carts, trucks, and the king of the road- the sacred cow. All seem to move in a harmonious rhythm. Women in saris gracefully cross four lanes of traffic without an ounce of trepidation, and sit on the side of motorcycles, their neck scarves flowing in the wind behind them.
For all its garbage, poverty, death, and chaos, India has an undeniable charm. She will lure you with scents and tastes of the exotic, strip you of all your preconceived identities and ideas, and leave an indelible mark on your heart.
“When the distances between self and living again grow great, and my ego starts to flaunt itself, I return to India [and] she works her magic every time.”
-Cheryl Bentley, “Enchanted”
Listen to the divine words of His Holiness Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda. In this interview, Swami Maheshwaranda speaks about the spiritual festival Khumba Mela- how it started and its importance for spiritual seekers, and those who practice yoga.
This interview also includes a short segment of general questions from our listeners.
Listen to Her Holiness Sri Swami Mayatitananda, founder of Wise Earth School of Ayurveda, the Mother Om Mission, and the Living Ahimsa Foundation. Praised as “one of the twelve outstanding Saints of India,” Her Holiness Mother Maya speaks of the Living Ahimsa World Tour, and how ahimsa can help heal our lives and bring us harmony, inner peace, and eventually world peace.
For more information about the Living Ahimsa World Tour, visit www.mypeacevow.org
Part I
Living yoga: The practice of Ahimsa
It breaks my heart when I see a child being hit in the back seat of a parked car, while still strapped in by a seat belt.
It breaks my heart to feel the pain and suffering of the individual who is doing the harm to the child and to feel the pain and the suffering of the child who is receiving the harm.
It also breaks my heart to hear the inner voice inside myself saying ‘Elizabeth, just keep walking, there is nothing you can do.’
This was the belief I grew up with. I believed that I could not stop the cycle of violence I was seeing around me, that I was powerless to affect change, and that this is just the way things are, the way we are.
In my early 30’s I had a pivotal experience in my life that brought me to a place of complete powerlessness and ultimately a place of deep surrender. Through my longstanding practice of yoga, I came to a greater understanding of the roots of this belief and was initiated into the practice of ahimsa. At the time, this practice saved my life.
Ahimsa is the energetic keystone of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. It is one of the yamas, the outer directives that bring guidance to how we conduct ourselves in relationship with others, and in the world. It can be translated as non-harming, non-violence or, in it’s positive state, kindness and compassion.
The yamas are partnered by the niyamas - the inner directives or observances, how we conduct our relationship with ourselves. As a duo, these directives guide and support the practice of yoga on a deeper level.
I feel ahimsa belongs in both the yamas and the niyamas, in fact the inner practice of ahimsa feels like the deeper one, to which we are all being called to. The inner awareness of non-harming or more importantly, the inner awareness of harm that we may knowingly, or unknowingly, be bringing to ourselves.
This is where the practice of yoga becomes so paramount. As we travel the path of yoga with awareness, subtle and not so subtle levels of self-judgment, self- harming and self- abuse can arise. Whether we know it or not, we have been participants in this cycle of violence that pervades our families, our society, our culture, and the world at large. It is through awareness of this cycle of violence that we can move towards the first step in breaking the cycle: the recognition of what is.
Having worked as a yoga teacher and therapist for many years now, I have encountered people in these deeper places. I have seen that we are all intimately connected with this cycle of violence and I have witnessed the effect this realization has upon the student or client receiving the information. Many who have the realization that they are intimately connected to this cycle of violence move into denial, or perhaps more self–judgment or self-harming. The tendency when we touch into places of discomfort is to want to not be there. To resist what is.
It is now we come to the next step, acceptance. Radical acceptance of what is. Here we can apply techniques from the wisdom traditions, loving kindness, compassion and love. We learn to bring these qualities to ourselves in these places of deep discomfort. Ultimately, we need to bring in a full acceptance of whatever is arising in the moment.
It is through this acceptance that transformation happens. When we let go into acceptance and do not resist what is arising in the moment, transformation happens.
Transformation happens because… transformation is always happening. Change is our only constant. When we can let go of our resistance to the moment, when we can fully accept what is, we shift into present moment awareness, we enter the natural flow of consciousness, as it is. It is here that we can let go of un-needed information, longstanding beliefs or karmic habits. We can release patterns of judgment and abuse towards ourselves and others. Whatever arises in this field can be transformed. Recognition, acceptance, transformation, I like to use the acronym RAT!
Part II
Living Yoga: The practice of yoga
What about my belief that I am powerless to break the cycle of violence? ‘Elizabeth, just keep walking, there is nothing you can do.’ How can the practice of yoga and this deep inner work affect change in the world around me? It comes back to recognition. I recognize the cycle of violence inside myself and, by bringing in acceptance, I choose to not continue the cycle. It is here that the inner transformation happens, the shift from ‘I am a bad, unworthy, or unlovable person’, to, ‘I accept that I am a person in pain and I am going to love myself in that place of pain, no matter what’.
Through awareness we come to choice.
Now, as I approach the child being hit in the back of the car, I have a choice, to feel powerless in the face of this violence or to feel empowered by my commitment to practicing ahimsa. I choose to feel empowered with the knowing that my inner practice, however subtle it may appear, can have a profound affect on those around me, perhaps even eventually spreading to the person causing harm to the child in the back of the car.
Through the practice of yoga and ahimsa I am committed to breaking the cycle of violence in myself and in my life, to not pass any violence to my daughter, my husband, my family, the neighbours, friends or the global community. To not pass any violence any further. In this way I am empowered from the inside and can become an embodiment of the practice of ahimsa.
How far we go with this practice is also our choice. There are some practitioners of yoga who cover their mouth and nose with a cloth in order not to harm or kill the microorganisms that come in on the breath. We need to draw our own lines. This is the beauty of the ongoing practice of ahimsa, it gives us a way to transform powerlessness into direct action on whatever level we are drawn to practice at.
In Barbara Stoler Miller’s translation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, she states that, “ …the practitioner of yoga is not a passive person, but a spiritual hero who is active and potent.” Yoga is a radical form of spiritual activism, when we practice yoga we are changing the world from the inside out.
Lastly, ahimsa can be seen as a form of kindness and compassion. This is where ahimsa meets other great teachings and teachers who are speaking to the practices of kindness and compassion. When we practice ahimsa with awareness, we no longer have to aspire to become kinder and more compassionate beings; we are living kindness and embodied compassion. We have taken yoga off the mat and into our lives and the lives of others, exactly where it is needed most!
This writing was inspired by a quote I read by spiritual activist Andrew Harvey.
“ I say don’t follow your bliss; look where that has gotten us. I say follow your heartbreak.”
Namaste,
Elizabeth Claire Burr
May 2010
Comox BC
Elizabeth is a yoga teacher and cranial sacral therapist offering teachings and private sessions in the Comox Valley and on Cortes Island. She will be offering two yoga retreats this year at Hollyock Retreat Center. Vijnana Yoga, July 2nd -7th and Restorative Yoga October 24th-29th. For more information regarding Elizabeth’s teachings please view the presenter profile at Hollyhock.ca or email her at zilyoga@hotmail.com
Listen to co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and author of Awakening Joy- James Baraz. James speaks about the practices and techniques that help to develop our natural capacity for well-being and happiness.
[Visit www.awakeningjoy.info for more information about the book and the Course Awakening Joy.]
