The Joy of Survival
Despite the plausibility of good intentions, the yoga industry’s emphasis on transformation around the new year feels a bit too opportunistic. Personal transformation may come as a natural progression in the context of yoga practice but the process is greatly hindered when the concept is used as a dangling carrot to sell memberships.
Owners of yoga centers know that some welcome maximization of profits can be had by working the new years resolution angle, offering a special deal that counts on the fact that most people are not going to make good on it. But exploiting human insecurities for financial gain goes against my broader purpose. Such are the ways of a reluctant businessman.
I’m not nay-saying new years resolutions or transformation. If some change is warranted and the mental will to help bring it about can be summoned then, by all means, be bold and go forth with a true intention. However, in my experience, transformation rarely comes in a flash from some flamboyant push. Real and lasting change tends to occur in a gradual and subtle way as a result of persistent effort, often recognized only in retrospect.
Instead of touting transformation, I propose we celebrate survival.
Like the modern equivalent of a Shakespearean fool, Chris Rock astutely noted that little credit or praise is bestowed for simply “banging out the rent.” The notion of success has become so linked to an emaciated body and a bloated bank account that it becomes difficult to recognize or appreciate the many small and profoundly important feats we accomplish daily.
In last months’ consideration of The Daunting Work Before Us, I attempted to stare down life’s hardship with stark honesty and a whimsical tongue. While this may have made for some needed catharsis and empathetic reading, it did not provide much solace or inspiration.
Fortunately, I since had the pleasure of hosting a friend and fellow teacher from San Francisco named Chase Bossart. He is the co-founder of a not-for-profit organization called the Healing Yoga Foundation and a genuine scholar of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. He proffered that we don’t actually have as much control over what happens to us as we might like to think. In many respects, we are just along for the ride.
The suggestion is not that life is predetermined or that we have no say in the matter, only that our ability to influence events is limited. Chase compared the way yoga practice affects change to a gardener growing a tomato plant (some may remember the theme from Mind-Body Connection Optional?.)
The gardener has no way of knowing if the plant will thrive or how many tomatoes it will produce but if the seed is planted in fertile soil and tended to carefully, providing the right mix of water, light and patience then, chances are, the plant will produce more tomatoes than otherwise.
Yoga does not transform anyone. Life does that all by itself.
All we can really do is tend to our gardens and hope for the best. Some years, unforeseen drought or swarms of parasitic bugs may wreak havoc and leave us with only roots. Other years, we have abundance. Regardless, we can always plant anew. Even a skeptic like myself can’t deny that the cycle of life carries on nonetheless.
This morning, for the first time, my two year old daughter said: “I love you Daddy.” Her sweet little words of unadulterated affection left me in awe at the actuality of how things are taking place. The work ahead may be daunting but there is no doubt that the rewards, when they come, are worth our efforts. Joy behooves us to survive.
Maybe you just needed to watch Being There again and here the wisdom of Chance the Gardner. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYeVQzTVyLk
” He proffered that we don’t actually have as much control over what happens to us as we might like to think. In many respects, we are just along for the ride.”
JB, that’s partly true !
Our present life is shaped partly, by the Cumulative-Karma of our Aatma, accumulated over all of the previous re-incarnations of our Aatma, and partly, by the Actions and In-actions that we CHOOSE to make in the present life.
So, it’s not ALL pre-determined. Neither is it ALL free-will.
But there is certainly a good deal of free-will granted to us in our present lives.
For instance, the Voice of Conscience that we hear, albeit faintly, as we contemplate committing an act of poor-Karma, is actually our Aatma, reminding us that we HAVE indeed been granted enough Free-Will in this life, that we may still CHOOSE to walk away from committing that particular inglorious-act that we were contemplating, and thereby yet prevent the Cumulative-Karma of our Aatma from becoming further besmirched. Thus, we CAN indeed determine the outcome in such situations, and it was not pre-ordained that we would commit a trespass in such a situation.
If it were ALL pre-determined in our lives, then, our Aatma would never get a chance to progress to a higher state of being, in each of its successive re-incarnations, and would therefore never attain Moksha (liberation from the cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth).
Nonetheless, the Karma accumulated by our Aatma, as a consequence of the CHOICES we made in all of our previous lives, as well as in in the present life, will certainly be a factor in determining the events that befall us.
The Hindu theory of Reincarnation (Punar-Janam) is the only theory that can satisfactorily explain the following two phenomena, that have long flummoxed Western Religions :
1) Child Prodigy :
How does it come to be that a 5-year-old-child is already a violin virtuoso, or that a 6-year-old child is able to solve complex problems in Mathematics, or that a 4-year-old-child is able to recite the Bhagavad Gita from memory ?
The Hindu theory of Reincarnation believes that a person’s Aatma is immortal, and is reborn in a new life, following the death of a person. The soul remains locked in this cycle of birth-life-death-rebirth, hopefully progressing to a higher state of being in each successive rebirth, until that soul eventually becomes enlightened and self-realized, and attains liberation (Moksha) from the cycle of birth-life-death-rebirth.
The skills, traits and qualities, both good and evil, developed by a person in one life, are indeed carried over by his soul into the next life ( Yes, you CAN take it with you ! ). Thus, a person’s character, skills and traits in a particular life are all a result of the Net Cumulative Karma of that soul, accumulated over all of its numerous previous births.
In some cases, the complex arithmetic involved in adding up this Net Cumulative Karma accumulated by a soul up until the present life of that soul, manifests itself as an extraordinary skill in a particular field, in the present life of that soul —-> Child Prodigy.
2) Why do Bad Things happen to Good People ?
A person may indeed have led an exemplary life in his present birth, but may still be stricken by misfortune. This seems grossly unfair.
And yet, the events that befall a person are partly a function of the Net Cumulative Karma accumulated by that person’s Aatma, over that Aatma’s s numerous lives up until that point, and are not just a function of that person’s Karma, from his present life.
Thus, some misfortune may befall even the best of persons, if there happens to exist some negative aspect in his Net Cumulative Karma, leading to the phenomenon of “Bad Things Happening to Good People”.