You are what you give
My latest hobby is losing possessions. A mind-bogglingly tricky habit to build but very liberating when the momentum gets going. I highly recommend that you give it a try. You get a delicious taste of real freedom and a new sense of who you are.
When I started OmIm, I bought 4 tables from Picket & Rail (which as most of you remember was just next door at Stamford House). One tall table which acts as a counter of sorts for new yogis to sign in and 3 small coffee tables which Picket & Rail marketed as "Occassional Tables". Occassional indeed! I re-examined my purchases when recently my friend prepared to set up her own office. It was truly funny. Why would a yoga studio need 4 tables when we end up on the floor with our yoga mats anyway? Hahahaaaa! I sold off one of the occasional tables to my grateful friend for her zen corner in her new office.
It appeared to be an irresistable deal: 3 tables for $139. But does such a bargain mean that we need to acquire more than what we needed? I do not believe nor want to believe that rampant mindless greed is the primary driving force of humanity. There is something more subtle happening here. It is a human tragedy that we suffer from a sense of lack, a kind of perceived perpetual poverty. We need to grab, to grasp all that we can from the external world because we sense the thirst of our desires. We feel we need to satisfy this kind of thirst. Yet, however many times we do this, the feeling does not go away. You find the desire to have and hold return all the more rapidly and frequently the more you try to satisfy it. Realise that this is a trick of the mind.
What's happening here? Why do we feel we need to buy, grab more than we need? What are these desires? They are just thoughts. Where do they come from? They originate ultimately from a feeling of incompleteness and deprivation. We hold on to things and acquire more things because there is a fear that we do not or will not have enough. Because things change, we are helpless in the face of change. We will lose things, we will not be able to get what we want when we want it. We crave certainty, we want satisfaction - now and tomorrow. Can anyone fault us for these very human impulses? Still, can we be free from this senseless sense of incompleteness and deprivation? It can be done.
Stop and examine all that you already have. All that is essential to us is already in our possession. You have exactly what you need to live today, to get through today and to get through pretty well. How to put this into practice? Try my new hobby: for everything that you have, think of how you can live without it. Think of someone who would be really happy to have it instead of you. Think of how happy it would make them and how happy it will make you to have given it away.
A second ethic in the Yamas of Ashtanga Yoga is Aparigraha. Most translate it as "Non-grasping". Holding on to things is the opposite of being free. When we understand this equation, we see that desires are very fluid, negotiable, controllable thoughts. We can master these thoughts by growing thoughts of gratitude and satisfaction with all that we already have. When we do not feel a sense of lack, why would we ever suffer the hunger of desire?
When I started OmIm, I bought 4 tables from Picket & Rail (which as most of you remember was just next door at Stamford House). One tall table which acts as a counter of sorts for new yogis to sign in and 3 small coffee tables which Picket & Rail marketed as "Occassional Tables". Occassional indeed! I re-examined my purchases when recently my friend prepared to set up her own office. It was truly funny. Why would a yoga studio need 4 tables when we end up on the floor with our yoga mats anyway? Hahahaaaa! I sold off one of the occasional tables to my grateful friend for her zen corner in her new office.
It appeared to be an irresistable deal: 3 tables for $139. But does such a bargain mean that we need to acquire more than what we needed? I do not believe nor want to believe that rampant mindless greed is the primary driving force of humanity. There is something more subtle happening here. It is a human tragedy that we suffer from a sense of lack, a kind of perceived perpetual poverty. We need to grab, to grasp all that we can from the external world because we sense the thirst of our desires. We feel we need to satisfy this kind of thirst. Yet, however many times we do this, the feeling does not go away. You find the desire to have and hold return all the more rapidly and frequently the more you try to satisfy it. Realise that this is a trick of the mind.
What's happening here? Why do we feel we need to buy, grab more than we need? What are these desires? They are just thoughts. Where do they come from? They originate ultimately from a feeling of incompleteness and deprivation. We hold on to things and acquire more things because there is a fear that we do not or will not have enough. Because things change, we are helpless in the face of change. We will lose things, we will not be able to get what we want when we want it. We crave certainty, we want satisfaction - now and tomorrow. Can anyone fault us for these very human impulses? Still, can we be free from this senseless sense of incompleteness and deprivation? It can be done.
Stop and examine all that you already have. All that is essential to us is already in our possession. You have exactly what you need to live today, to get through today and to get through pretty well. How to put this into practice? Try my new hobby: for everything that you have, think of how you can live without it. Think of someone who would be really happy to have it instead of you. Think of how happy it would make them and how happy it will make you to have given it away.
A second ethic in the Yamas of Ashtanga Yoga is Aparigraha. Most translate it as "Non-grasping". Holding on to things is the opposite of being free. When we understand this equation, we see that desires are very fluid, negotiable, controllable thoughts. We can master these thoughts by growing thoughts of gratitude and satisfaction with all that we already have. When we do not feel a sense of lack, why would we ever suffer the hunger of desire?
