Vet Judy

In yogic tradition there is what is called the Eight Limbed Path. In Buddhism there is the Noble Eightfold Path. Both these paths are writings on how to live your life to transform suffering into peace, joy, and enlightenment.

One of the limbs of the yogic path is the YAMA’s. It refers to 5 moral restraints: non violence (Ahisma), truthfulness (Satya), non stealing (Asteya), moderation (Brahmacarya) and non hoarding (Aparigraha).

Right View is the Budhist teaching that refers to the ability to distinguish between the wholesome and unwholesome seeds within us. The gist of this is to identify all the wholesome seeds within us and water those seeds. We cannot rid ourselves of unwholesome seeds within us, we can just cease to water them.

The overlap between these two teachings is interesting and complimentary. In Buddha’s teaching, if you act in unwholesome ways you will not be happy. In other words if you water the seeds of anger, violence, hostility, lying, stealing, hoarding, cravings, or gluttony, you will not be happy. In the yogic tradition, the path to contentment is partially achieved through the practice of the 5 moral constraints which is essentially the same as nuturing the wholesome seed within us and not watering the unwholesome seeds.

The part I find most fascinating is that perception is believed to be the heart of discontentment. This is the method we all use to justify “WHY” we do not observe the five moral restraints.

Buddha advised that we not be fooled by what we perceive. “Where there is perception, there is deception.” Most of our own suffering is from the deception. The first question Buddha suggests we ask is “AM I SURE?” Byron Katie’s “THE WORK” also focuses on the letting go of our firmly held perceptions but asking four questions. The first question here is “Is it true?”. The second is “Can you absolutely know that it is true?”

At the root of our perceptions is our cravings, our afflictions, our worry, our wrong views etc. It is easy to see why our perceptions lead to a great deal of suffering in our lives and leads us away from the practice of right view or the practice of the Yama’s.

In previous blogs I have discusses the Yama’s of Ahisma and Satya. This third Yama involves non stealing. The vast majority of us, if we look deeply, have a lot of work to do here. Most of us don’t outrightly thieve, so we figure we are in the clear. A closer look my provide some illumination.

Have you any items in your possession which were borrowed and never returned, or taken from companies you work for because they had more money than you and wouldn’t notice anyway. Unreturned library books that got lost in the woodwork, cutting corners on tax returns, fudging the numbers a little, claiming a personal meal or two are all examples.

What about spending unproductive time at work, a few minutes here and there, or for that matter what about days where you billed or were paid, but weren’t productive really? These are all forms of stealing. Have you ever grabbed the last peice of cake out of the fridge before someone else took it, even though you weren’t hungry? I have to admit to some on these things myself.

This brings us to the deeper level of the understanding of Asteya (non stealing) which is the fear of not having enough. The idea that if we leave things up to the universe, we will not get what we need. This scarcity conciousness is based on perceptions that override our ability to see things that way they really are in this moment. 

When the abstention from stealing is firmly established, precious jewels will come.

The Sutras of Yoga

Just the practice of this Yama alone can bring you face to face with your own scarcity consciousness and how that perception keeps you from living in right view of the Eightfold Noble Path or practicing the Yogic Eight Limb Path.

 The concepts discussed here are discussed in a few of my favorite books listed here:

Meditations From the Mat: Rolf Gates amd Katrina Kenison

The Heart of Buddha’s Teaching: Thich Nhat Hanh

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life:  Byron Katie 

Words can travel thousands of miles. May my words create mutual understanding and love. May they be as beautiful as gems, as lovely as flowers.

Thich Nhat Hanh

In the Eight Limb Path of Yoga the Yamas are 5 moral restraints. The first of the Yama’s was Ahisma and we have discussed that before on the blog. The second Yama is Satya, which is TRUTH.

In Buddha’s teachings the Four Noble Truths are called the Path(Marga). The path leads us to refrain from things that cause us to suffer. This path is called the Noble Eightfold Path. Translated it is right view, right thinking, right speech, right livelihood, right diligence, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

There is overlap here. The practice of Satya means being truthful in all things. In the West when we speak of truthfulness, we often think of how that translates into truth in speaking only. Living truthfully encompasses so much more, but it is a good place to start.

An explanation of right speech can essentially be broken down into:

   1> Speak truthfully: Which means calling a spade a spade. The most important aspect of this is to remember that if your speech creates internal discord for another, if may be classified as truth, but is still not considered to be right speech. The truth must always be presented to others in a way they can tolerate and accept to be considered as following the premise of Buddha’s teachings.

    2> Don’t speak with a forked tongue. This translates into don’t tell different stories to different people. The presentations can be different provided adherence to the truth is the sole guide.

    3> Don’t speak cruelty. Don’t shout, slander, talk hatred, or otherwise say things that cause other people to suffer. Words are powerful and should not be used carelessly.

    4> Don’t exaggerate or embellish. This means don’t make it sound worse or better than it actually was.

So how is it that we can practice Satya (truth) in yogic philosophy and right speech from Buddha’s teachings at the same time.

For a day: try only opening your mouth when you can use calm and loving words. This is difficult because our habit energies can pull us along as if we are powerless. We seem to be running always. Always striving and never arriving. Stillness is not found in the running. It is in stillness that we find our truth and our ability to be kind, compassionate and loving. It is not in following our habit energies.

For a day: try out compassionate listening. This is listening without the premise of “solving the person’s problem, without the need to “understand them”, without the need to “offer solutions”. It is listening with the sole intent of relieving another’s suffering. In can be very difficult to stay in compassionate listening and should likely be considered an art form. This is especially difficult if the person is grossly misrepresenting the facts as you know them, if they are demonstrating condemnation towards you or others you care about, or are spewing out facts based on wrong information. In these last few instances is when you really need to access the strength that comes from stillness and meditation, to leave the ego out of it, and to cease your need to be right, to be heard, or to be understood yourself.

It is in understanding that we end up being understood.

If you are interested in understanding further Buddha’s teachings, a really great reference from which these concepts were taken, is The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching

I was contemplating how to end of the week in the practice of Ahisma, the first Yama in one of four limbs of yoga. Then this story came across my desk yet another time. I have seen this story in several different formats over the last year and each time it brings a smile to my face and opens my heart:)

Today is the day I move this story forward and share it with you. It is a perfect example of the practice of Ahisma, of non-harming and non-violence.

This is ‘Faith’                                                          
                                                                          
This dog was born on Christmas Eve in the year 2002. He was born with 3   
legs - 2 healthy hind legs and 1 abnormal front leg which needed          
to be amputated.   He of course could not walk when he was born. Even his 
mother did not want him.

His first owner also did not think that he could survive. Therefore, he   
was thinking of ‘putting him to sleep’. By this time, his present owner, Jude Stringfellow, met him and wanted to take care of him.                                                         
She was determined to teach and train this dog to walk by himself.        

Therefore she named him ‘Faith’.      

 In the beginning, she put Faith on a surfing board to let him feel the movements.

Later she used peanut butter on a spoon as a lure and reward for him to stand up and jump around.                                      

Even the other dog at home also helped to encourage him to walk.  Amazingly, only after 6 months, like a miracle, Faith learned to balance on his 2 hind legs and jumped to move forward.                            
                                                                          
After further training in the snow, he now can walk like a human being.   

Faith loves to walk around now. No matter where he goes, he just attracts all the people around him. He is now becoming famous on the international scene. He has appeared on various newspapers and TV shows.  There is even one book entitled ‘With a little faith’ being published about him.      

His present owner Jude Stringfellew has given up her teaching post and plans to take him around the world to preach that even without a perfect body, one can have a perfect soul’.                     

It is a privilege and an honor to live in a place where technology gives us access to the special stories in the world. It is also a privilege to live in a part of the world where we are able to have the time, the resources, and space in our lives to do something so compassionate. Compassion towards this dog has transformed many lives, including no doubt, that of the current owner.

I have often said: It is difficult to imagine the positive aspects of right action over the long haul. Each time we practice Ahisma (non-harming, non-judgement) we acrue energy. It is said that the energy of every thought, action and deed is stored in the universal field. Through right action and right thought, one small piece at a time, your life can become almost unrecognizable. You may look back and and say I couldn’t have imagined the impact of this decision at the time.

For every person whose life has been touched by this story we give thanks to Faith and the one who had Faith and practiced Ahisma.  

This week is for the practice of Ahisma. The essence of Ahisma is non-judgement and non-harming. Today I considered the practice of Ahisma as it pertains to your yoga study itself.

If you practice yoga, maybe you have noticed that not only are you struggling with some postures but you also struggle with the judgement you have about your ability to achieve the postures.

Yoga means “becoming one”. As long as you stand in judgement of your ability to achieve a posture or a practice within yoga, you will miss the experience of the integration that is yoga. We all have to experience boredom, discomfort, irritation, impatience, hesitation, and even distraction during the postures at some time. In a culture that promotes “full speed ahead, excellence at all costs, no pain no gain” we shall find it hard to just be observant of these feelings. We have not learned to watch them come and watch them go. Rather we sit in judgement, get discouraged and sometimes even quit.

In the western culture, the predominant focus is on the Asanas (postures) and  this makes us susceptable to the ego’s process of continuous judgement. It makes us susceptable to quitting the practice due to the feeling listed above. We cannot sustain ourselves through the judgements of ourselves, our teacher, someone elses behavior in the class, the time of day and just about anything to keep us from the true learning in yoga: which is allow and let go.

We can learn that the development of some of the other aspects of yoga such as brahmacarya (meditation), santosa (contentment), and svadhyaya (self study) can make the practice more enjoyable. We can then take rest while in an active posture instead of reaching total exhaustion by fighting ourselves.

If you practice Ahisma: non judgment in yoga practice itself I and sure you will find the whole process a lot more enjoyable.

Whenever we are entrenched into negative behavior, the yoga sutras suggest we increase the amount of time and energy we spend on positive behavior.

This week is a week to practice Ahisma. The essence of Ahisma is the practice of non-judgement and non-harming. We have carried this into the subjects of judgement of oneself, judgement of others as individuals, and judgements of others as groups and on  day 4, the practice of non-harming in regards to the enviroment.

Today the practice of Ahisma is with extension into compassion and forgiveness.

It is one thing to have a mind that is currently free from a negative thought or words. It is another thing to extend compassion not as a response following a negative thought you want to replace, but compassion just for the sake of it.

For today: “open up your heart to all living things” just for the sake of having a compassionate heart. I heard a story the other day, that I think represents the practice of Ahisma in this context.

A woman was in a car accident and was about to die, having an out of body experience. As she was experiencing this phenomenon, she could hear and see the thoughts of different people in the cars who were being retained by the traffic jam caused by the accident.

Coming out of various cars were the following thoughts: I’ll be late for work! I hate when this happens! I should have stopped for a bite to eat before I got on the road today, now I won’t have time. I hate when they don’t have enough help at the scene, because traffic is blocked a lot longer etc etc.

Strangely enough though, out of a single vehicle was the following thoughts: I pray for the safety of the people in this accident. May they be healed, may their pain be resolved. I pray for their families. May they not suffer.

The woman then explained that in that very moment, she was taken back into her body and the licence plate number of the car where the prayer originated was permanently melded into her mind. Pretty strange stuff I know, but it gets better! She was then ushered into the ambulance only to spend months in hospital, physiotherapy, in and out of various surgeries etc.

It was not until over 1 year later, that the woman in the car accident tracked down the woman who sent prayer to her during the accident. She just wanted to say thanks. She felt that the woman’s prayer was the reason she didn’t die that day.

So, in that moment, not only did the woman in the car refrain from negative thoughts-she extended Ahisma even further and extended love and compassion towards someone she didn’t even know. Who would have ever thought, her actions would impact the life of another just by the extension of thought.

It is said that all actions and thoughts are recorded in the energetic universe forever. So what will be the impact on the world of the thoughts you had today? Let it be love and compassion. It may impact someone you don’t even know, in ways you cannot even understand. So for today, practice Ahisma in the context of love and compassion extended to someone else for no reason. Just walk by someone in the hall and in your mind send them compassion and a prayer that says: may their life by happy and joyous, may they not suffer and have everything they need.

You can even try it right now. How about sending this man a prayer. We don’t know him, his situation, or even if he is alive. Let us extend compassion and love in a prayer for him, his family, his pets or whatever. Just practice Ahisma, the exact content doesn’t matter, it is the compassion that counts.