An interesting thought occurred to me recently during Yoga. What if the way that gurus achieve that unshakable calm, that inner peace, is not through some mystical energy cultivated during meditation or other Yogic practices, but instead...is simply through not engaging with the drama of daily life? Not a particularly original or groundbreaking thought on the face of it, but bear with me.
Many think it happens in this order, though. Mystical powers bring peace. I posit the exact opposite. It is their very detachment from daily life, their refusal to engage with ordinary squabbles that brings the inner peace that seems so very fulfilling and desirable. How is this achieved? It occurred to me tonight that it's incredibly simple, and incredibly difficult. One simply does not participate. One spends no energy on conflict, no energy on the drama of others.
But this led me down another path. What does it mean when one refuses to participate in drama, in conflict? How does one refuse to engage in this modern world of ours? I believe it is nearly impossible to refuse to engage in conflict. Life in our modern world requires relationships. We don't live in a culture in which spiritual people or Yoga teachers are supported.
Instead, we must support ourselves and carve out time for our practice and exploration. To support ourselves, we must work, even if that work is teaching Yoga or other spiritual practices. To do that work, we must cultivate relationships, and in turn, all relationships involve conflict. Human nature is such that boundaries are tested. People try to take advantage of other people, mostly unintentionally, because we are concerned primarily with our own needs and desires. Our needs and desires do not always coincide with those of others, and indeed, often they overlap or themselves are in conflict.
Surely, Yoga and most spiritual practices help us to reduce our automatic reactions to life situations. Certainly, meditation has a calming effect, and it gives us perspective, both of which are very helpful in managing conflict in a healthy way. I'm not saying that spiritual practices do not assist us in dealing with daily life and with conflicts. Of course they do.
What I'm getting at, rather, is that to follow the path of Yoga, one must detach oneself from daily life. Disciples of traditional Yoga are not supposed to have families, sex, any type of intoxicant, rich foods or really, any type of personal life. Gurus are people who have studied and practiced for years, and who have gained samadhi, or bliss. They typically spend most of their energy on this practice, in addition to teaching and sometimes performing service for the community.
As a Pagan who follows the path of Yoga, I say - this is not living. We are here on this Earth in physical bodies overflowing with the ability to sense. I subscribe to the notion that the Divine enjoys sensory experiences through us, and taking full advantage of that ability is part of our purpose here. What's more, even the teachings of Buddha say that to transcend Maya (the illusion of the world of the senses), one must experience it and learn from it.
A bit of background here:
1. I fully respect and honor the tradition of Yoga.
2. Yoga is a wide, wide tree of disciplines and practices. I'm generalizing in this post out of necessity.
3. I'm designing my own system of Pagan Yoga.
So in my tradition, we fully engage with life. We are priestesses, women, professionals, daughters, mothers, wives and more. We have careers, families, hobbies and pets. We engage in this Earthly life fully and completely. We know that enlightenment is something we can experience right now, in the midst of all of this messy, beautiful chaos we call life.
Our Pagan Yoga system is a discipline and a lifestyle, just like traditional Yoga is. But in our discipline, we get dirty. We dance. We chant and sing and howl at the moon. We eat cupcakes right alongside our healing herbs. We raise a horn of mead from time to time. We meditate. We mindfully and reverently enjoy sex. We attune ourselves to the great Wheel of the Year - the passing of the seasons and the cycles of the Moon.
Our goal is to experience life, and to develop ourselves into the fullest expression of our beings that we can envision. It's a goal that keeps growing as we continue to grow and evolve. Union with the Divine is part of that goal, but a static state of bliss? Nah. Give us the ecstatic rhythm of creation. Give us the heights of mystic trance and the lows of hopeless despair. Give us the beauty, joy and love and give us the brokenness, imperfection and flaws. Give us everything, for that is what it means to live fully.
Blessed be and aho!
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