More Musings on Duality....

I love chocolate but can't stand country music.  Love rooms painted in shades of yellow but dislike mushrooms.  Preferences are common.  Have you ever stopped to consider how much of your behaviour is driven by preferences?

We have an experience, like going camping, that we either like or not.  If we find something that is pleasurable, we work hard to repeat that experience.  We might even become a little obsessed about recreating that experience.  Maybe we have to always go to the same restaurant or stick to the same kind of car.

Conversely we work hard to avoid what we don't like.  This is called aversion.  A great deal of human suffering occurs when we try to steer away from unpleasantness, much of it inevitable.  We might even drift into unhealthy behaviour like avoiding the dentist or proper exercise due to an unfortunate experience.

Yogic wisdom teaches us that aversion and attachment to pleasure are two sides of the same coin.  Both pursuits/avoidances lead to suffering.

Take camping for example.  I do love it.  Look forward to those hot lazy lakeside days.  It is almost an obsession and leads to being depressed about winter every year.  I am divorced from my preferred activities and climate.  Definitely this is suffering. 

Yoga practice helps me to experience the beauty and perhaps discomfort in each breath.  I practice letting go of attachment to perfection and pleasure, and open to breathing through what doesn't please me in that moment.  There is equanmity in this space.

So if you have read the previous post, about the beautiful meditative morning torpedoed by the radio music, you might recognize how attachment to practising meditation in a certain environment would preclude enjoying the practice that morning.  Aversion to mind numbing, outdated music also might have dampened the moment.  To truly practice yoga, however, I tried really hard to detach and sit with the imperfection.  Meditation might not have been easy, but it felt like I really practised yoga.

It's Always Somethin'... A Musing on Duality

I love camping.  It's not everyone's cup of tea, and I had my day of five star only resorts.  But as I reviewed my priorities, and realized that if I loved to have a change of scenery at the budget available, someone would have to compromise.  So the great outdoors it was!

Camping has evolved into a spiritual experience more than a family affair now.  It's adults only, unless you count the pooch.

This is her loveliness in between chasing chipmunks and dunking for frogs.

 

Of course, the yoga mat and props come into the woods as well as various professional materials to study in these long, unstructured days.  And each morning begins with mantra, pranayama and meditation. 

The theme of compromise is illustrated by the top photo.  To get privacy, quiet, lakefront view and inexpensive location, you can't have all the upgraded amenities (although the outhouse is new three years ago and boasts two seats - no waiting!).  You share accommodations with many flying and creeping marvels of nature.  Upon a deer fly chomping a chunk out of my exposed thigh the size of Rhode Island, I have been known to hasten the transformative powers of Shiva with a well placed fly swatter and a pious "Om Namah Shivayah".  The price you pay for that delicious northern air, freshly scented with cedar and birch.

On the last morning of the our most recent jaunt, I headed down to the lake for practice at the unusual hour of 6:30 am (it is vacation you know).  The morning was exquisite!  The warm lake water was steaming into the cool morning air creating a mystical cloak across the still surface.  The sun was just cresting over the trees to the east, and the quarter moon still high in the western sky.  A loon called.  The barest of breezes whispered in the trees.  And then... the neighbour to the right turned on his radio.  Loudly.  To HTZ fm.  Most of that music was really bad 30 years ago, and it hasn't improved with age.  Can you see the contrast?  The irony?  Nature was offering her most elegant performance, and the perfection was shattered by man's determination to bend her to his needs.

I had to laugh.  Right out loud.  Was it tinged with insanity, perhaps.  But no matter how hard we work to create a perfect experience, it's always somethin'.  I went through with practice anyway, and enjoyed what was beautiful thoroughly.

That's what yoga is all about.  There are no goals, or trophies.  Your physical progress in the postures interesting, but not the focus.  Yoga practice is about being in this moment, with all it's warts and foibles.  Not seeking perfection, but finding the perfection in what is.  It's where we can integrate the black and the white, and find the gorgeous balance that was there all along.

To explore this idea further, pick a pose that is difficult for you.  Nothing that is dangerous or unhealthy, just one where you find agitation or physical resisitance.  Go to your mat, and do five deep breaths focusing on the specific intention of finding bliss in this pose.  See yourself moving your body into a realistic version of this pose.  Now go.  Are you reaching too far?  Is that is what is causing the resistance?  Do you lose the rhythm of your breath?  Explore how to find the perfect balance of release and effort.  Stay for 10 breaths longer (this is a long time!).  If you really need to break, then do so.  Try another day.  Come back to a resting pose and reflect on what you have learned.