Yoga and faith can deepen and support one another
If you know me (or my writing), you know that one of my deep passions is the way that yoga philosophy and faith intersect to deepen and support one another. With that in mind, bear with me for a moment, as I explore a religious idea from the Christian tradition that is reflected in yoga as taught by Patanjali.
We humans fall short of our ideals with surprising ease
The Christian season of Lent began on Wednesday. During this 40-day period, followers are meant to grapple with their sinfulness. The word “sin” is freighted for many of us. It was for me until I began to study St. Ignatius of Loyola, who taught that sin is anything that gets in the way of your sense of connection with God.
This understanding shifted the meaning of sin for me from a “bad thing” that I did and needed to atone for or be punished, to anything that distracted me from the deeper (spiritual) meaning of my daily life experiences. In this sense, my anxious fretting over what could happen in the wake of my child’s scary diagnosis was a sin because it kept me in the driver’s seat as we navigated the illness – my fretting kept me from worrying to God and with God about my fear.
However you define sin, the behaviors and habits that we become aware of as we reflect on ourselves and our faiths – how we navigate a crisis, how we deal with conflict, how we manage ourselves when we’re in a bad mood – can leave us feeling like we “stink” at being good people. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Imperfection can be easier to grapple with in yoga than religion
The ease with which we humans fall away from our highest intentions was easier for me to begin to grapple with within my yoga practice than within my religious life. The very first thing Patanjali asks his students to do is not to move their bodies or to breathe a certain way or to focus their wandering mind. Nope. Instead, he offers the yamas – five principles to live by that keep us in right relationship with ourselves, others and God. (Yoga Sutras 2.30-31, 2.35-39)
When we try our best not to cause harm, to be honest, not to take things that are not ours, and not to crave too much or cling too tightly, one of the first things to happen is that we start to notice all the ways we hurt, lie to, steal from or hoard from other people. Just as can happen in Lent, it might be tempting to decide that you “stink” at being a good person.
Imperfections and mistakes ARE the practice
Patanjali derails this human impulse before it can begin. Before he describes the yamas, he pauses (Yoga Sutras 2.33-34) and says, essentially, “Dude, you are definitely going to mess this up.” There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. You will mess up and I will, too. The good news is, as Patanjali makes clear, is that messing up is not only inevitable, it is the whole point.
Each time we mess up at being a good person, Patanjali teaches us to practice the opposite. This begins with hindsight – we remember a challenging moment and imagine a different way we could have responded. As we continue to practice, we might begin to catch ourselves in the act. As our practice deepens, we might start to notice the impulse to mess up and choose another response. And, when we have practiced for long enough that we have become “enlightened beings” (ha!), our human impulses will be so tiny and powerless that they will not even cause a ripple in our consciousness as we navigate another of life’s challenges. (But they will not go away. Ever. Because we are human.)
Struggle is part of the human journey
One of the nice things about both Lent and yoga is that we’re not facing how hard life can be on our own. The simple fact that this religious season and the practice of yoga have both been around for more than 2,000 years, says to me that I’m not the only one who has ever gotten self-absorbed when life is tough. I’m not the only one who prefers to be in control when I’m afraid. I’m not the only one who forgets that the God I believe in is infinitely more creative and imaginative that I could ever be. It turns out I’m just a human being doing what humans do when taxed with more than it feels possible to handle.
This realization makes me feel both humble and embraced. While my journey is unique to me, the fact that I’m on a journey through life is universal. Just as I am struggling, so is everyone I meet, though they may be hiding it really, really well.
What am I to do with this realization? I’m to be kind. I’m to be kind to myself as I struggle. And I am to be kind to everyone I meet, because it is a 100% safe assumption to make that they’re struggling with something too. This kindness is a manifestation of the self-compassion yoga students learn through the self-observation and self-awareness that is part of their practices.
Kindness like this is also a manifestation of the God of love worshiped by those who observe Lent. A God who yearns not for us to be perfect, but for us to be willing (over and over again) to reconnect to Spirit when we notice that our minds and hearts have been drawn away by fear, joy, worry, sorrow, busyness, or whatever.
We are invited to live lives that are unencumbered by our mistakes and are inspired by our highest hopes
God, as I understand the un-understandable, and yoga as I understand the practice, both extend open invitations to us to live lives that are unencumbered by our mistakes and that are inspired by the possibility of growth and becoming more like the people we hope to be.
I wish you a Lent blessed by kindness and filled with the power of introspection and inspiration. In the words of my teachers’ teacher, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, “Practice and all is coming.”
When the mind becomes attached to thoughts or desires (think all the worries, fears, sorrows that we talked about above), working with the yamas and niyamas to bring to mind opposite thoughts and emotions creates the proper attitude for continued practice. YS 2.33
Each time we fall away from the yamas is an obstacle to our freedom and fulfillment, whether we do so in a mild or intense way. These repeated mistakes can eventually be overcome by steady practice of cultivating the opposite. YS 2.34