Take it Easy!

Eric, can you please share with us a little about your experience with the ideal lifestyle?

Ok, so I want to give my perspective as a very imperfect flawed Westerner (who is not Brahmin, of course) on what works for me in maintaining discipline and cleanliness (purity) in a Western life while proceeding on my yogic path. When I first received my practice with Ācārya, it went in waves. Sometimes, it would go well for two or three weeks and then for a few weeks I would sit and not be able to quiet my mind. It would drive me crazy! I wanted to deal with it. So as a result I over-enthusiastically began to apply the dos and don’ts, including being very hesitant to touch any food that other people had made, being excessively concerned about saliva and being overly enthusiastic about explaining to others about their errors with saliva; I drove people crazy and often created tension between people as a result. If you keep on tuning a violin too tight you can eventually break a string which is what happened and as a result to compensate, I relaxed my disciplines for a period of time which in retrospect was also exaggerated. I have learnt a few lessons from this-:

1.   Practice goes in waves. It’s ok. Take it easy, the easier I take it, the quicker my practice gets better again.

2.   Clean-enough is clean-enough. One thing we learn from keeping our system clean is that we learn that by nature it will become dirty/impure very quickly. Don’t worry, we do the best we can and then do our practice. Every now and then we have the opportunity to clean our system inside and out, and then we feel fresh and enjoy our practice. But we have to remember that when we become aged, we may at times become ill, and it may become very difficult to keep the body clean. We must do our meditation then as well, so when I must practice when all is not clean, I take it as a chance to practice meditating when my body is dirty.

3.   We are neither really Western nor can we become Brahmin! As Westerners following this path we cannot become a Brahmin. It is not possible. We can watch and walk side by side, following with Brahmins towards Realization. Personally I don’t identify with the typical Western society and values – consumerism, violence in food, lack of discipline around sex to name a few. We have become our own group and in our efforts to maintain disciplines we should never cause any breaks or misunderstandings within our community. Our community with our shared values around Realization and Liberation is one of the most valuable assets we have.

4.   I want to give an analogy – we are instructed by Ācārya to sit still for practice. But can we sit totally still? No, our lungs will be breathing, our heart will be beating, and our blood will be flowing. The point is that we need to be still enough and that is enough to enjoy yoga. In the same way still-enough is still-enough, pure-enough is pure-enough.