Know Thyself:Tools For a Balanced Life

If you find yourself worrying about the future, you have more company now than ever. With global unemployment and depression rates breaking records and still on the rise, it seems many of us worried about the future. Perhaps it's time to look to the past for wisdom on how to survive in the present.

The art and science of Yoga is dedicated to creating union and a sense of peace between mind, body and spirit. The principles laid forth in the ancient text of the Yoga Sutras are guidelines for finding equanimity and balance within our selves and, in turn, the world...something we could all use a dose of in this anxiety-ridden world. When reviewing these texts, a few important ethical precepts emerge with relevance.

Santosa is contentment, finding satisfaction and peace with the things and circumstances you are given in this life. When we accept that life has a process for growth that does not always include material gain, we learn to be at peace within, even while experiencing the challenges that come with this existence.

In a yoga practice this often manifests itself as sinking deeper into a difficult posture, finding your breath and brightening up your eyes. It's not about pushing yourself to the point of pain and suffering. Just the opposite, it's learning to find your inner strength when outer challenges arise.

Carrying this over to our everyday lives, finding our breath, brightening our eyes and being grateful in the face of difficulty can help us to cultivate compassion and contentment for ourselves and for others. Simply accepting that there is a purpose for everything and that every challenge is an opportunity for growth and learning brings us to the awareness that experience is our greatest wealth.

Another concept is Aparigara, non-greediness-taking only what is necessary. Letting go of attachment to stuff is a lesson that many of us are being forced to learn. When we are unwilling, this can be very painful, but letting go of the desire to hoard and acquire wealth can be a beautiful and cleansing process, one that many great masters have adopted as a prerequisite to even greater spiritual gain.

In yoga, this often means backing off from some of the more advanced postures when we haven't built the strength to master them. Releasing the completive mindset of being more accomplished than the next girl really means accepting and taking pleasure with our own true nature.

Perhaps the pursuit of material wealth has separated us from some of the most fundamental pursuits that give meaning to life. Do we feel a lack of abundance because we don't have enough of the latest toys of mass distraction? Perhaps this quest for more has led us to a state of nimiety, of excess, instead of true abundance of wisdom and Svadhyaya-getting still, going within, and knowing ourselves. When we take a good look at what we have it's easy to see that we already have everything we need.

If we compare our modern "needs" to those of only a few decades ago, it's clear that our pursuit of material wealth has landed us in a less than ideal position collectively. It seems that the declining state of collective material abundance is trying to tell us to be grateful for the abundance within.

Originally published in The RAY

References:
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Sadna Pada pg. 83-119

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