In Essence
Seedlings, watercolour on paper by Rami Schandall, ©2020.
In this year of upheaval, it feels essential to be clear about the principles that underpin my practice as a yogi, and as a citizen of the world. Writing helps me put the pieces together, to see the whole. I will use the structure of the yamas and niyamas from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra to support this process over the next weeks and months.
Today, I will offer just a few thoughts on satya, the second yama.
Ethical precepts plant seed-thoughts. We are never finished with them — they are points of reference on the path (dharma) while we live it. As we learn, as we grow and change, we can ask again and again: How is this principle resonant? Is it still true, the way I understand it? Can I go deeper? Which beliefs or ways of understanding can I shed, if they are no longer true?
Satya is frequently translated as truth or non-illusion, and the paragraph above uses precepts as questions to reach toward truth.
In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, satya is taught as “non-lying.” There are abundant and salient examples of the distress caused society-wide when delusion and lying prevail in the corridors of power. At the interpersonal level, lying and delusion are disruptive to our ability to relate to one other, and wise decision-making is impossible if we are misinformed or lied to. Similarly, intrapersonally, we get into trouble when we are not honest with ourselves. (And remember ahimsa here — to be non-violent to ourselves when we consider how we are not honest, or have suffered from delusion.)
Another way of translating satya is as essence or harmony, and it is this that I am most excited about: satya as the essence of dharma, and satya as the glue that holds the universe together. In art practice and spiritual practice, it is that essence that I reach toward. I may never know the whole truth, but I know when I am untrue. And yet, I create illusion in the process of "representing" truth, through the flaws and limits of language, through the subjective nature of understanding, through making "object" of the ineffable. This is the nut that I am chewing on this week. Wish me luck!
In the meantime, I hope you are well and taking the best possible care of your essential self! As we enter a new period of heightened restrictions, I know I am tapping into more resources to keep well in mind and body. While we are more adapted in some ways to the current reality, we may also be more depleted.
