Take home messages

I was so lucky to have 4 days after the course. I got to relax on the beach, go to a couple of interesting workshops of my own choosing, visit Atlantis and Nassau, and practice my spanish in preparation for the next adventure!

I also got to have some nice reflective conversations with other friends from the Teacher Training Course who were still around. I felt like all the knowledge of the course was starting to slip away, so I wrote down my "take home messages" from the month. Not everything we learned is directly relevant to my life right now, although it is all valuable material to have tucked away in a back corner of my brain. My main goal for this TTC was not to become a yoga teacher but to learn some skills that would prepare me to face the inevitable challenges that life brings, and I think I achieved that. I also wanted to be able to meditate FOR REALZZZ but I still don't quite know that would mean. One teacher told me that when he is "meditating"for 30 minutes he is only actually in a meditative state for the last 5 minutes. The rest of the time he is just trying to calm the mind and concentrate. That made me feel better. These points were the ones that resonated with me the most. Some of them are not exactly as we were taught, but I have adapted them. Many thanks to my classmates who contributed to this list.

1. Don't be a slave to your mind (EGO) - practice self discipline

The ego seeks pleasure and avoids pain. It will always look for the easy road, or the most comfortable one, which is probably not the best one for me in the long run. In the TTC we had a lot of imposed discipline but the challenge comes now that we leave the structure of the ashram. I'm not doing so great with it so far, as I sit here drinking my iced coffee in the airport.... Not that I planned on giving up coffee after the ashram, but its crazy how quickly I slipped back into an old habit. I will have to be more mindful of this. I need to work on some strategies to maintain some of the good habits I developed here, and to not let the bad ones come back. The ego doesn't like to be told what to do, and it never sees its own defects. Discipline helps us to observe the ego rather than to identify with it and appease it.

2. Cultivate balance

The keyword in the ashram is sattva. Sattva is one of the 3 gunas or, the qualities of creation. Sattva is purity, peace, tranquility. The other two qualities are rajas and tamas. Realistically I know that many things I enjoy are rajasic or tamasic. But I can definitely say there are times when I have had too much of either. So I think going forward I will continue to enjoy running and dancing (rajas), as well as eating junk food and watching tv (tamas). But I will try to balance them out, and make a concerted effort to bring in more sattva. Nothing in the world is perfectly sattvic, so my keywords are balance and harmony.

3. Don't be attached

I am so attached to things, people, my expectations, my principles. Our ego defines itself through raga dvesha, attraction and repulsion. But these are the cause of suffering. If I don't get (too) attached, I won't suffer (as much).

Another aspect of attachment is attachment to the fruits of actions. This is one of the main theses of the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita tells the story of the warrior Arjuna and his charioteer, Lord Krishna. The Gita explains the 4 paths of yoga: karma, bhakti, raja, and jnana. Arjuna is conflicted because he has to fight this war against his cousins, and he doesn't want to kill them he just wants to run away to the forest and become a sadhu (monk). Krishna tells him that the essence of karma yoga is action without attachment to the fruits of action. This is so contrary to the way our modern capitalist world works. It is strange to think of doing something when you don't stand to benefit from it in some way. Arjuna must fight because it is his duty as warrior, because he is fighting for righteousness. I wish I could say that I know my duty after this month, but I don't. Swami Ridiananda (I still don't know how to spell her name) told me to be open to opportunities to help people, and to always act out of love. 

4. Examine your intentions. Be an observer, but don't judge.

Everything starts with an intention, but I dont often think about what my intentions are. Why did I just buy this coffee? Did I really want it?? I'm not sure. There was a chant that we sang a few times. Swami Sivananda wrote it. One stanza of it goes like this:

I am not this body

I am not this mind

I am not these emotions

These emotions are not mine

Observe yourself and your actions. Observe your interactions with other people. Mindfulness is being able to pinpoint exactly what is going on in each moment. This is really hard. I am going to have to read a little more about mindfulness to be able to practice this. We had a few evening satsang speakers talk about mindfulness, and it is an incredibly powerful practice. 

The judgement part is also hard. If you know me, you will know that I am very judgemental. Of myself and of others. I guess this judgement is ego again. 

5. 95% of our thoughts are about the past or the future. We don't really live in the present.

This was a major AHA moment for me at the beginning of the course. Of course, it makes sense that we mostly think about the past or future because the present is so fleeting and often seems boring or unimportant. But we can do nothing about the past or the future, so why do we waste energy regretting things that have happened in the past and being anxious about things that are yet to occur? 

6. Love selflessly

I am still figuring this one out. We had a lecture about bramacarya one morning. Bramacarya is celibacy. Spiritual aspirants are told to maintain celibacy because sexual energy and spiritual energy come from the same place, and you don't want to deplete your spiritual energy through sex. Ok, fine, but what about romantic love? The lecturer said that romantic love is objectificiation, and we should work on loving the divine in all people. But he has been married twice so I don't really get it. I understand the principle of loving without attachment, but in practice I don't see how this works. A related lesson was to always act out of love. This sort of got burried for me, but my classmate reminded me of it yesterday. Loving is to share and to serve.

7. Consider every experience a learning experience

We learned so much in this month, but I think that was inevitable, given our purpose for being in the ashram. But the swadyaya or self-study must continue. If we are being a non-judgemental observer of our lives we can learn from each experience. This is the point of karma. We may experience the same lesson again and again, and each time it gets harder, until we finally learn it. So its important not only to observe but to learn. Its also important to do things you are afraid of, as this is where we learn the most. 

8. There are no accidents

I thought about my accident a lot this month. Especially in terms of karma. Its some pretty intense karma to have nearly died or wound up paralyzed, and then to recover completely. This lesson goes with #7, there are no accidents, therefore we must learn from our experiences. A good lesson from the accident itself was to slow down, and stop rushing through my life like it is a race from the top of the hill to the bottom. The lesson from the recovery was in realizing the power of single-minded determination and positive thinking. I can do anything if I set my mind, body, and spirit on it.

9. We are all one

I figured I had to include this one, although this was not new. The thesis of Advaita Vedanta, which includes many the scriptures upon which yoga is based, is "Brahman (the divine) is real. The universe is unreal. The individual soul is divine." There is no duality, we are all one, and that oneness is divine. A wave is not separate from the ocean. I don't know how to believe this in practice, but I think it all comes down to love. Love of self and other. Swami Sivananda bowed to everyone, and every creature, because he recognized the divine in them.

10. Change is the only constant 

Everything changes, this is the only thing we can count on for sure in this world.

Om Shanti!