Image by Anja from Pixabay
In last week's newsletter, I talked about what is real. If you missed it, read it here. It’s an esoteric topic, but the concept of realness helps to navigate life’s messy parts. I’m talking about the really narly stuff like growing old, getting sick, and dying.
Before studying Indian philosophy, I never thought about the different states of consciousness: waking (conscious), dreaming (unconscious), or deep sleep (subconscious). Yogic philosophy asks us to consider an additional level of consciousness known as samadhi, which is the state beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.
Samadhi is the profound and complete union with the universe. It can also be thought of as bliss, liberation, and enlightenment.
Indian philosophers don't ask us to believe in any of these states but to experience them first-hand. I love that about yoga because it never asks us to take anything by faith alone but to try it out for ourselves; in this way, it's much more like a science.
Blindly believing in stuff is overrated.
In science, we follow proscribed steps to get the same endpoint. Following the eight limbs of yoga is one path to samadhi. If you come to yoga class, you have practiced a few of the limbs already, like Asana (physical poses), Dharana (meditation), and Pranayama (breathing practices).
I've come across one of my favorite stories about real-ness since I wrote last week's newsletter. Every time I read it, the story deepens my understanding of what's real and perhaps a different way to consider samadhi. It’s a western children’s story, and I hope I’m not misappropriating the true meaning of samadhi. (Yoga gurus, please advise!)
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real, you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, " he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once, " said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
from THE VELVETEEN RABBIT by Margery Williams
Being real has nothing to do with what you look like. People with wrinkles, flab, and who are loose in the joints, can relate to the plight of a raggedy stuffed bunny.
We are also not what happens to us (age, sickness, and death.) We’re defined by something bigger: how we embodied love.
Love isn’t an emotion or even a verb. It’s a state of being and the highest form of consciousness.
Keep up your yoga practice! One day, you’ll be real, too.
Great article!