After the Laundry, the Laundry!
This is an excerpt from an article by Judith Hansen Lasater, one of my favorite Yoga Teachers from California, USA. Her articles always teach me to go with the flow of Life better, learn to breathe more easily and work at embracing 'Impermanence' - very difficult to embrace and live it. But, I do feel embracing it in our most basic daily activities can be the key to everyday ease.
"Living with a busy family, I often feel like just like one of the Tibetan monks I once saw making an intricately designed sand mandala. For months, they bent over the ground, arranging the sand , grain by grain, and once their beautiful creation was complete, they cheerfully destroyed it in the ultimate celebration of Impermanence.
While I don't make ceremonial mandalas, I do wash the dishes and cook the meals everyday. I fold and put away a basketful of laundry, and in no time, the basket is full again. Dishes appear again in the sink, the fridge is empty again and this pattern keeps flowing...
As the Buddha said, Impermanence is the nature of the human condition.
This is a truth we know in our minds, but tend to resist in our hearts. Change happens all around us, all the time, yet we long for the predictable, the consistent.
We want the reassurance that comes from things remaining the same.
We find ourselves shocked when people die, even though death is the most predictable part of life.
We can even look at the yoga mat to watch this pattern play itself out.
We find ourselves attached to a never-ending process of 'improvement' in our asanas. They do improve quickly at first, we grow by leaps and bounds in ability and flexibility. After some years of practice, however, our poses change much less. As our practice matures, it becomes more about understanding, consistency and smaller breakthroughs. This is not to say we won't continue to improve, but the improvement may be subtler.
Often, we can no longer practice certain poses because of age or injury, yet we feel agitated because we assume that the poses of our youth should be the poses of our middle and old age. We are surprised when familiar postures become difficult and formerly difficult ones become impossible.
What's the lesson here?
Experiencing remarkable improvement on a continual basis , as it turns out. is a temporary stage. Realizing this puts us in touch with the truth of Impermanence; remaining attached to the practice of our past creates suffering in us.
In India, there is a traditional Hindu social model called the Ashramas. It defines the four distinct periods of Life, during which people can do certain things. The first, Bhramacharya, is the student stage; the second, Grihastha, is the stage of family and societal obligations; during the third, Vanaprastha, one is freer to lead a contemplative life; and during the fourth, Sanyassa, one goes deeper , surrendering all worldly things and living as a simple hermit.
The beauty of this model is its inherent acknowledgement of the impermanence of each stage of life.
Without having an awareness of this concept, we typically feel depressed when things change or we try to control people, situations from changing.
Yogic philosophy teaches that we have to make an effort to return to the 'bigger picture' of our lives again and again. If we do not do this, we will be caught up in the minutiae of being late for an appointment or losing a favorite earring.
What gives life its juice is the ability to mourn the lost earring fully and simultaneously know it doesn't ultimately matter.
In other words, we can live fully when we recognize that our suffering is based on our reaction to impermanence in our life.
Spiritual practice is about remembering this truth about impermanence and including it in daily life.
In the past, I kept doing laundry so it would finally be over. Of course, it never gets done.
Now, when I look at the laundry basket. I try to see it as an expression of what Life is all about; moving through the different stages, surrendering to impermanence, and remembering to embrace it all - knowing it will all change again!"
Well, I hope this post has get your gray cells thinking!
That's the idea, anyway..
Until we meet again,
In pursuit of impermanence,
Asha
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