Friday, September 30, 2016

My deep thought of the day, from the Yoga Sutras.

I am reading the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali for my Level 4 Yogafit training next week. I happened to buy the books for this training very early on, so I have had lots of time to read and digest, for once. And I am really glad. I feel like all the Level 4 books should be required for life. It would be a lot more useful than reading "The Last of the Mohicans" in high school.

It's a lot like reading the Bible in that pretty much every day, I see something that totally applies to my life and I have to stop and think about it for a while. For example, yesterday's sutra of note was, "By cultivating attitude of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness."

What this means, the swami explains, is that we should be friendly when we run into happy people (not jealous). We should be compassionate when we find unhappy people (not thinking they must deserve their suffering), we should admire virtuous people (not try to tear them down) and we should just ignore the wicked.

He goes on to tell a story about a bird who built a marvelous nest, with just his beak and feet. The bird is nice and dry and toasty during a pouring rain, and then he sees a monkey sitting in the tree, without any shelter. The bird tries to tell the monkey that he has great faculties and potential, a marvelous brain, strong muscles and able limbs--he ought to go build himself a shelter. The monkey is offended, thinking the bird is trying to tell him how to run his business, so he goes and destroys the birds nest in a fit of rage.

As a business owner, I have run into a few of these monkeys. The swami says to just ignore them. When you first run across them, if you have any inkling they are the kind of person who will bristle and tear down your nest any time you offer a bit of advice, just get away. Unfortunately, we don't always get away before the monkeys destroy our nests. I've had a few relationships of this sort, both personal and professional, where the monkey did his best to destroy my reputation or business because he felt slighted in some way. Once or twice, I have probably been someone else's monkey.

All you can do is move on. Practice indifference. Let the monkey have his fit. As a bird, you can fly anywhere. Having built a beautiful nest once, you always know that you have the capacity to build another just as wonderful. Only this time, you will know to keep away from the monkey.


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