It's summer and just like us humans, taking walks in the park and lying in the sun, most living things are thriving right about now. For the most part we appreciate this. Sweet regionally-grown strawberries. An orchestra of tweeting birds waking us every morning. Soft grass to walk barefoot in.
There are unfortunately some pests which also thrive in the summer. Uninvited they find their way into your bedroom at night and buzz around your ear, bite you and laugh at you as you clumsily try to slap them away only hitting yourself. Mosquitoes! I would normally have no problem swatting a mosquito. Its you or me buddy. But, after a few years of practicing yoga and delving deeper into the practice, I look at this scenario in a new light.
Yoga is the result of thousands of years of people using themselves as guinea pigs to finally liberate themselves from normal human suffering. Yoga is broken down into eight limbs or stages of which only the third stage is asana (posture), or the part yoga which we most often practice in the western world. The first stage is actually yama, universal moral commandments, and the first of these commandments is ahimsa, or non-violence. So, the very first thing we can start doing to riding ourselves of suffering is clearing violence from our lives.
If you are like me, you are probably not very violent. You probably don't get into fist fights regularly and you probably don't kick your dog, but according to B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the world's foremost teachers, violence is more than just an act, but also a state of mind. It can be inflicted with words or intentions directed towards others or oneself. Additionally, non-violence is not just a negative or passive state, but also includes active love and compassion.
Some yogis take ahimsa to an extreme and live in isolation, doing everything in their power to make sure that their lives do not cause any violence or death to any other species, even wearing a clothe over their mouths to prevent insects from dying in their mouths. I can't say that I agree with that interpretation but I do think that practicing non-violence and having love and compassion for all other living things (or at least trying) will make your life better. So, I try to do that in how I treat others (including animals/plants) and myself and I feel better for that.
Now back to that pesky mosquito problem... I ended up getting a mosquito net to hang over my bed, but I can't say that the spiders, who have also moved in, follow yogic teachings. Good luck little guy! I sincerely wish you the best, now that I can get some sleep.
For more on the eight limbs of yoga and ahimsa in particular, you can check out B.K.S. Iyengar's book Light on Yoga for a good overview. In his book he also demonstrates something like a million poses which will amaze and mystify you.
Side Note: In Germany its not that common to put screens on your windows so in summer my apartment becomes a lively ecosystem of buzzing, flying and biting friends.
There are unfortunately some pests which also thrive in the summer. Uninvited they find their way into your bedroom at night and buzz around your ear, bite you and laugh at you as you clumsily try to slap them away only hitting yourself. Mosquitoes! I would normally have no problem swatting a mosquito. Its you or me buddy. But, after a few years of practicing yoga and delving deeper into the practice, I look at this scenario in a new light.
Yoga is the result of thousands of years of people using themselves as guinea pigs to finally liberate themselves from normal human suffering. Yoga is broken down into eight limbs or stages of which only the third stage is asana (posture), or the part yoga which we most often practice in the western world. The first stage is actually yama, universal moral commandments, and the first of these commandments is ahimsa, or non-violence. So, the very first thing we can start doing to riding ourselves of suffering is clearing violence from our lives.
If you are like me, you are probably not very violent. You probably don't get into fist fights regularly and you probably don't kick your dog, but according to B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the world's foremost teachers, violence is more than just an act, but also a state of mind. It can be inflicted with words or intentions directed towards others or oneself. Additionally, non-violence is not just a negative or passive state, but also includes active love and compassion.
Some yogis take ahimsa to an extreme and live in isolation, doing everything in their power to make sure that their lives do not cause any violence or death to any other species, even wearing a clothe over their mouths to prevent insects from dying in their mouths. I can't say that I agree with that interpretation but I do think that practicing non-violence and having love and compassion for all other living things (or at least trying) will make your life better. So, I try to do that in how I treat others (including animals/plants) and myself and I feel better for that.
Now back to that pesky mosquito problem... I ended up getting a mosquito net to hang over my bed, but I can't say that the spiders, who have also moved in, follow yogic teachings. Good luck little guy! I sincerely wish you the best, now that I can get some sleep.
For more on the eight limbs of yoga and ahimsa in particular, you can check out B.K.S. Iyengar's book Light on Yoga for a good overview. In his book he also demonstrates something like a million poses which will amaze and mystify you.
Side Note: In Germany its not that common to put screens on your windows so in summer my apartment becomes a lively ecosystem of buzzing, flying and biting friends.
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