“All things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”
~ Buddha
Good morning friends, and happy Friday! The waves slapping against the shoreline are so calm this morning, and a bird was softly coo-ing away in the background.
What a peaceful morning it is! Making it easy to sit in mantra, lulled by the sound of the waves and the bird, paying attention to my breath …
I EXHALE worry … and INHALE peace.
I RELEASE tension … and ACCEPT tranquility.
I BREATHE OUT fear … and BREATHE IN courage.
I LET GO OF all anger … and WELCOME love.
I RELEASE my sadness … and RECEIVE joy.
What a joy it is to let go !! Gosh how us humans tend to cling to things, and I am no exception. But I’m learning … 🙂
Which brings us to our 5th and final Yama, or restraint, in the yogic code of ethics.
I was introduced to Aparigraha, translated as non-hoarding. But author Deborah Adele goes a little bit further with defining Aparigraha. She writes: “Aparigraha, or non-possessiveness, can also be interpreted as nonattachment, nongreed, nonclinging, nongrasping, and noncoveting. We can simply think of it as being able to “let go.”
The jewel of Aparigraha invites us to enjoy life to the fullest, and yet, always be able to drop everything and run into the waiting arms of the Divine. If we prefer to play with our toys, we have missed the point.”
I really enjoyed this chapter in Deborah Adele’s book. She offers three excellent analogies or stories to demonstrate how we tend to cling to things and bring suffering to ourselves.
The following is an excerpt …
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The nature of the realm of Aparigraha is impermanence. Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. If we can fall back to the breath and watch the belly rise and fall with each inhalation and exhalation, we can feel the truth of the transience of all things.
3 Lessons in Letting Go
1. The Trapeze Artist
My experience of letting go feels very much like being a trapeze artist. Much like the moment when the breath is completely exhaled, the trapeze artist has a moment when they are suspended in mid-air. My understanding is that they have to let go of one bar and wait in mid-air for the next swinging bar to reach them. If they hold on to the current bar, or reach for the next bar, their timing will be off and they will fall. Instead, they must let go fully to be ready for the bar swinging towards them, trusting the timing of the swing and not their own effort to reach.
The practice of non-clinging is as free as swinging from bar to bar effortlessly, in perfect trust and perfect timing. Any kind of holding too long or grasping too far forward in an effort to maintain a sense of security is deadly to our spiritual growth and the natural unfolding of our lives.
2. The Monkey & The Banana
In India, catching monkeys is a really easy task. Small cages with narrow bars are made, and a banana is placed inside the cage. The monkeys come along, reach in between the bars, grab the banana, and try impossibly to pull it out. And here is the amazing thing – in the moment when the monkey catchers come along, the monkeys are totally free. There is nothing keeping them from running off to safety as they hear danger approach. All they have to do is to let go of the banana. Instead, they refuse to release the banana and are easily taken into captivity.
“Bananas” for us are anything we expect to give us the same fulfillment the second and third time. When we expect our spouse to make us feel good like they did the evening before, or when we expect a dinner out to satisfy us like it did the last time, or when we expect to be appreciated like we were yesterday, indeed anytime we want the same “feel good” results, we are “holding on to the banana.” Our expectations keep us captive and often disgruntled.
The image of the monkey holding on to the banana is real for those of us captured in our attachments. Indeed, nothing is holding us. We, like the monkeys, are totally free.
Instead, we choose to hold on, choosing our attachments and our greed rather than our freedom. To choose freedom, we simply need to “let go of the banana.”
3. Packing for an Overnight Trip
On a recent overnight trip, a grandmother became frustrated with her granddaughter who refused to start packing. When finally asked why, the granddaughter replied: “Grandma, isn’t that the whole point of getting away? Make it easy, don’t take anything, not even plans?” Even airlines know to charge a fine when we pack over the limit. And yet, how many of us are packing over the limit every morning and wearying ourselves throughout the day with this heavy baggage? What if we woke up every morning and took nothing with us? Unpacked our way to God? Unpacked our way to freedom? Unpacked our way to being?
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Anything we cling to creates a maintenance problem for us. The material items that we hoard, collect, buy because they are on sale or take because they are “free,” all take up space and demand our attention. Storage boxes and sheds become an easy way to fool ourselves. Subtle attachments come in the form of our images and beliefs about ourselves, about how life should be, about how others should be. These images keep us in bondage to our own learning and growth. Clutter in our physical space blocks our ability to physically move, while clutter in our minds blocks our freedom to expand and have space for the next thing life wants to bring to us.
Practicing non-attachment does not mean that we don’t care or that we somehow shut ourselves off from the pleasures and joy of life and each other. In fact, nonattachment frees us up to be immersed in appreciation of life and one another.
We are asked to let go of the clinging to the thing, not the enjoyment of the thing itself.
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So that’s today’s message: Head out there, packing light, so we can fly free as a trapeze artist, remembering to let go of the bananas in our path. Breathe in peace, breathe out anything that is not serving you. It’s that simple.
Namaste 🙂
If you enjoyed this post, you can find the beginning of this series,
Exploring the Yamas and Niyamas: The Yogic Code of Ethics, here:
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