“In everything the middle course is best: All things in excess bring trouble to men.”
~ Plautus
The next two Yamas or restraints in the yogic code of ethics are Brahmacharya and Aparigraha: Learning how to curb our excessiveness and our hoarding.
These restraints really ask the yogi to look our American way of life squarely in the face. To question whether all this stuff that we consume and hoard makes us happier.
I’ve talked about it here on this blog before, but 4 or so years ago, I found myself to be quite unhappy. I felt a general dissatisfaction about life, and I really didn’t know why. I will be forever grateful to google for leading me to the Buddha’s philosophy. It is the noble eightfold path that allows me to write here today. It is a teaching which has given me the gift of understanding a way of life and being that opposes the American Dream.
I can say with full assurance that every time I am feeling unhappy, it is because I am out of balance, in excess with something, or hoarding in some way.
The father of Yoga, Patanjali wrote in Yoga Sutras 2.38 and 2.39 “The chaste acquire vitality” and “Freedom from wanting unlocks the real purpose of existence.”
Buddha explains the trap of unhappiness this way:
Feeling —> Craving
Craving —> Pursuit
Pursuit —> Gain
Gain —> Decisions
Decisions —> Desire & Lust
Desire —> Attachment
Attachment —> Stinginess
Stinginess —> Safeguarding
Safeguarding —> Evil, Unwholesome Phenomena:
Conflicts, Quarrels, Insulting Speech
and Falsehoods.
These two yogic restraints are very closely tied to the monastic practice of renunciation, or giving up worldly desires and possessions, in order to facilitate an inner transformation.
Realizing that what one assumed was necessary for happiness is, in fact, not necessary. To sacrifice is to make sacred. To release is to find freedom. And to find freedom
is to know a happiness that is not dependent on anything, especially not on having our wishes fulfilled.
An intelligent sacrifice is any in which you gain a greater happiness by letting go of a lesser one: In the same way you’d freely give up a bag of candy, if offered, in exchange for a pound of gold. In other words, renunciation is an intelligent sacrifice, a profitable trade.
Bhikkhu Bodhi writes:
“When we begin to see that those very things we attach ourselves to – the things that we hoard – are the exact things that cause us misery, attachments are shed like the leaves of a tree, naturally and spontaneously.”
When we understand this, we can start to glimpse that renunciation is not a matter of doing something or having to create something, or getting rid of something or
exterminating something in life. Rather it is moving towards non-contention, a sense of rest and relaxation—not having constantly to try and manipulate and
control and evade and maneuver any more. We are able to open in a fearless way and relax into the experience of the moment, whatever its quality may be.
So what does Yama & Niyama expert Deborah Adele have to offer us in regards to the finer nuances of this 4th Jewel of Yoga, or Brahmacharya and excessiveness?
The following is an excerpt from her book The Yama’s and Niyamas: Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice …
———
Whether we find ourselves overdoing food, work, exercise, or sleep, excess is often a result of forgetting the sacredness of life.
The fourth jewel, Brahmacharya, literally means “walking with God” and invites us into an awareness of the sacredness of all of life. This guideline is a call to leave
greed and excess behind and walk in this world with wonder and awe, practicing non excess and attending to each moment as holy.
The number of sheds and storage units, the attractive plastic storage bins that fill rows in our stores, the statistics on American obesity, and the shortage of waste facilities for our trash are all neon signs that we are a people of excess. We overdo sex, we overdo food, we overdo work, we overdo sleep, we overdo entertainment, we overdo our material possessions, and often we overdo our spirituality. We seem far from grasping the concept of “enough.”
In yogic thought, there is a moment in time when we reach the perfect limit of what we are engaged in. It is this moment of “just enough” that we
need to recognize.
We have to be able to discern between what the body needs in the moment and the story our mind is telling us.
We are here on this world, in part, to feel enjoyment and pleasure. If we are in the pleasure and not the addiction, we are practicing Brahmacharya. If we are feeding our mental stories and have moved past bodily comfort, we are in addiction and out of harmony with this guideline.
Non excess is not about non enjoyment. It actually is about enjoyment and pleasure in its fullest experience.
If we stop and pause for a moment, we know that it is the simple things that stir our soul and bless us with happiness.
The wind in the trees, the colors of the sky, the touch of a loved one, the delight of a child, a shared moment with a friend, can fill us to overflowing. This overflowing
is expansive and humbling, much different than the satiation of excess.
When we see with the eyes of mystery, we begin to see the sacred in the ordinary and the ordinary in the sacred. Every task becomes an opportunity to wonder and be amazed. Mending the split between what we see as important or not, and who we see as important or not, puts us on the path to cherishing all people and all tasks.
———–
Buddha says of his enlightenment:
There are two extremes which should not be followed,
Devotion to pursuing sense pleasure,
which is low, vulgar, worldly, ignoble
and produces no useful result;
And devotion to self-denial,
which is painful, ignoble and produces no useful result.
Avoiding both these extremes,
the Middle Way
that is how a Buddha has Awakened.
It is this Middle Way, this balance
that gives vision and insight,
knowledge and wisdom.
It is this Middle Way
that leads to peace, to profound understanding,
which leads to full realization and to Nibbàna.
~ Buddha (Mv 1.6)
May we go out today, seeking the middle path, the fine balance of life. Opening our eyes to the beautiful mystery of life, to seeing how our excesses and craving create misery for our self and for others. During this sacred time of Lent, may we find the courage to let go, to simplify, to begin shedding the excessive leafs from our tree.
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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