We are now in the middle of our segment on “aparigraha” translated as non-grasping. Aparigraha is one of the 5 Yamas or restraints of a yoga student. The Yamas are primarily focused on how we interact with others, including the things that we desire.
Other translations include non-attachment, non-craving or non-coveting.
Yesterday we ended up covering two Yamas in one segment, using a parable to discuss how coveting led to stealing radioactive waste (see corrections).
Aparigraha is one of the most Buddhist of the Yamas. In Buddhism, attachment or craving is the source of suffering in life. So I’m very amused that I mixed this one up with non-stealing or asteya.
Today, we’ll bring our focus back to aparigraha, non-grasping, or non-attachment.
Over the weekend, I had the experience of having dinner in a restaurant, and observing one very loud group nearby. Immediately, the group got a lot of attention, as one of the couples had already had drinks before dinner, and the woman had a very low cut top. Most of the diners nearby had negative responses. Not only were they loud, but the energy was spilling out onto everyone in the small restaurant.
One thing I noticed was the sense of sadness and hunger I felt from the woman. It felt like she was grasping at everything around her. Taking big, loud laughs that pierced the room. There was an edge and a demand to be noticed. Her boyfriend or partner, was also in a state of grasping, as he was scanning around the room. Both of them had very strong, grasping energies. And it was certainly touching others!
In my mind’s eye, I see these energies as tendrils coming out of the chest or body, hungrily waving around, searching for contact. Not unlike an alien movie. The hungrier the bigger and more slimy the tendrils.
Now, I know what it’s like to have tendrils. It’s how I feel when I am stressed and scrolling on social media. I feel a hunger or pain in my belly, looking for something to make it stop hurting, but not quite not knowing what I’m looking for. Each post or piece of news in the feed gives me a little hit, which both stops the pain, and feeds the pain. For one half of a second, the pain is relieved before coming back stronger. Eventually I am scrolling in a daze, and not even really consuming the media anymore.
These tendrils, take a lot of energy. They also keep us attached to this world.
You can imagine that our nerves are like plant roots from the brain into the body. Our nerves keep our spirit attached to our bodies from the brain to our spinal column and out into anywhere that we can feel sensation.
Our desires or attachments, are like the roots or tendrils that bind our spirit to this self. In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, it is stated that when non-attachment is attained, the student gains awareness of past lives, learns the purpose of this life and past lives, gains the understanding of cause and effect, and understands what is remaining to be learned before liberation (Art of Living).
While I haven’t gotten there yet in my own personal practice, I do think it makes sense that once we stop putting tendrils outwards that keep us attached to our selves in this life, that our energy would start to flow more vertically, into the spaces that connect us with past and future.
Now, our aim is not to cut the tendrils away! They are an important part of how we connect with others. For our meditation today, I’d like to focus on gently drawing our tendrils back in, non-grasping.
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