Dear Yogis,
We have arrived at a very special time in history. It might not seem like it, and maybe you’ve debated renunciation more than a few times lately, thinking that it would be better to retreat into the mountains and give up on this dark and cold and unkind world. But as Vedic philosophy teaches us, our dharma is not to seek peace for ourselves by retreating from all we have deemed “negative” in the world, but rather to find our place, our duty, within it so that we may contribute peace.
As the coronavirus continues to take lives and the Black Lives Matter movement sweeps the nation, we are awakening collectively to much of the suffering that has been lingering below the surface of our standard operations. Undoubtedly, this awakening brings with it suffering on many levels. We are awakening to the abuse of our planet, the fragility of our economies, our own mortality, white imperialism, racism and anti-Blackness, all at once, without a break.
The temptation to look away
The sense of overwhelm is palpable at this time, and in such times it is easy to lean on spiritual ideas that help us dissociate from the material world and all the “wrong” going on around us. In a workshop we held on anti-racism, the question arose: how do we acknowledge the impermanence of the physical body and the material world while continuing to take responsibility for establishing justice?
In the yoga community, we have seen many folks “spiritually bypassing” the suffering of others in an effort to maintain a sense of “love and light” within themselves, to protect themselves from the pain that comes with the truths we are being awakened to. But we must take this time and space to acknowledge that Vedic and yoga philosophy do not simply teach us to avoid suffering. They teach us to learn from suffering, and they teach us how to dive deeply into suffering in a way that eventually allows us to alleviate it.
We do not alleviate suffering by pretending it doesn’t exist. When a child is hurt and crying, you do not simply ignore the child and expect that the child will be OK. When you break your leg, you do not pretend the leg isn’t broken and continue walking. Bypassing is the work of the ego, which cannot accept, and which chooses to run from the painful truth when the light is shone upon it.
Instead, our work is to put the ego aside. Our work is to sit beside the child and comfort her with unconditional love and understanding. Our work is to bandage the leg, nurture it, and have patience as we wait for it to heal. Such is the approach we are called to take with the people of color who have been suffering under the hammer of white imperialism for hundreds of years.
Karma yoga: compassion in action
Karma yoga, the yoga of action, is based on the idea that every action we take (and even the choice not to act is an act in itself) has a vibratory repercussion in the world around us, affecting not just ourselves but all beings who exist around us.
When we say namaste, we say “the light in me acknowledges the light in you.” The light in each one of us is a drop in the ocean that is our collective being. Yoga teaches us that we do not arrive here to differentiate ourselves from others, but that we incarnate to dismantle our sense of self and other, to arrive at the realization of the Oneness of all.
As we look on at others who are suffering around us, we must acknowledge that this suffering is also our own, and that it is only with compassion, patience and egolessness that we can ever hope to restore our wholeness. We are, individually, shepherds of a divine cause that results in the healing of the world.
Ways to support
If you would like to support the Black community, here are organizations doing this work:
