Asmita – am I this am I that who am I if I no longer do the things I used to do?

In modern society we often find ourselves having to market oneself for just about anything and everything that we aspire to do. Be it professional, physical, mental or even in finding love – you have to show yourself. Rip and analyse who you are. Is this the modern idea of self-knowledge? I believe it is. Pull labels out of a hat that suits your appearance – ones that validates the lines on your face and the clothes your wear, the food you eat and the entertainment you enjoy. And don’t forget your intelligence, after all – who wants to be dull in the eyes of the judgmental beholder! Remember that you are always fun to be around………truthful and ever graceful just to put the cherry on top!

The above is the dense thought patterns that we sometimes fall trap to. It is limiting the Spirit that is whole and everything. This causes pain and submerges the mind. The clear Self reflection that reflects back at the Self from a calm, clear lake becomes rippled and distorted. Thought patterns and analysis like this is mostly driven by fear or the search for love and acceptance and opportunities in a materialistic world.

Only when the mind is stilled can one reflect on one’s own beauty.  It is not about labels in a hat.  Rather about dropping down into your own darkness, finding the seed of nothingness inside – the zero point of infinite possibilities, infinite compassion, infinite vibration.  The yogi is in constant self-study; in constant reflection. It takes discipline, a physical and spiritual fitness, to stay clear from chitta vrtti, from limiting oneself. By visiting the pain that Asmita (klesa) brings the knowledge becomes the known. All lessons in life are valuable.  Experiences, the understanding and knowing is what lessens the ego and breaks down the walls that prevents clear compassion, for ourselves and others.  We are all on this journeys, individually and collective.

Fill the seat (asana) of your own nature – the Omni-Nature that is Prana, the Oneness that connects us all. Only then can Spirit be free to manifest from a Higher Consciousness. For we are Everything! I am not this (a South African, British, French…) nor that (a receptionist, lawyer, agent..),

I am willingly nothing

I am the world and I am not this world.  I am part of a collective play without becoming the story told.

(Photo by: Lettism, Little Theatre Yoga, 2012)