Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on yogic texts. And I will probably miss the mark a lot on terminology and what is meant. These are just my passing thoughts about stuff. Because I spend all day thinking. You know. 'Bout stuff.
According to Patajanli's Yoga Sutras, there are 8 Limbs that make up a yogic lifestyle. The second limb is known as Niyamas, or observances. Disciplines. Things to practice in order to stop being a such a jerk all the time.
The Niyama* that's been all up in my grill lately is called Tapas. And no, it's not the one that dictates that you go out and eat a lot of tiny appetizers. Tapas literally means "heat" in Sanskrit, which is connotative of burning off excesses. Which makes me think of the word "austerity". Did your eye just start twitching when you
saw the word "austerity"? Mine did. Man, do I ever hate that word. It's
on my list right after the phrase "tighten our belts" and "do more with
less". I work for the NYS government, so phrases like that really get my
g-string** in a jumble. Plus, my kid goes to a public school, and it's
been my experience that the term "austerity" used before the word
"budget" is never, ever a good thing.
But.
I'm not talking about that do-more-with-less bullshit
that seems to be flung around with wild abandon not only in my office,
but almost everyone's office these days. It's said to make employees
feel like crap for trying to do their jobs, to place the blame on the
workers when a bottom line goes into the red. By that logic, doing more
less means that eventually, you will be doing everything with nothing.
I'm not a fan of that kind of logic.
Sorry, I got a little off-track there with my prole-spiel. Anyway, what I get from Tapas in
the Sutras is that you don't need lots of extra baggage. You know that
saying about how the stuff you own will eventually own you***? That.
THAT'S what I think Tapas means. It's not practical to live
without certain things like reliable transportation or a computer if you
drive to the office every day, especially if you have a family that
looks to you for financial support. There's an implied hierarchy there:
Yes, don't have lots of stuff, but if your kids are starving because you
gave away your car and you can't get to work, GET A CAR DUMBASS. Feed
kids first, then give away your stuff. Or something.
Here's my take-away bullet-point re: Tapas. I've recently
given up some things. No need to go into gory details because, as I like
to say, Noneya****. And I sweated a lot over giving up those things. I
tend to pull my things around me when I'm backed into a corner, feel
dread about my future, or if something has gone horribly wrong in my
life. I don't even mean physical belongings. Honestly, I could give two
shits about belongings. I've bought, thrown away, sold, or given away
more possessions than I could ever account for. I'm talking about
habits. Ways of thinking. Destructive behaviors and choices. Patterns
that cause pain. The constant need to WANT, and the want to need.
Letting go of them, embracing this kind of austerity has freed me in
ways that I never thought possible. Yeah, I still cling to some really
bad stuff, some really BIG bad stuff. It's hard to let go of the big
stuff. So maybe just let go of, like, two small things. For example,
decide to go one day without beating yourself up over something (I chose
that one because that's actually a BIG bad thing for me, but maybe it's
easy for you). Embrace austerity of the mind and soul. Lighten your
load. Make a burn pile of your useless stuff. You don't need to drag all that crap around with you. It's just
making you sleepy-tired. I promise you won't miss it.
I don't know. Maybe the whole thing I'm trying to say is that
everyone's scrambling so hard to collect things. Not just possessions,
but attitudes, ambitions, habits, whatever. And it's glorified. "Buy
more stuff! Think about this! Try this! Take this pill! Replace this
drug with another drug! Eat everything all the time! Love yourself! Hate
yourself! Hate everyone around you! Now go back to hating yourself!" The world is a constant barrage of
voices and images urging us to collect and hoard. What would life be
like if giving up things were as glorified as holding onto things?
Ya heard?
*What is the singular form of Niyamas? Is it Niyama? Who's fluent in Sanskrit these days?
** AKA The Devil's Dental Floss
***Or, as Yakov Smirnoff would say, "In Soviet Russia, Stuff own YOU!"
****Noneya bidness.
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