Truth: Discipline of finding stillness through silence (October 2020 Newsletter)
Om symbol at the Kanaka Durga Temple in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
Image credit: Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (CC BY-SA) via Wikimedia Commons
In the yoga philosophy, Truth or Satya is the second of the 5 restraints/disciplines for proper living known as Yama according to Patanjali's Yoga Sutra.
Non-harming
Truthfulness (Patanjali, Sutra 2.36)
Non-stealing
Remembering the higher reality
Non-possessiveness
This month we focus on Truth.
What is truth? It is the stable foundation on which rests one's reference for right and wrong. It is that upon which one tends to base one’s actions and thoughts. A lifetime of learning, experiences and culture make for the perception of what is (or exists), and what is true. In India, baby elephants are tied to sapling trees to train and restrain them. The young creature is strong enough to walk away with the tree, but it wouldn’t know that unless it were to test it. Yet none of them do. A grown elephant when tied to a big mature tree may uproot it and simply walk away with it if tied to one. But tie it to a young tree, and it would never even think to test its strength against it. This is conditioned truth. In each of our lives we know and practice many truths that are conditioned behaviors and responses and are not the true at all.
Conditioned truths keep us in a comfortable place and we rarely think to test the truth as we see it. ‘Seeing' the truth through my eyes, is not the same truth that another person may see. Literally, a bird’s eye view is different from that of the bee. See today’s article on the Daily Mail.
Not only do we not test the ‘truth’ as we know it but we expect everyone else to accept my way of thinking since it is the truth. In Facebook, for example, the truth as I see it is also the truth as my ‘friends’ see it, and we continue to build and reinforce these perceptions as our like-minded friends on Facebook grow. But it is the truths that I already believe, so I never get to know or test their veracity, nor check out what others believe is true.
It is a good time now to start looking at the truths that others believe, and understanding their way of thinking. Learn about them, even if it makes you uncomfortable. How else can you grow to find the real truth that we all share, the only truth there is? Also like the untested sapling, let's start to test those accepted 'truths' in our lives, and in those of others with whom I might not agree. Let's see if we can't go above and beyond them.
Beyond all these conditional truths based on our senses is the real TRUTH. Truth is the silence of the quiet mind. It is a vast stillness that links us to each other, to all sentient beings and to Absolute Reality or 'Godness'.
It is a discipline just like the other Yamas. It's a constant practice; a constant endeavor, but not so difficult.
Namaste,
sipra