Ahimsa- sowing positive seeds and watering with love

Yoga is, according to Sri K Pattabi Jois, 99 % practice and 1 % theory. This does not mean, as I unreflected thought in the beginning, 99 % physical practice and only 1 % philosophy...
It means that if you really want to learn something, if you really want to change and evolve on the yogic path, you have to practice what is taught. In other words- learning by doing.

So, this means that if you want to understand the yogic philosophy, you have to incorporate it in your life. A few years ago, when I was taking an intensive yoga course with my teacher Lisa Lalér, she gave us a home assignment every week to think about one of the yamas and niyamas in our daily life. This really helped in understanding what they meant, and it also helped in seeing the patterns in thought, speech and action that I had. In a way, a sort of self therapy. Since I am taking a course in Buddhism at the moment, and Buddhist philosophy seems so clearly similar to the yoga sutras, I thought this would be a good opportunity to conciously start practicing the yamas and niyamas again. One by one, week by week. Want to join me?

This weeks focus will then be AHIMSA.
Ahimsa: non- violence, non- harming, which really means having a loving attitude, towards others, and very importantly towards youself! In thought, action and speech. This yama is the base of all the other yamas and niyamas.

In the asana practice it's very easy to see your thoughts. Maybe you push yourself very hard so that you eventually harm yourself. Maybe you think badly of the person on the mat next to you because they can do something you can't, maybe you think you are worthless because you just never seem to be able to come into a certain asana. The teacher never sees me. I'm too fat. I'm too slow. I'm too restless. I'm not ambitious enough. I can never say no when I need to. And so on. At work or in your relationships, can you recognise these thoughts even there? In action and speech- Do you impose your views on others? Do you take other peoples time and space? Do you express anger on inoocent people? Do you manipulate people to get what you want? These questions also give rise to the principles of asteya (non-stealing) and satya (truth) that are the following yamas.

The antidote to these negative, harmful thoughts is to replace them with positive, loving thoughts. Don't let the harmful thoughts take root. Thouhts are seeds to your emotions. Sounds easy, right! But I know, it's hard, because your thought patterns are so deeply rooted! Especially harmful thoughts towards yourself. And it's a constant practice. It's not enough to do it just for a short period and then hope that the effect will last forever. And to begin with it might be necessary to sort of trick your mind. It might feel like you are not being sincere when replcing a bad thought with what might feel as a constructed good thought. But remember(you too Tina!), that you are not your thoughts. Just because you had a negative thought does not mean that it came from who you are at the moment, and it might not be a correct response to the actual situation. It is very likely that the thought came from your old thought patterns, the samskaras, the "autobahn" in your mind.

Thoughts preceed speech and action, so working with changing your harmful thoughts seems to me to be the first and formost important thing. And it needs to be done with a loving, non-judgemental attitude!

Next weeks subject on my course is metta-bhavana(loving-kindness) meditation. That's cultivating ahimsa!

Water your thoughts with love!