Saturday, May 01, 2004
Saturday, May 01, 2004
Namaste,
Satya is the yama for me to study this month. All my thoughts, words, and deeds will be examined with special emphasis through the lens and in the light of Satya.
Gopi Krishna wrote:
"My exercises in self-mastery included scrupulous adherence to truth. At first sight this resolve appears to be easy to accomplish, but it is much more difficult than one can imagine before trying it in actual practice. In my official career, especially, it was a hard discipline to follow. When parties involved in a case came to seek my advice and help, it was extremely difficult to be open and frank with them."
Living with Kundalini: The Autobiography of Gopi Krishna, Shambala Publications, Boston, 1993
*********************
Recently I sold a book on the Internet about the history of alchemy in Greaco-Roman Egypt. Seeing that the winning bidder emailed me from India, I tossed him a namaste in reply, assuming he would know the greeting. Sure enough, he replied in kind, but in this second email he requested that I put false numbers on the customs slip.
I replied with this statement:
"In regard to customs, a vow of Satya (Truthfulness) prevents falsification of forms."
He replied with this story:
"There once was a monk in a monastery far away in the Himalayas who was famous for keeping Satya, he never told one single lie, nor to himself or any other. One night a man came to the monastery seeking a hiding place because he was being chased by a man and his gang, who wanted to kill him. The monk agreed to hide him hoping that his followers would not come this way. But soon after the angry man and his men where at the gates of the monastery demanding to speak with the monk. The angry man said: “I am looking for a man who might have come this way tonight. Me and my men could easily tear this place down trying to find him, but I know that you never tell any lie, so just tell me if he is her a not and - if not - I shall leave taking your word for good”.
Now what was the monk to do?"
And after complaining about high customs fees in his home country in Scandinavia (he was only on holiday in India), he wrote:
"I therefore ask you kindly to consider this before declaring the value of the book. Any way the decision is yours and now you have a full view over the situation."
And my reply was:
"Re: The Monk's Dilemma
There was no dilemma for the monk. From his practice of svadhyaya he knew that Patanjali and others teach the yamas and niyamas in a particular order for a reason. Ahimsa is first because it controls, modifies, and conditions all the others. If an act or thought violates ahimsa, then it cannot be in accord with satya, whether we immediately understand the particulars of the circumstance or not. In the monk's story, the hidden man was not there to be harmed. Some teachers go so far as to say that ahimsa even subsumes all the other yamas and niyamas and that by mastering ahimsa alone, one has mastered all the rest. The foundation of ahimsa is the Oneness of All.
With an untrue entry on the customs label, the practice and habit of both ahimsa and satya would be broken. If I can't observe the yamas in a simple and easy instance such as this one, how can I build the practice and habit strongly enough to serve me in more difficult situations? I am not a saint, and only as recently as December 2nd did the light dawn in me that I must attend to practice, practice, practice.
With warm regards, and thank you for the story which I will share with my fellow students and teachers."
---Namaste
Namaste,
Satya is the yama for me to study this month. All my thoughts, words, and deeds will be examined with special emphasis through the lens and in the light of Satya.
Gopi Krishna wrote:
"My exercises in self-mastery included scrupulous adherence to truth. At first sight this resolve appears to be easy to accomplish, but it is much more difficult than one can imagine before trying it in actual practice. In my official career, especially, it was a hard discipline to follow. When parties involved in a case came to seek my advice and help, it was extremely difficult to be open and frank with them."
Living with Kundalini: The Autobiography of Gopi Krishna, Shambala Publications, Boston, 1993
*********************
Recently I sold a book on the Internet about the history of alchemy in Greaco-Roman Egypt. Seeing that the winning bidder emailed me from India, I tossed him a namaste in reply, assuming he would know the greeting. Sure enough, he replied in kind, but in this second email he requested that I put false numbers on the customs slip.
I replied with this statement:
"In regard to customs, a vow of Satya (Truthfulness) prevents falsification of forms."
He replied with this story:
"There once was a monk in a monastery far away in the Himalayas who was famous for keeping Satya, he never told one single lie, nor to himself or any other. One night a man came to the monastery seeking a hiding place because he was being chased by a man and his gang, who wanted to kill him. The monk agreed to hide him hoping that his followers would not come this way. But soon after the angry man and his men where at the gates of the monastery demanding to speak with the monk. The angry man said: “I am looking for a man who might have come this way tonight. Me and my men could easily tear this place down trying to find him, but I know that you never tell any lie, so just tell me if he is her a not and - if not - I shall leave taking your word for good”.
Now what was the monk to do?"
And after complaining about high customs fees in his home country in Scandinavia (he was only on holiday in India), he wrote:
"I therefore ask you kindly to consider this before declaring the value of the book. Any way the decision is yours and now you have a full view over the situation."
And my reply was:
"Re: The Monk's Dilemma
There was no dilemma for the monk. From his practice of svadhyaya he knew that Patanjali and others teach the yamas and niyamas in a particular order for a reason. Ahimsa is first because it controls, modifies, and conditions all the others. If an act or thought violates ahimsa, then it cannot be in accord with satya, whether we immediately understand the particulars of the circumstance or not. In the monk's story, the hidden man was not there to be harmed. Some teachers go so far as to say that ahimsa even subsumes all the other yamas and niyamas and that by mastering ahimsa alone, one has mastered all the rest. The foundation of ahimsa is the Oneness of All.
With an untrue entry on the customs label, the practice and habit of both ahimsa and satya would be broken. If I can't observe the yamas in a simple and easy instance such as this one, how can I build the practice and habit strongly enough to serve me in more difficult situations? I am not a saint, and only as recently as December 2nd did the light dawn in me that I must attend to practice, practice, practice.
With warm regards, and thank you for the story which I will share with my fellow students and teachers."
---Namaste
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