what’s the point? practicing non-attachment [vid]

A meandering, exploring kind of blog post. Let’s see what comes up.

Non-attachment. Vairagya in Sanskrit. Buddhists seem big on it. My teacher, Swami Maheshananda Saraswati, encourages us to practice it. But what the heck is it, exactly? And how does it relate to our daily modern life?

Friends of mine from Moksana Yoga recently signed up for a three-day intensive on the Bhagavad Gita with Carlos Pomeda. When I ran into them on the lunch break of their last day, they were high on what they’d learned.

So what are you taking away? I wondered. How did he make it relevant to our daily lives?

The answer was long, and full of happy exclamations. They shared this example: There’s a link between indifference and inaction. Nobody’s suggesting that our practice enable us to remain indifferent, or take no action. What our teachers are suggesting is that we avoid indifference, that we take action, that we fully give our everything, but we let go of the end result.

In other words, we show up, shine brightly, and consider that enough.

We let go of the need to control.

Where? When? In our jobs, when we work our arses off on a project that doesn’t see the light of day. With our loved ones, when we love love love them anyways, even though they forgot to call, forgot the weekend plans, forgot forgot forgot. In our cars, when someone tailgates us and then flips the bird as they finally speed by.

Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati says:

Yoga says no to detachment. Do not avoid situations in life or even in yourself, but learn to accept the existence of the things that are around you. Once you have accepted them and know their nature, then it is possible to become non-attached.

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what’s the point? practicing non-attachment [vid]

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