Wisdom is wisdom

I’ve had little connection with yoga in my life, so it may seem strange that I’ve joined Blisschick and others in reading The Wisdom of Yoga by Stephen Cope. But it seems this isn’t just physical (hatha) yoga, it’s a whole philosophy and way of life.

This post looks at the Introduction through to the end of Chapter One in Stephen Cope’s book.

The very first thing that struck me is how much I could see in what I read of the Enneagram system of personal and spiritual development that I teach. And Cope incorporates ideas from Christian and Buddhist thought into his explanations. This is hardly surprising, wisdom is wisdom, wherever you find it, and the underlying tenets are the same even if expressed differently.

In Enneagram spirituality, we talk a lot about awareness. Once you know the compulsions of your personality, try to remain in a state of awareness so you recognise patterns as they arise; you can then sometimes let go of your compulsive reactions. There is a mudra (a symbolic yoga posture or gesture) to represent each of the Enneagram personality types.  Lots of connections.

The first chapters of Cope’s book talk a lot about stillness. One of the characters, Jake, is going through a period of crisis, leading to a state described in yogi terms as samvega:

a kind of disllusionment with mundane life, and a wholehearted longing for a deeper investigation into the inner workings of the mind and self.

Of contemplative living:

The impulse towards stillness is the central movement of the contemplative life… one intuits some precious new interior self. One sneaks off into the woods like an animal, builds a nest for the birth. Guards it ferociously. And waits in silence.

Actually ‘waiting in silence’ is so difficult for me, I feel much more comfortable just talking about it, and boy did I resist! Here are just a few of the things I did as distractions so I wouldn’t have to keep reading:

• Searched for and downloaded a video from iTunes
• Read and commented on some blog posts
• Played a computer game (I’ve recently succumbed to Sims3 – big mistake, feeding my addiction…)
• Twittered
• Facebooked
• Even did some housework

So many of us hope for “time off”, for the chance to unwind and live more simply. I have that opportunity. But I find I’m often still longing for some future time when everything will be better, and using distractions rather than taking the time to look deeply, now.

What are you doing to avoid stillness?

Image by nflorence

Elsewhere:

Do read Blisschick’s and her commenters’ posts on this book. I haven’t done yet, because I didn’t want them to influence what I had to say, but off I go to do so.

Tweet This Post