In a state of enlightenment, acceptance is one of the dominant emotions, and it is no surprise that it is the emotion associated with the root chakra. Acceptance of what is, as it is, with nothing wrong at all, we see the world as perfect. I remember coming back from India one time, where I had stayed in a forest, and by the sea. I had been surrounded by nature and felt nourished by it. When I returned to my home town, the buildings dominated the landscape and I felt troubled inside. The buildings looked ugly, megaliths of stone and concrete, some with small windows, others greying with age. I had recently learned in meditation that if I wanted to stay in state of enlightenment, I needed to wacth the emotions moving through me, and avoid getting attached to negative thoughts. So when I looked at the buildings, I changed what I thought. I told myself that everything was just as it is, that nothing was wrong. I saw the cut stone, I imagined it being cut out of the ground, and I felt gratitude for the gift it was, and impressed that we humans had come so far in our journey that we could create such buildings.
Shvetashvatara upanishad, verse 4 – 5 (1)
The world is the wheel of God, turning round
And round with all living creatures upon its rim.
The world is the river of God,
Flowing from [ it ] and flowing back to [ it ].
This verse reminded me of the moment looking at the buildings. It is saying that the whole world is god, that it is an expression of god, no matter what it is. And so I accepted that the buildings were part of god. It is a moment that I have come back to several times since then. I believe that the natural world is our teacher, that wihtout it, we cannot be enlightenened, or truly happy. The buildings seemed to me like an aberration of nature, that in building them we had moved far away from the lush forest and the refreshing sea. But I realised that we humans are so clever that we can change our own minds, we can choose what to think. In other words, we can consciously evolve. We can do this so much so that what was once abhorrent to us, can become a source of peace.
It means that instead of seeing stone buildings as the product of earth, literally carved out of it, or a finite resource that releases carbon into the atmosphere, we see an achievement. Now many people already do this, they do it wihtout thinking. And I think this is where campaigners can become unstuck, because they are, in some ways, unelightening the people they are talking to. They are asking them to see ugliness where they see beauty. I guess it applies to many of the things around us that we consume: cars, cosmetics, phones etc. Since at least 600BC, when the Upanishads were written, we have seen acceptance of everything that is, as the road to enlightement, as the wheel of god.
The Upanishads are full of words that aim to cultivate acceptance of things as they are, and to see the totality of reality as a manifestation of god. It is a guiding principle that to be enlightened you must first see everyone and everything around you as enlightened. I understand this as a beautiful concept, and a challenge that makes life more interesting, it’s not exactly and easy task. But I think religion is largely rejected today because it is easy to see this kind of attitude as something people in power, or an established order, would seek to tell their people. Accept things as they are, we have everything under control. Personally, I feel that the words written down are true, but they were written at a time when we didn’t see thw whole picture.
When we deal with cultural texts from the past we accept that there is a certain amount of simplicity. That is not to belittle our ancestors, nor commit to a 100% linear evolution of mankind, but to appreciate that in terms of written texts and the knowledge that they purvey, they are less than perfect. We started to write things down so that we could build on what we knew, so that we could amass more knowledge than what we could remember. It also meant that the same knowledge was shared more widely, and the things that were shared became massively influential. The Hindu texts are no exeeption. But what I love about yoga is that it is scientific. It is not just a philosophy, or a way of life, but it tries to understand the light that moves within us.
Verse 15/16
‘Like oil in sesame seeds […]
so dwells the [Lady/]Lord of Love,
The Self in the very depths of consciousness.
Realize [it] through truth and meditation.
The self is hidden in the hearts of all’
So to meditate is to seek love and consciousness within. It is not about seeking fulfillment outside the self, in material goods or acknowledgment from other people, but about exploring the energy system within the body, using the breath, heart and bhandas to unlock our limitless potential.
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, when you meditate, certain truths are revealed, that help the meditator to navigate their daily life. These truths may be universal, such as we are all one, we are all energy, we are all light, or it might be more mundane, you;re being a control freak about this, or that person is taking advantage of you. All of these things are true, and they enlighten the pratictioner. This is the benefit of harnessing the inner light and illumnating onces own consciousness.
It is incredible to think that two and a half thousand years ago, we were advanced enouh to write down what we knew of this science. Today, talk about an inner light is often met with skepticism. It is not always easy to access, or it is used to create mischief. The rise of aestheism points to a world that doesn’t want to ascribe to the institution of religion, and I think that is because many people don’t want their inner light to be dictated by someone else. In other words, we learn right and wrong from our parents or guardians or friends or TV. So it is up to us to understand the light, the effect that it has and ultimately, what it means to be enlightened today.
If we are going to make inroads into earth-consciousness, to wake people up, we need to be aware that we are asking people to change what it measn to be enlightened, and to acknowledge that we are rejecting someone else’s enlightenment. When we say that we don’t want to develop along the same lines that we have been developing for the last five thousand years (at least) then we need to be aware that for many people this is scary.
In 600BC, we didn’t have science to tell us that many animals will go extinct if we behave in certain way, that high levels of consumption destroy habitats, that the atmosphere could be ruined, that as such, our mindset of progress is dangerous to our own livelihoods. When we established cities five thousand years ago, we changed what we thought of as enlightening. Instead if nature, we committed to the idea of civilisation as enlightening, and now we are destroying the planet. This is scary, what if people don’t wake up in time to stop climate change?
Is there such a thing as too much acceptance? Does too much acceptance lead to fatalism? A fatalist is someone someone who believes that people cannot change the way events will happen and that events, especially bad ones, cannot be avoided (2).
The root chakra, is all about acceptance as the antidote to fear. The root is our home, and everything that entails: our family, our job, and our sense of self. NO BIGGIE. If our root chakra is out of balance we cannot look after ourselves or our home. Looking at the state of our home, the earth, with all its utter destruction and pollution, the air, the water, the soil all wrecked, it looks like we have a serious problem with out root chakra.
If we’re looking at too much acceptance, rather than too much fear, which is what we’re always taught, ‘cultivate acceptance’ us yoga teachers say, does the world look any different? What we need to protect the earth, rather than more acceptance, is actually more fear. More fear to act by eating a vegan diet at least some of, if not all the time. More fear to take the bus, or the train, or to cycle. To reject the way things are, is in some ways is to reject enlightenment. Which means that to recognise that something needs to change means moving towards a place of fear. Waking people up means scaring people. (not too much, beasue if an aim is not acheivable people won’t be motivated to act) it means learning to navigate difficult issues with sensitivity and bravery so that constructive seeds of fear can be sown.
For me God is the unknowable,it is what is common to all of us, although not everyone agrees on what it is. The ancient scriptures show that people have been asking the same questions for eternity. If you’re into yoga you probably feel drawn to texts that deal in light, but the point is that while god is the unknowable that underlies all things, how we come to be enlightened, how we cultivate acceptance, and gratitude, how we negotiate our way between the light and our perception of what is good for us, is not even as simple as being enlightened, or happy. Sometimes we need to cultivate fear, so that we can act.
(1) Easwaran, E. (1987) The Upanishads reprinted 2007. US: Nilgiri Press
(2) https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fatalist
Sarasvati Flow 