Time For Enlightenment

Dear Yogis!

Happy Birthday Buddha! Today is the full moon in May which marks the day that the Buddha was born (as Prince Siddhartha), achieved enlightenment at the age of 35 and died at the age of 80. It’s probably the most important day in the Buddhist tradition and, because yoga philosophy and Buddhist thought share so many principles, I thought I’d share some contemplations. It’s a day that monasteries and temples spend on chanting and Dhamma talks. To start the day, I’ve listened to a ‘Dhamma talk’ and started preparing milk rice (kiributh) which is considered to be an auspicious food in Sri Lanka and marks all important days. Luckily, I have a video call with the abbot of Chithurst Monastery this morning.

The Dhamma Reflection I listened to is from Luang Por Sumedho called ‘The opportunity between birth and death’. Buddhist teaching makes clear that enlightenment is available to all of us! Similarly, yoga teaching is that we still the fluctuations of the mind and break through the sheaths and layers of identity and attachment that hide our true self. Luang Por Sumedho says we can “break through the forms of what we think we are: the ego, the self, the physical body, gender, age and all the things we have been culturally attuned to”.

And what would be the point of that? Where’s the fun? Where’s the joy? The Buddha couldn’t have been born into more fun and joy. His father surrounded him with pleasure, abundance, security, beauty, pleasant fragrances, no sickness, no old people, no pandemics, truly a heavenly realm, absolutely no unpleasantness and suffering. Well! Just like all best-laid plans, along came ‘Devaduta’, the Four Heavenly Messengers: an old man representing ageing, a diseased man representing sickness, a corpse representing death, and a nomadic monk representing renunciation. Luang Por Sumedho says that the heavenly messengers are here to shake us up and ask us what is the purpose of our lives. Suffering is not to be condemned and got rid of. That's an intellectual hole! But the forms we identify with are very unsatisfactory. They are subject to sickness and death.

This is a useful teaching, a tool for life, because when problems come along you have this philosophy to tell you that you are not defined by a situation and that situation won’t last. We are not bound to external definitions and conditioned phenomenon. Buddhism and yoga practice is about investigation and unpacking and uncovering. Today, Vesak, is not about birth or death but the awakening that can happen in the middle.

Zoom Classes 

I’m teaching today at 4.30, despite the Buddhist ‘Christmas’! Join me! Start your weekend with moving and breathing! You can book today’s class or all classes here.

Yoga in the news 

The Independent has: Ramdev: India’s most famous yoga guru clashes with medical community over Covid claims. The IMA had written in its letter that Ramdev’s “untutored” statements were “a threat to the literate society of the country as well as to the poor people falling prey to him”.

Elle has: 5 Yoga Exercises To Combat Stress Effectively Inhale positivity, exhale stress! ... I love these articles. These postures will combat stress if you can do them, the opposite if you can’t!

Happy Vesak!