Yoga 101: Satya – Truthfulness

I’ll begin this publish with a disclosure. I’ve been laying aside writing about satya (truthfulness) for a number of years. It’s not as a result of I don’t assume it’s an essential topic. It’s often because I really feel that it’s critically essential and I need to make certain I characterize it with the gravity and respect it deserves, throughout the bounds of a shortish weblog publish. Training satya appears to be extra essential than ever in as of late of widespread disinformation—and the way in which it has harmed our nationwide dialog. On this publish, I’ll focus on satya as each an intention and as a observe.

Satya is the second of yoga’s yamas (ethical precepts) in Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga. Satya challenges us to observe impeccable honesty in our ideas, phrases and deeds. The Buddha positioned truthfulness on the basis of his 5 precepts (non-harming, truthfulness, non-stealing, clever use of sexuality, and refraining from intoxicants that cloud the thoughts). Truthfulness can also be a step alongside the Eightfold Path.

Truthfulness as a Basis

Once I was an adolescent, there have been three business TV stations, and one public station. Everybody acquired their information and data from these stations and from our every day newspapers. Journalistic requirements required the usage of a number of sources and a number of layers of reality checking. Within the age of the web free-for-all, whereas journalistic requirements nonetheless apply to most main media shops, the dividing line between journalism and opinion has turn into fairly hazy.

Many individuals aren’t skilled to know the best way to discern between reality and opinion, or between reality and fiction. This has resulted in media customers retreating into their corners, complicated opinion with reality, and selling unfounded conspiracy theories that demonize the “different.” We not share a typical basis of agreed-upon reality.

Like all construction, a relationship’s power depends on the integrity of its basis. I concern that as a tradition, we’ve misplaced this basis. The consequence has been a chaos of divisiveness and demonization.

This may occur in interpersonal relationships as effectively. Our private relationships could be a laboratory for practising impeccable truthfulness. Most significantly, this consists of our relationship with ourselves.

Shades of Satya

Training satya in our lives is just not as simple as it’d sound. The observe, after all, consists of refraining from apparent untruthfulness, similar to making up tales out of entire material. Satya additionally consists of not committing lies of omission, reality shading or exaggeration. There are occasions once we could shade the reality or omit pertinent particulars in an effort to elevate our picture or to guard us from judgment. Everybody I do know, together with myself, has experimented with shading the reality in a method or one other. We’d like not choose ourselves for these lapses. In some methods, they’re a part of studying the best way to be extra truthful.

Training truthfulness simplifies our lives and results in larger equanimity. Mark Twain mentioned, “In the event you inform the reality, you don’t have to recollect something.” Have you ever ever informed a lie after which needed to make up a bunch of different tales to assist it? After which, you need to keep in mind what you informed which particular person? Telling lies or shading the reality complicates our lives. It typically results in our being caught for telling tales, which, in flip erodes others’ belief in us. It’s a lot, a lot less complicated to simply inform the reality.

Lapses in satya may be delicate, and even unintentional. It is because we don’t at all times acknowledge the filters of notion that we layer over the reality. We could stand by a specific opinion piece just because it bolsters our views. Or within the case of an early romance, we could ignore an unflattering reality just because we don’t need to see it. We might imagine we’re seeing a state of affairs clearly, however the truth is, the perceptions we use to outline ourselves and our world could also be appearing as filters.

Satya and Mindfulness Apply

That is the place mindfulness is available in. Mindfulness observe provides us the talents to see via our filters—our deeply held beliefs and perceptions. Observing the habits of our personal minds helps us determine our psychological patterns and preferences. Once we perceive what filters are protecting us from seeing a state of affairs clearly, we are able to start to see via them. This helps us make wiser selections.

This work may be humbling. It will probably shatter our concepts of who we’re. Generally the patterns we’ve chosen to nourish aren’t flattering. However it’s at all times worthwhile to uncover them. First, seeing the place we’re susceptible to falter helps us generate empathy for the failings of others. Second, if we need to reside a lifetime of integrity, we’ve to grasp the mechanisms that hold us from clear seeing. Dwelling a lifetime of integrity and truthfulness results in larger ease.

Easy methods to Apply Satya on the Yoga Mat

We are able to use our yoga observe and educating as a laboratory for exploring satya. Listed here are a number of ideas:

• Do you end up pushing past your physique’s limits while you’re in a category out of concern that your regular poses aren’t “good” sufficient? Do you keep away from utilizing yoga props similar to Yoga Blocks or Yoga Straps at school while you could be inclined to make use of them at dwelling? If that’s the case, discover your motivation, and tune into no matter psychological state could be accompanying it. For instance, is anxiousness, competitiveness or envy current? These psychological states can perform as filters. How wouldn’t it be to observe the yoga that’s truest in your physique on this second, quite than making an attempt to fulfill some expectation of what a “excellent” pose appears like?
• As a instructor, honesty with our college students is essential. This implies admitting you don’t know the reply to a query for those who actually don’t comprehend it. After all, you possibly can analysis the coed’s query and report again later for those who’ve provide you with a solution. You may also discover the query alongside along with your pupil by asking them pertinent questions on why they’re asking, what they’re feeling, and many others. Even after 40-plus years of observe, I’m effectively conscious that I do know solely a fraction of what there may be to find out about yoga. Admitting that you just don’t know is a chance to be taught extra.

Satya Is a Lifelong Apply

As with all observe, we could falter in our dedication to satya once in a while. Discover while you really feel tempted to shade the reality. And provides your self a pat on the again while you chorus from doing it. As you observe and turn into extra expert at realizing and talking the reality, you’ll uncover extra delicate manifestations of it. Generally, it’s possible you’ll must chorus from talking till you recognize for certain what your reality is—with out filters. That is all a part of the method, one that can enrich your relationships and result in a lifetime of simplicity and ease.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third ebook is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Crimson Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards in 2010.