Pain and pleasure go together

 by Tattwa Bodha

After spending time in ‘the real world,’ I felt like telling people how unhappy I found them. One needed an operation, one looking for work, and another fed up with her job. A man is dying - his wife cannot accept it and hopes he will survive regardless of his quality of life. A woman lost her husband and, at the same time, everything else. Friends do not dare to call for fear they’ll have nothing to say to her. Not to mention other problems, such as lack of money, despair at ones lack of freedom, impossible choices. All sadly ordinary, but for each person their situation is unbearable. Everyone is saying, ‘What on earth have I done to deserve this?’

The trouble is that we all want to be young, handsome, slim and healthy, just like the people we see in magazines. We want to be rich and famous, and of course live forever. When we realise all along that we are being conned by advertising, we may feel our life has been wasted. We are living in the illusion that our inner needs can be fulfilled by the ever changing and therefore unstable external world.

Sadness and anxiety are contagious in the society in which we live. They penetrate us without warning. Sometimes it is necessary to find a place to be quiet, where we know we will be surrounded by good energy. What is good energy? It is an energy which suits us! A safe place where our storms can be allowed to rage, where there is room for us to just be without judgement or masks, where we can observe ourselves, appreciate the value and joy of being and at the same time learn to be less selfish. Taking time out of the world, giving ourselves a rest, and starting to discover how we function can help us. There are not many such places that I know of, but one I can highly recommend is the Ashram here in Wales.

Of course Yoga will not solve all life’s problems, nor does it claim to. Life will go on with its ups and downs and its dramas. There is a simple, undeniable fact which has been repeated in many ways by great poets and others: we are physical beings, subject to all kinds of joys and sorrows. Pain and pleasure go together. We waste time and energy being caught up in the mind’s turmoil and trying to resist the inevitable. We long to rid ourselves of the boiling turbulence in our heads, hearts, and bellies, yet we do not know how to find clarity. Yoga is the expert. It can bring us back to the fullness of the present moment and the possibility of living at 100%. Techniques first transmitted by sages long ago show us the means to re-energise ourselves. Yoga can help us change our attitude to life and go with the flow. It might take some time, but on the way to bliss and great peace the many veils in which we are wrapped drop away. Then, unexpectedly, because we are able to recognize that there is something greater, both inside and outside our small body shell, which encourages us to change, life becomes simply as it is, incredibly mysterious and powerful. Accepting our human nature allows our tensions, be they moral, emotional or physical, to release, which makes room for laughter, creativity and that ineffable something.

Accept and even be thankful for whatever happens every day, every second! When we are truly aware of being in the present moment, there is movement towards spaciousness and an experience of Consciousness.