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 suppose it’s an necessary topic. It’s usually because I really feel that it’s critically necessary and I wish to be sure I signify it with the gravity and respect it deserves, inside the bounds of a shortish weblog publish. Practising satya appears to be extra necessary than ever in today 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, sensible use of sexuality, and refraining from intoxicants that cloud the thoughts). Truthfulness can be a step alongside the Eightfold Path.

Truthfulness as a Basis

After I was a teen, there have been three business TV stations, and one public station. Everybody obtained 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 truth 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 should not skilled to know how you can discern between reality and opinion, or between reality and fiction. This has resulted in media customers retreating into their corners, complicated opinion with truth, and selling unfounded conspiracy theories that demonize the “different.” We now not share a standard basis of agreed-upon reality.

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

This may occur in interpersonal relationships as properly. Our private relationships is usually a laboratory for working towards impeccable truthfulness. Most significantly, this contains our relationship with ourselves.

Shades of Satya

Practising satya in our lives isn’t as simple as it’d sound. The observe, after all, contains refraining from apparent untruthfulness, reminiscent of making up tales out of entire fabric. Satya additionally contains not committing lies of omission, reality shading or exaggeration. There are occasions once we might shade the reality or omit pertinent particulars with a view 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 technique or one other. We want not choose ourselves for these lapses. In some methods, they’re a part of studying how you can be extra truthful.

Practising truthfulness simplifies our lives and results in better equanimity. Mark Twain mentioned, “When 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 help it? After which, it’s a must to keep in mind what you informed which individual? Telling lies or shading the reality complicates our lives. It usually results in our being caught for telling tales, which, in flip erodes others’ belief in us. It’s a lot, a lot easier to only inform the reality.

Lapses in satya may be delicate, and even unintentional. It is because we don’t all the time acknowledge the filters of notion that we layer over the reality. We might stand by a selected opinion piece just because it bolsters our views. Or within the case of an early romance, we might ignore an unflattering reality just because we don’t wish to see it. We might imagine we’re seeing a state of affairs clearly, however in reality, 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. After we perceive what filters are conserving us from seeing a state of affairs clearly, we are able to start to see via them. This helps us make wiser decisions.

This work may be humbling. It could possibly shatter our concepts of who we’re. Typically the patterns we’ve chosen to nourish should not flattering. However it’s all the time worthwhile to uncover them. First, seeing the place we’re liable to falter helps us generate empathy for the failings of others. Second, if we wish to stay a lifetime of integrity, we have now to grasp the mechanisms that hold us from clear seeing. Residing a lifetime of integrity and truthfulness results in better ease.

The right way to Apply Satya on the Yoga Mat

We will use our yoga observe and instructing as a laboratory for exploring satya. Listed below are a number of options:

• Do you end up pushing past your physique’s limits if you’re in a category out of worry that your regular poses should not “good” sufficient? Do you keep away from utilizing yoga props reminiscent of Yoga Blocks or Yoga Straps in school if you could be inclined to make use of them at residence? In that case, discover your motivation, and tune into no matter psychological state could be accompanying it. For instance, is nervousness, competitiveness or envy current? These psychological states can operate as filters. How would it not be to observe the yoga that’s truest to your physique on this second, somewhat than attempting to satisfy some expectation of what a “good” pose seems like?
• As a trainer, honesty with our college students is essential. This implies admitting you don’t know the reply to a query in the event you actually don’t understand it. After all, you may analysis the scholar’s query and report again later in the event you’ve give you a solution. You may as well discover the query alongside along with your scholar by asking them pertinent questions on why they’re asking, what they’re feeling, and so forth. Even after 40-plus years of observe, I’m properly conscious that I do know solely a fraction of what there’s 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 might falter in our dedication to satya every so often. Discover if you really feel tempted to shade the reality. And provides your self a pat on the again if you chorus from doing it. As you observe and turn into extra expert at understanding and talking the reality, you’ll uncover extra delicate manifestations of it. Typically, you might must chorus from talking till for certain what your reality is—with out filters. That is all a part of the method, one that may enrich your relationships and result in a lifetime of simplicity and ease.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced instructing 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 Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards in 2010.