Kindness

The book,  "The Secret Power of Yoga", a translation of the yoga sutras by author Nischala Joy Devi, is a story that illustrates a deeper practice as it relates to kindness. Instead of the easier practice of random acts of being kind to others, this story describes a picnic on a beautiful day, in a peaceful garden with a picnic basket filled with yummy food and perhaps good company in tow. Soon after setting up the picnic another person, a man that appears to be enjoying the same beauty of the day arrives and sits close by...and then lights up an expensive cigar. 

So what would be your reaction? How would you feel if this were you who had anticipated a pleasurable outing only to have it intersected with something that you deem as unpleasant?

Sutra 1.33 describes keys that support us in unlocking our own inner peacefulness. The first key is to show kindness towards those who are happy. In the story above, it is likely that most of us would react with a sense of indignation..."How could he be so inconsiderate? We were here first! Is he completely unconscious as to know how this might impact others?". As a result, our emotional reaction will linger with us for quite some time. It might be difficult to let the feelings of indignation subside quickly, unless we shift our energy around the situation. If we can send thoughts of kindness to the stranger and, as Nischala Devi says, "Instead, try opening your heart and allowing kindness to meet his happiness...Try overriding the mind's indignation with the heart's desire to love everyone."

From another perspective, when we start to offer a feeling of kindness to those who are happy, we can initially be confronted by our own feelings of jealousy or disappointment. In the practice of lovingkindness, we offer statements as gifts not only to others, but ultimately to ourselves. In repeating the statements of "May I be happy, may you be happy and may all beings everywhere be happy" we truly begin to see that what we wish for ourselves is the same as what all beings everywhere also wish for themselves. It reminds us how intricately we are all connected even if we have moments of disappointment, jealousy or disagreement.

We practice with ourselves so that a different vibration can be sent out from us, one that has a resounding and positive impact rather than one that keeps us stuck in our own suffering. As Nischala Joy Devi states, " we hold the key to our own peace". I love that! We hold the key. Nobody else can bring peace into our hearts except ourselves and until we start to look more consciously at our own inner selves we often don't even realize that we ARE the ones in possession of the key. We look to others wondering what they can do for us to make life easier or more peaceful.

In another translation of Sutra 1.33, Swami Jnaneshvara states, "In relationships, the mind becomes purified by cultivating feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy, compassion for those who are suffering, goodwill towards those who are virtuous, and indifference or neutrality towards those we perceive as wicked or evil". (from The Unadorned Thread of Yoga" a compilation of translations of the yoga-sutra of patanjali by Salvatore Zambita). So as we travel throughout our day, let's notice those moments when we are triggered by indignation, view our reaction as perfectly human and make an attempt "to cultivate feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy" and see how it might just shift our perspective.

May I be kind.

May I offer kindness to those who are happy.

May I offer kindness to all beings everywhere.