Peace is like a cup that is washed, cleaned, and ready to use. The washing and the cleaning is not a very pleasant activity. If you look carefully, what does it mean, the washing and cleaning? It means you put some soap, scrub, take out the dirt or whatever is left of your food then you rinse it till the soap is gone. It’s not pleasant always, because what happens? If it’s big dirt it goes and clog the sink, blocks the pipes, when it gets blocked then there’s trouble because now you can’t wash any more. It’s trouble for you and for everyone. That cleaning process we call purification. To find peace first we must purify.
Purification is going to happen for everyone on this course. And sometimes there are some very heavy things that are going to go down the drain and clog it up and that will mean trouble. That trouble may come out as anger. When you’re angry the first person to blame is the teacher. The teacher is always in the firing range. How will it happen? You’ll start thinking ‘the teacher is wrong, is like this and that’ your mind starts to work. Or someone else is disturbing you and you blame that person. All these kind of things come up when purification is taking place. The dirt goes and gets stuck somewhere on someone else. This is inevitable.
Now, you have to see this happening and check it before it blows up, by appreciation of the present moment. By appreciation you can dissolve the dirt. No other way. Otherwise, dirt clogs everything and you cannot use this body, this mind properly. How is this manifested in the routine of your day? Simple, someone takes your prop and you hate them ‘this person… I’m going to get them’. Or you say something very harsh and then that person has also got some things coming out and it erupts. All this can and does happen during purification. You need to be aware this is happening and pull out, pull out of it. If you feel very negative, angry, go out, take a deep breath and look at the trees, the plants, something that you really like. There’s a fountain down there you can turn it on and just look at the water going up and falling down. Wonderful. Do something that you really like and don’t make other people suffer for your purification.
Himalayan Iyengar Yoga Centre
Yoga Master Teacher Sharat Arora
Article derived from Intensive Course at the Himalaya Shanti Ashram,
Dharamshala, 16 March 2015
