More “Buddhi, Less Buddha
“This could be the moment of your life if you don’t wait for it to be over.”
As we move through the yoga practice, but also everything else in life we often come to a point where we do to get. We practice to be able to do certain postures, we chase goals, money, or people in life because we think they will make us “happy”. We put so much value on a future state of being that we often miss paradise when it actually arises.
In the Samkya System (a dualistic orthodox school of Hindu philosophy) is a word called ‘buddhi’ (intelligence) which comes from the root of “budh” meaning ‘to awaken’. As we begin to practice yoga or engage with life we will naturally begin to awaken our own intelligence. Through the continuum and consistency of once practice, we begin to purify our intelligence over and over again. It’s not like you wake it up and once you have it, it will stay with you. One of my teachers describes it as taking out the garbage. It’s not enough to take the garbage out once or only when you feel like it. It needs routine and commitment to stay clean and clear, in your life, your body, your mind,… You “do” the practice so that when the flash of insight arises you are awake enough to notice it. You engage with life, you empty your garbage bin so that when the byproduct of living, rubbish (insight, residue,…) is produced you have somewhere to place it and notice it. At the same time, you don’t hold on to the rubbish but “clean” it out the next day, remaining open for whatever the moment presents to you. You continue to empty your cup and give it all up again to be fluid with the flow of life and give every moment the chance to be the moment of your life and not wait for it to be over for a specific consolation (posture, goal, money, person,…) to appear.
There will be moments that will spark greater joy than others, but you will notice that when you continue to sharpen and purify your intelligence (“buddhi”) the gripping of your ego and the attachment to these specific imagined moments in time that you value so much will become porous and maybe melt into moments of contentment when they aren’t your current experience.