The Mango Seed

                               

                                    In How Yoga Works, Friday says to the Captain, 
           "If we discover that a worldview does not work--if it does not help people, 
   if it does not really bring real happiness to people--then we must have the courage 
           to stop following it and correct it, and not blindly pass on to our children 
  something which will not work for them either, something which may even hurt them"  
                                                  (Chapter 34, p. 257).

This made me think of some quotes and a cartoon I've seen in the last few years.  

First, when the Dalai Lama was asked what surprised him most about humanity, he replied, “Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.  Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

And Ellen Goodman writes, "Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."

So it seems our typical worldview is not working well for us on a number of different levels: we structure our days in non-nurturing ways, we insist on seeing things as black or white politically and religiously, we live in fear that creates an "us" and "them" mentality, and we feel the compulsion to accumulate and hoard because we believe if others have something we want, there might not be enough left for us.   All these ways of seeing things seem to grow out of a dualistic way of thinking:  If I'm right, you must be wrong.  A can only ever be A.

To me, yoga seems like a wonderful way out of dualistic thinking.  Jesus' teachings do, as well.

Franciscan Father Richard Rohr writes in What the Mystics Know, "Jesus said that it took parables to subvert our unconscious worldview--and thereby expose its illusions, even to us.  Parables should make us a bit uncomfortable if we are really hearing them. . . .  A parable confronts our world and subverts it.  It doesn't call for discussion, debate, or questions; it is not God-as-information.  Rather it is God-as-invitation-and-challenge.  A parable calls us to insight and decision.  A parable doesn't lead us to endless analysis; it's either a flashing insight or it's nothing.  Like a joke, ti leads up to the punch line.  Either you get it or you don't" (pp. 67-8).

In yoga, the ultimate self control is "how we see things, for this view of the world--this worldview--is what will determine what all of us do in our words and actions, and what we pass on to our children for them to follow" (How Yoga Works, p. 257).

The universe is abundant, in every sense.  If we give and share and nurture, good seeds will be planted, and more good seeds will result.

"No seed is ever wasted: nothing we ever do, nothing we ever say, nothing we ever think ever fails to plant a seed. . . .  Seeds in the mind, over time, grow: they expand, and get bigger, just as much as seeds in nature do. . . .  Are not even the hopes that drive people to work at an occupation for their entire lifetimes, for decades, born in a single idea as they begin their careers?  Mental seeds don't grow any less than mango pits, and probably a lot more. . . .  We all have a job to do.  We have to try to get at the old bad seeds--the ones already planted in our minds in the past, by mistake.  Whatever old good seeds we have need reinforcement, and cultivating. . . .  In short, we must become experts at the intelligent management of our mental seeds" (How Yoga Works, pp. 209-12).

We must become

As gardeners.

(Yoga Sutras IV.3B)