I just read something that twisted my little brain in knots. The concept of "self improvement" is considered a form of avidya, a form of unclear perception. In America - self improvement is king, I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t want to be "better" or "get ahead" by self improvement. But in a practice where you are attempting to get to the stripped down core of who you are, self-improvement is an expression of the ego. The want to "improve" yourself is viewed lovingly by yogis, because it is often what leads people to yoga, but is a symptom of clouded perception.
This quote from T.K.V. Desikachar blows my mind "I doubt that there is anyone who really does not want to improve himself, and even if our first step springs from the desire to become better and is therefore rooted in the ego, it is still a right step because it takes us on to the first rung of the yoga ladder. Furthermore we do not stay permanently committed to this initial goal of self- improvement." The goal of bettering ourselves as something to be gotten over.
He speaks of "working on ourselves" and I am trying to shift my perceptions to understand that it is not the same as "bettering" myself - that saying I am bettering myself or improving myself is a false perception of who I am now. If everything I need is right here, inside of myself, than working on myself is digging to find that essential self; it cannot be "bettered" but I can work on sweeping away the false perceptions that keep me from coming to an understanding of that self and keep me at war with the world. It comes from a different place than our western religion. The goal of Christianity is to take our terribly imperfect selves and improve and work on them until they become something passable so we can obtain heaven. The goal of yoga, so far as I understand now, is to take the false assumptions, actions and perceptions and sweep them aside to find the pure self that is already in us so we can find peace with ourselves and the world around us.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Good one on Self Improvement and it helps a lot.
Thanks,
Karim - Positive
thinking
Hmmm... I like this. I think I am going to have to ponder it further when I'm not trying to do seventeen things at once. :)
Post a Comment