Back in the US, I was invited to attend a weekly yoga sutra reading hosted by my former yoga instructor, Steven. The idea was to read the “Yoga Sutras” and discuss the passages in a very laid back enviroment. I was able to attend to only two meetings; however, I made the point to read the Yoga Sutras on my own… the 17 hour flight to Singapore was the right time to do it!
The sutras reading is not an easy one, and even with all the commentaries included is very difficult to deeply understand and relate to the underlying messages. It must be that the understanding of the sutras is reserved for a special few. However, this didn’t stop me from reading. These set of separate threads have withstand the pass of time and today, I believe that are even more useful that when they were originally wrote. Below is the one that grabbed my attention:
Chapter 1:33
MAITRI KARUNA MUDITOPEKSANAM SUKHA DUKHA PUNYAPUNYA VISAYANAM BHAVANATAS CITTA PRASADANAM.
Sri Swami Satchidananda translated this sutra to: “By cultivating attitudes of friendliness towards the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous and disregard towards the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness”. So, what should we take from this sutra in order to maintain peace of mind:
Not to be jealous or envious when we see happy people. The feeling of jealousy only affects you…the person you are jealous or envious of, most of the time do not even know it. How many times have you told a friend or somebody how much you envy him/her? I guess that NEVER! So, you are the only one with the negative feeling. The trick, be friendly with this person, in this way you will maintain your inner peace. A similar reasoning is used towards the virtuous people. The key word used by the sutras is “Delight”.
Last but not least, this sutra suggests that in the case of wicked people (I think more of unreasonable or “crazy” people), the message is not to attempt to provide advice. In other words, let them live their lives and continue with their nonsense. When we provide advice to friends or family that we believe are doing something wrong or crazy, most of the time we are seeing as arrogant, full or ourselves, etc. So why waste our energy trying to advise the wicked. “Disregard” is the attitude that should be assumed towards these people. If we assume the attitudes described in the sutra with each type of person, you will definitely retain inner peace or peace of mind…trust me, it works.
Some quotes about attitude…
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us.
And the updated version of one of my favorites quote, which I learned in Mexico:
When life give you lemons, make a lemonade… and add a Tequila shot… Serve chilled!
