Weblog Entry - 07/17/2002: "7/16/02 Spiritual Discipline"

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07/17/2002 Entry: "7/16/02 Spiritual Discipline"

Last night I went to sleep at 1 AM. As I was going to sleep, I argued, to myself: "wouldn’t it make more sense to get at least 4 or 5 hours sleep, so I could do a coherent sadhana in the morning, rather than getting up at 3:30?"

But I refused to succumb, as there is only one way to do something every day. So, I rose at 3:30 and did a zombie sadhana, not much in the way of experience or presence in the moment. I did go back to sleep after sadhana. But, the chain of getting up at 3:30 remains unbroken.

Why is this important to me? There is a way in which one’s outward yoga practice is an analogy for one’s inner self. "Yoga" means "union" and also "to yoke," as in yoking a pair of oxen to pull together, or, more directly, to yoke the body and mind (our personal oxen) to serve the will of one’s higher consciousness (the driver). Most of the time, for most of us, the body and mind are the driver, and we are pulled along willy-nilly by our desires.

I wish to live in my higher consciousness, to be able to experience the presence of the Beloved on a regular basis. Just as the only way to wake every day at a certain time, requires just that, waking every day at that certain time; so does living in one’s higher consciousness require living in one’s higher consciousness. That is to say, keeping one’s consciousness in the upper triangle (of chakras), from the heart center upwards, as opposed to the lower triangle, from the navel center downwards.

We speak, in Sikh Dharma, of the five obstacles: "lust, anger, greed, pride, and attachment." In my morning prayer (Ardas), I generally offer the following: "protect us and our loved ones from the five obstacles, lust, anger, greed, pride, and attachment, and keep us only attached to Thy Lotus Feet." By the way, "Thy Lotus Feet" is metaphorical, as we perceive the Divine to be beyond form.

So, part of the purpose of spiritual discipline is to give our mind the habit of obeying our higher consciousness and ourselves the habit of exerting the will of our higher consciousness. We do this in part by having our word be meaningful. So that if I say, I will do "x," that I know, inside and outside, and you know as well, that I will do "x," if at all humanly possible.