Sutra 1.30: Obstacle #5: Idleness

Yoga Sutra 1.30 presents us with nine different obstacles of the mind on our journey towards samadhi. These obstacles are disease, dullness, doubt, carelessness, fatigue, sensory attachment, wrong perspective, non-achievement, and non-steadiness.

Today we are looking at alaysa or what has been defined as laziness, idleness, and slothfulness. Let’s start by negating what this is not about, this is not about being tired, like when there is a newborn and you haven’t slept for days, or you pulled an all nighter to complete a presentation for work, this is not about sleep. This is about what happens when dis-ease downpours on body, mind, or spirit, which dampens our demeanor and paves the way for doubt to double down and delude our senses which opens the door for carelessness to clamor in. All of these compounded feels exhausting and this is the fatigue we are faced with that is the fifth obstacle on our spiritual journey.

We know that idleness is not the root cause, but a symptom of something much deeper, yet it does carry its’ own weight and has the ability to breed and multiply like a pesky insect. Our bodies and minds are tools that must be trained and when we ignore, avoid, or disregard them, they lose their luster, become weak, unreliable, and fragile. So while yoga is usually promoting “being” today we are talking about “doing.” Even if the doing is the commitment to sitting still or watching the sunset. And so I get to ask my very favorite question, how much of you is doing what your doing? There is absolutely doing that MUST get done, wether your having to do it or getting to do it is the difference between iceberg lettuce and kale, one  nourishes, the other, not so much.

We have been gifted this body and this breath, this mind, and this heart. We have the choice to climb the mountain or look at the mountain on our screensaver. We have the choice to express our loves and our fears to our beloveds or bottle them up and haul them around like overpriced baggage, we have the choice to learn the instrument, the language, the activity or we can die dreamless and detached on our devices. Lethargy and life are opposing forces that you are faced with each and every day. Choose life, choose to exercise your unique ability as a human to choose. Choose not to avoid your life, but to adventure it.

Blessings to You,

Thank you so much for your engagement in my interpretation of the yoga sutras. Perhaps knowing what these obstacles are can help us when they arrive. Rather than waste time judging and berating ourselves, we can get right to figuring out where the dis-ease is coming from. Stay the course my friends.

Love,

Andrea Dawn