Yesterday, we spoke about withdrawing from the senses and today we
speak about why we even want to connect to the senses in the first place.
In Gary Zukav’s book The Seat of the Soul, he speaks candidly about the
essence of an addiction. What Zukav reveals is at the heart of an
addiction is the mode of powerlessness. And this mode of
powerlessness is the root cause behind our desire to have an
imbalanced connection to the senses.
When a new yoga student begins his or her practice, they are just
beginning to feel their bodies and just beginning to develop a connection
with the body and the mind. Yoga does not expect a new student to be
able to feel at what degree the sacrum is tilt at or where the energy flow of
a particular body part is during the first stages of the practice. It is simply
too sensitive of a request. Nor I am going to suggest the next time we
reach out for a drink, for an outburst of anger, for a sexual affair, for a line
of gossip or for an extra piece of cake that we are going to be able to feel
that in that moment we are indeed feeling powerlessness and are
attempting to be filled by something outside of ourselves — but this is
precisely what we are doing. Zukav reminds us that every time we
choose ourselves over the addiction, we make ourselves more powerful
and the addiction less powerful.
Through meditation (yoga practice) you can begin to lift layers of
novocation and begin to feel what’s really going on. The next time you
reach out to feel good, and living in 2008 there are many many ways to
feel good, take a moment and see what are you really feeling? If you do,
you may find a wound you’ve been ignoring.
