Hi,
This is Morgan at Splendid Thought Yoga.
Aparigraha is translated to non-attachment or non-grasping or non-hoarding.
And in the essential yoga sutras written by Geshe Michael Roach,
He translates it as avoiding possessiveness by making a determined effort to live simply.
I love that because a lot of people have described the concept of non-grasping to me as non-materialism and the fact of the matter is we do need some material to live.
We need some materials to survive,
To stay warm,
To feed ourselves and to feed our creature comfort.
The other side of it that Roach brings into it is it refers to envy,
As he writes,
Very unfortunate feelings of displeasure.
When others get something nice or our strange sense of satisfaction over others' problems,
Like the concept of schadenfreude,
Taking pleasure in someone else's suffering,
It's the opposite of compassion.
So aparigraha refers to,
In the Buddhist terms,
That sense of non-attachment,
Where it's not so much that you're letting go as much as you are letting be with gratitude.
You are just so filled with gratitude for whatever it is that's surrounding you right now.
So right now I'm looking at my puppy licking himself,
Looking at pictures of family.
I'm looking at the home that I've been welcomed into.
I'm looking at the warmth of what surrounds me.
And if I were really sitting with my humanity,
There's a lot that I want right now that I don't have.
But if I'm sitting with my highest self,
There is so much that I have and I have everything that I need.
So why wouldn't I exist in that state of bliss and gratitude of just being thankful for what I have instead of focusing on what I think I want?
Because the truth is,
Once desires,
All that stuff is about the future.
And that's what our humanity needs to propel us forward through certain points in our life.
We need to have hope that what we're working on is going to somehow pay off in the future.
But the concept of aparigraha gives you freedom from that because it forces you to be so grateful for what you have right now.
And here's the trick that opens up the spiritual pipeline for you to receive exactly what it is will help you serve your purpose.
So for some of us,
In fact,
For the vast majority of us,
That's going to be some combination of money,
Opportunities to make money,
Opportunities to help people while making money.
And we'll use that money as a channel to bring in the help that we can provide,
But also to put out into the world what we're going to need.
Right.
Because we don't we don't get money to keep it.
Some people do.
It's not healthy.
It's not normal.
We don't get money to keep it.
We get money to let it flow through us.
Right.
Money is the middle man between what we can give and what we need to receive.
And when you change your relationship to money in that way,
When you look at it as a river rather than a dam,
I mean,
The river just never stops flowing ever.
And it's so much more vast than you could possibly imagine.
And you get to experience not just that one individual river,
But also all the waves of the ocean that the river feeds into,
All the creeks and inlets that it feeds into,
All the energy that it feeds into.
And you get to let that pass through you.
And that's the freedom that non-attachment,
That aparigraha gives you.
So for this meditation,
I'd like you to sit comfortably in a traditional cross-legged situation with your hands resting and your right hand facing out in front of your shoulder.
Your left hand facing up,
The symbol of equal giving and receiving.
Relax your shoulders and as much of the effort as you can through the arms.
As you inhale,
Picture a line of energy entering in through your right palm,
Through your heart.
And as you exhale,
Picture it flowing out through your belly button and then up through your left hand.
And it's a circle.
From the left hand,
It arcs to the right hand.
As you inhale,
It fills through your heart.
As you exhale,
Picture out your belly button flowing through your left hand into your right hand.
And keep that image going.
You can let any color or non-color come to that energy.
But feel that sense of abundance of everything that you give,
You receive back and more.
For better or for worse,
Everything that you put out there,
You receive back and more.
What do you want more of?
How can you give in a way that brings you more of what you want?
Sit with that.
For as long as you need to until you know exactly what it is you need to give in order to receive what you want.
Namaste.
