Training Day 30 of 71: Treasure Hunt

Woohoo! It's hot in the city! Today I woke up at the very early hour of 7:30 to attempt to run at a cooler time, but didn't make it out there until 9:30 and it was hot! Six miles round trip - up to Laurel Canyon, around some winding little streets, down past Chateau Marmont where the gardener was kind enough to spray me with the hose, then back home. Although the air was a little warmer than I'd prefer, I found so many treasures on my run that it was quite enjoyable.

First I found a low black bedside table with wheels on it right outside our apartment. So I halted the run to take it inside. Dylan was very pleased. Then when I was almost to Sunset I found the cutest little troll desk with a drawer. But it was too big to do anything with. So I just hoped it wouldn't be taken by the time I could drive back after my run. Then on the way home I came across a sweet little plant stand. It was pretty light so I tried to run carrying it, but that was terribly awkward so I wound up hiding it behind the wall outside an abandoned house and then came back for it in the car (see photo of plant stand and abandoned house above). Unfortunately the troll table was gone. But two out of three is pretty good.

All this treasure hunting while running made me ponder what about yoga is like treasure hunting? Then I thought of one of my favorite sutras, 1.41: "Just as the naturally pure crystal assumes shapes and colors of objects placed near it, so the Yogi's mind, with its totally weakened modifications, becomes clear and balanced and attains the state devoid of differentiation between knower, knowable and knowledge. This culmination of meditation is samadhi." Basically, the fully realized Yogi no longer perceives him/herself as separate from anything else. No longer does the Yogi think of him/herself as an individual that is distinct from the occurrences or objects around. Instead they perceive them self as a one with the continuum of phenomena that make up the images and stories of life. This is considered "meditation" because in yoga meditation is the experience of merging the individual self with the exterior world and ultimately realizing that there is no such thing as a separate self.

Sarah Powers touches on this idea of transcending the individual self in her book Insight Yoga, "The Buddha suggested that we contemplate how nothing in the manifest universe exists in isolation as an independent identity. He described reality as a confluence of interdependent coarisings, empty of permanence. This lack of an independent self-nature is called selflessness". In yogic philosophy, if you can transcend your concept of yourself as separate from the rest of the world, you can attain samadhi: "A state in which the aspirant is one with the object of his meditation, the supreme spirit pervading the universe, where there is a feeling of unutterable joy and peace" (Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar).

Phew! Those are a lot of ideas to cram into this one blog post. But somehow the treasures on my run made me think of the crystal from sutra 1.41 - the image of the mind becoming like a naturally pure crystal that assumes the shapes and colors of that which is placed near it. Perhaps tomorrow during my run I will consider the possibility that I can assume the shape, color, and feel of the trees I pass by, the concrete beneath me, the humans I encounter, and the warm breeze that surrounds. And through that merging with the seemingly external environment perhaps access unutterable joy and peace? Maybe? Just a little?