They’re Back

Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.

- Albert Camus

After months of near silence (save for those persistent crows) the sparrows, bobolinks, blackbirds, mourning doves, robins, and Canadian Geese are back, and they’re singing their hearts out.

The nerve! How dare they sing so sweetly, as if all is well? Haven’t they gotten the memo that that the world is on fire? That pain and suffering are everywhere?

Even if they could understand, I doubt it would change things. They’re birds after all, that’s what they do.

It’s only us humans, with our big brains and our capacity for conscious choice, that stray from our authentic nature, quelling the indomitable life force and keeping us from living our true purpose.

The Nondual Shaivite Tantric tradition offers a fascinating rationale for our predicament: it’s a case of mistaken identity.

It describes how the one consciousness, out of its own volition, chooses to contract and limit itself. In doing so, it becomes all that we see and experience in the outer world, as well as in the world of our minds.

In the individual, this is said to create a state of forgetfulness, in which our innate fullness becomes concealed to us.

Consequently, instead of feeling whole, we feel fragmented. Instead of being free and expanded, we experience constraint and limitation. Rather than perceiving our unity with all of life, we believe we are separate.

Yoga, then, can be seen as the journey of remembering our wholeness, reclaiming our original freedom, and recognizing the truth that we are part and parcel of the magnificent, sacred web of life.

The body and breath-based practices of yoga are designed to clear away some of the veils that obscure your vision. As a result, your perspective broadens. In some small way, you return to your inherent fullness.

We become clearer, stronger vessels for the power of life – and its innate longing to express itself – to sing through us.