Perception

By Rodney Yee, December, 2010

One November wind, in the dark of the night, blew the yellow leaves to the ground. The next morning we woke to bared, naked trees, able to see our neighbors house as if it had landed in our back yard. No longer were we cloaked in fall colors, no longer did we have the illusion of separateness.

So often we have the idea that we are alone, that we are separate, independent beings. What mental cloaking device is sustaining this perspective? What purpose does it serve? This strange habit of seeing ourselves as separate is the fertile ground that grows conflict and fear. This appears to be a fundamental mistake of our perception that keeps us from drinking the sweet nectar of the present moment unfolding.

Every breath we take is a mixing of the perceived inner world with the outer. Our skin is a membrane that is in constant dialogue with both worlds. The food that sustains us is married to the sun and the earth. This is the interdependence that Thich Naht Hahn talks about. With our minds and hearts wide open we cannot help but see our place intertwined with the totality. There is nothing that we say or do, no breath that we inhale or exhale that is not connected to every other vibration of that moment and the one before and after. Let yoga open our senses and join them to our awake conscious so we can live inside the light that is piercing through the darkness.