Yoga Sutra 1.33

Maitri Karuna Muditopeksanam sukha duhka punyapunya visayanam bhavanatas citta prasadanam

Yoga Sutra 1.33

maitri- Sense of community with likeminded people. Creating relationships within a community; collective pain builds community and draws people together (as in tradgedies in Hatti or New Orleans)

karuna- Compassion which brings joy to you and others. Compassion empowers you in the end, while pity only makes you weaker. Pity takes in and brings on pain and misunderstanding.

sukha- joy

duhkha- sorrow

punya- virtuous

aunya- wicked

vishayanam- in the case of

bhavanatah- creating attitudes

chitta- mind-stuff

prasadanam- indifference or awarenss without wasting energy; Where there is no williningness in the other person, seek prasadanam or indifference so that you're not taking part in their drama. You cannot force another to transform.

There is so much that this sutra says, it's hard to take it all in. These are the notes that I scribbled down over 9 months ago in Oregon during one of our satsongs with Anand. The essense of it that speaks to me is our ability to choose how we relate to others in crisis. We can bond together without pity, with compassion and act. Together. Or we can react and see no results only dukha or sorrow. To find those dark spaces within ourselves and replace them with light takes willingness on our parts to change our attitude and transform moment by moment.

Will and desire without a sense of ambition requires balance, equanimity. To do that, whew, it requires giving up... control. And, if I've learned anything lately or at all, it's that I'm truly not in control of the universe anyway. Thank goodness! How much lighter I feel already knowing the balance of the world does not hinge on me-- even though I act like it does a lot of the time. Moment by moment there is sukha, joy.