My Yogic Sadhana
Bob ButeraThe letter in Yoga and Total Health
from Dr. Christian Schmidt reminded
me of how special The Yoga Institute
members are. Dr. Schmidt was so
inspirational to me when I was a
young student in India for the 7 Month
Teacher Training programme. We
spoke about enlightenment and life
in 1989. I figured that 28 years later
I might be able to say that my aura is
brighter than a light bulb. Or, after 28
years of Yogic Sadhana, I might be able
to have developed a “Siddhi” or super
power as mentioned in Chapter III of
the Yoga Sutras. Yet, to date, I have not
levitated, nor read anyone’s mind, nor
moved any objects across the room.
With these thoughts on my mind for
the past year, I decided to wait some
more and continue reflecting on Dr.
Jayadeva’s advice to continue working
on the Kleshas or hindrances of the
mind. Then, there was a recent event
where a member became very upset
with one of our Institute’s instructors.
They accused this person of some
horrible things that other members
who were in the room said were untrue.
I spoke to this person, listened and
tried to reason. As I remained in a
balanced state of mind, the person
decided that I too was at fault for not
agreeing with the false accusation. I
was simply conversing with no charge
in any direction. In fact, I didn’t notice
any Kleshas at all. It was just a lot of
listening and talking and reasoning
with no success. Meanwhile, I hoped
that the person would resolve this
peacefully. Weeks later, I was grouped
in the accusation and more chaos was
stirred by this individual. While it
took some effort to try to peacefully
resolve this matter, no one was injured.
It was nothing serious but it was a big
annoyance behind the scenes. To my
surprise, I have only felt compassion
towards this person during the month
long ordeal.I realized that there have been many
other lesser unhappy situations where
I remained balanced when conflicts
arose. (It should be noted that we see
hundreds of Yogic success stories for
each difficult case.) Each time the first
thought questions the root of the issue.
Judgments and anger are non-existent.
I just wonder what events caused this
situation to occur. I learn a lesson from
it and do my best to keep things moving
in a positive direction.Back to my meditation and desire for
a Yogic power, I realized that my life is
joyous, free and peaceful. No fireworks,
and, yes there are emotions of love,
sadness, joy and the like, but things
remain balanced. So, perhaps, the joke
is on me, that being at peace in charged
situations and remaining nearly stress-
free is a sort of invisible gift of 28 years
of continuous Yogic Sadhana. Or more
simply put, maybe being a happy person
doing his duty is the Enlightenment I
was seeking all along!