In our daily practice it is common to feel the need to get rid of what’s unwanted. People might spend hours trying to get rid of their rambling thoughts, their old memories and plans. You might spend years trying to clear out the bad, the bothersome, the ugly. The process of self cleaning can become obsessive and if you are not careful, you just might scrub yourself to the bone!
Believing that self scrubbing is a means to liberation, people become self-righteous doing “scrub-asana.” Better to realize the open nature of mind that underlies all things. Below all thoughts and feelings is a unified field of awareness as vast and open as the sky. To know this totality is called the “Wisdom of Equality.” You and I, and all sentient beings from the creepy crawlies to the flying birds, share this unified field of awareness. It is our refuge, our delight, our one true source. At the same time, the world is full of such wild diversity. Many colors, names, and faces make up the teeming playground of our planet. To know and embrace multiplicity, is known as the “Wisdom of Differentiation.”
In our practice we must embrace whole-heartedly the 10,000 names and forms. So each time you get to your mat – moving, stretching, and sitting still – yoke to the unified field of awareness, the invisible presence that moves through all things. At the same time, welcome the difference of every little thing that comes your way in the course of your day.
