My cup

This evening, as I tucked my little ones in, my youngest asked, “Mama, what cup is that you’re holding?” I responded, “You know, my cup – my favourite one.” And she replied, “Well, you know, it’s not really your cup, it’s the one that you like to use.” And I thought to myself, yes, how wise. Yoga philosophy teaches that all of our suffering (yes, all of it) is rooted in this separate sense of self that we have – those feelings of “me” and “mine” – of a “me” that is separate and different from “you.” (There is even a word for this in Sanskrit: asmita.) Imagine how different life would be without asmita. Then it wouldn’t be “my cup” anymore. I wouldn’t feel particularly saddened if “my cup” got broken or lost, because it wouldn’t have felt like “mine” in the first place. Nor would I bristle at the thought of someone else taking “my cup”… So I said to my little one, “You know, you’re right. It’s not my cup. I can just use it, enjoy it, take good care of it, and share it.” Hmm, I wonder if she will remember that the next time her sister wants to play with “her” things 🙂