I have been bit by the Spring Cleaning Bug! This morning, rather than going to my usual yoga class, I scrubbed sinks, washed windows, swept the deck, and wiped down our outdoor chairs. I washed blankets and hung them out to dry in the sun. Oh, what a glorious morning it was! My face in the sun, I sang the Gayatri mantra, my heart flowing over with gratitude for the light and warmth of Spring.
I have the desire to scrub my whole house inside out till it shines! To get into every corner, clear out every last cobweb, get the dust out from behind the furniture, wipe the walls, wash my curtains, get the crusties out of the cracks in my kitchen drawers… Winter is over, and it’s time for a fresh new start.
So many reflections arose as I worked (or played?) this morning. In random order:
1/ How wonderful that we have the four seasons here where we live, and that the long, cold winter tests our patience. Without this, would we feel such delight on a sunny, chilly spring day? Without the hardships in our lives, would we fully appreciate our everyday blessings? Yet the hardships are blessings in their own right, as they open our hearts in unexpected ways, teaching us patience and gratitude.
2/ The seasons teach us, too, about impermanence: the endless cycles of nature, the constancy of change in this physical world. Winter comes, stays, then goes. And so will spring, and summer, and fall… So will fear, anger, joy, grief… These are all impermanent. We mustn’t fear that we will always be plunged in darkness. The darkness eventually lifts, yeilding to the light. Likewise, it is futile to cling to the light. It must fade, only to return.
3/ Yet the light – the Sun – is always there, throughout the days and seasons, just obscured in different ways by the Earth, the Moon, their position along their orbits. The Sun is constant. And yogic texts teach that our own inner Light, the Seer within, is constant; we may not always be aware of it, but it is always there. The Seen changes, but the Seer is constant. The Seer sees winter, spring, summer, fall. The Seer sees thoughts and emotions coming and going. But the Seer is not these things. As we find this Seer within, and as we begin to identify ourselves with that Seer, knowing that we are not our feelings, thoughts, sensations, bodies, then we begin to free ourselves from the ups and the downs. We see them – the events, the thoughts, the feelings – unfolding within and around ourselves; and we know/feel that the Seer within, our true Self, is simply witnessing these things. The Seer is untouched, unaffected, clear, calm; its nature is sat-cit-ānanda, truth-consciousness-bliss.
4/ During my Yin Yoga Teacher Training, we learned about the Traditional Chinese/Taoist view of the seasons and their relationship to the body and the emotions. I remember drawing a diagram in my notebook like this:
“Constant summer” refers to the transition periods between seasons; I understand it as the backdrop for all the seasons, the canvas upon which the four seasons are painted. Cultivating the practice of contemplation, we can dwell in “constant summer” throughout the seasons! The eight limbs of raja yoga give us a step-by-step process towards contemplation/meditation and connection with the Seer within.
5/ And on a different note: Did you know that cleaning your home can be a form of yoga? My cleaning tasks this morning were my karma yoga. Karma means “action,” so karma yoga is the “yoga of action,” often translated as “selfless service.” It is the loving fulfillment of one’s duties and responsibiliities, whatever they may be; actions done for their own sake, not for the sake of their outcomes (outcomes include praise, recognition, payment, and other expected/desired results). I love this line from Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, “The Miracle of Mindfulness”:
There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.
Karma yoga is ‘washing the dishes to wash the dishes.’ It is one of the four main paths of yoga, alongside raja yoga (yoga of body and mind), jñana yoga (yoga of knowledge), and bhakti yoga (yoga of devotion).
7/ And finally: Yoga can be a form of spring cleaning! Each of these forms of yoga is a sort of spring cleaning for the body, mind and heart. Yoga wipes clean and declutters the internal world. It clears tamas (heaviness, inertia) and rajas (agitation) from our being, revealing our innate sattva (goodness, balance, harmony).
Onward and upward! Let’s keep showing up to our yoga practice, in its various forms. Let’s take the time now, and throughout the year, to attend to our inner world – cleaning out the recesses of body and mind, and uncovering the true Self residing within.