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Marcus J Freed
Ethics of the Yogis
Part 2: Truthfulness
“Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel said; the world is established on account of these three things – righteousness, truth [ emet ] and peace”
Ethics of the Fathers, 1:2
“Upon being established in truth [ satya ], there is surety in the result of actions”
Yoga Sutras 2:36
One of my first and only memories of being admitted to a hospital emergency room was at the tender age of eight, having sustained a relatively minor but sufficiently painful skin injury that demanded some of the doctor's needlework. All I have to show for it today is a tiny scar which is a well-earned battle scar. The technical term for one of these stiches is suture , which is a wire or thread used to stitch together two bodily surface. The word is incredibly similar to sutra , which is a short verse in Sanskrit that contains an ethical idea.
The yogic sutras were compiled from the year 200 CE onwards and all take this concise form and I think they are similar to sutures in the way that each idea provides a moral ‘stitch' for society. If they were kept to then there would be a tangible healing for the greater good, similar to the stitch that is applied to broken flesh.
It is coincidental that the Jewish oral law was first compiled in the form of short verses, similar to the sutras, collectively known as the Mishna. When Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi ( Judah the Prince) began compiling the mishna, each subsection was written in a brief form that could be memorised easily and then handed down through the generations.
This series of articles is exploring the yamas, which are the first part, the moral code of Ashtanga Yoga, and the second of these yamas is satya or truth. Yogis are encouraged to incorporate this concept into their everyday practice. The New Zealand teacher John Scott explains how satya encourages truthfulness in all relationships, both with ourselves and with others.
The principle of satya can be practiced within asana (yogic postures) in various ways. One example would be when we find that our body just isn't stretching or bending in the direction we would like, but the voice inside is saying ‘ Come on! You could there yesterday. You're failing! Look at her/him at the front of the class. S/he can do it much better '. The application of satya isn't necessarily easy, but the voice of truthfulness is one that acknowledges where your body is on any one day, accepting that perhaps you aren't achieving what you would like, and are therefore being honest with yourself. It isn't an admission of failure by any means, but actually a position of strength because it is the ability to resist the ego.
This Jewish yogi can turn to the Hebrew word Emet , which also means ‘truth' and features strongly throughout Torah literature. In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel explained that the world is established upon ‘ Tzedek ( Righteousness), Emet (Truth) and Shalom (Peace)'. One explanation of the Emet principle could be the idea that a functioning society will only succeed if it is based on truthfulness. A community which lies and cheats will eventually face ruin, sooner or later.
This verse from Pirkei Avot can also be explored through yoga, as we attempt to establish our postures on a basis of Emet. As we ease ourselves into padmasana [lotus] or trikonasana [triangle], we can bring our awareness to any internal urge that is trying to cheat the posture by attempting to force our bodies into doing something they are not ready to do. The wonderful thing about the human body is that it will only sustain a certain amount of ‘lying' in this sense; whenever I try to push my body further than it wants to go, it will ultimately refuse, usually in the form of some minor injury. This, needless to say, is bad yoga!
A midrash [rabbinic narrative] plays with the shape of the three letters Alef , Mem and Tav – which spell Emet (Truth) - explaining that they each rest upon two ‘legs'. This is metaphorical and if we look at the letters we can see what the rabbis are referring to at the base of each letter; ??? . Meanwhile, the letters Shin , Kaf and Resh , which form the word Sheker (Falsehood) - ??? - rest on one ‘leg'. The midrash uses this idea to suggest that things done in truth are firmly established, and things done in falsehood are not, and presumably they can easily be tipped over (source: Yalkut, Bereshit 3).
This idea can provide ample material for discussion, not to mention some literal posture work which explores asanas that use one leg Garuda-asna (the Eagle) and two-legged positions such as Trikonasana (Triangle). There is also a further midrash that explains how Alef , Mem and Tav (spelling Emet ) are the first, middle and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, while the letters spelling Sheker are all bunched towards the end. Once again, truth is seen to equal balance, and this idea can be kept in mind during postures.
A final thought relates to Rabbi Hanina's comment in the Talmud where he states that “God's seal is truth” (BT Shabbat, 55a). Is this a possible hint for the Jewish yogi? Lots of yoga time is devoted to the idea of bandhas , or energy seals, where the practitioner is encouraged to unlock lifeforce energy and send it through the 72,000 nadis /energy channels that exist within the body. Mula Bandha , Uddiyana Bandha and Jalandhara Bandha are three of the most well-known bandhas /energy seals , but is Rabbi Hanina giving us a Talmudic allusion to God's own Bandha? What can this possibly mean? How can we tap into it?
The discussion continues. Thank you for reading and good luck with your own quest for Truth.
Shalom
Marcus J Freed
London , July 2006.