Satya: Truthfulness.  This second yama, Satya, deals with truthfulness of speech, thoughts, intentions and actions. Truthfulness (Satya) has a deeper meaning than just not telling lies. 

 

It means that our attitude to others is marked with sincerity, integrity and authenticity, to use a term loved by existentialists. There is a also the deeper dimension expressed in the saying: “Truth is God, God is Truth.”Practice: 

Honesty, owning feelings, loving communication, assertiveness, giving constructive feedback, forgiveness, non-judging, and letting go of masks.

 

Brutal honesty as a weapon is not SatyaHonesty can be used as a weapon, so be careful to be COMPASSIONATE. It is not about being “right.” Love is higher than truth. “Brutal Honesty” is not truth.

 If LOVE directs how you use truth then you are practicing Satya. Ahimsa (non-violence) must be practiced with Satya.

Concepts and notions keep us from the truth, keep it murky. Learn to be accepting like a newborn baby. Don’t let Ego get in the way of Heart.T

elling the Truth: Satya Few things feel more like betrayal than a lie. Like Ahimsa, this second yama, Satya, has many layers. A lie feels just as much as a betrayal as all other forms of violence. Pantajali guides us toward Satya in various ways. The first and most obvious is to tell the truth as best we can. This may not be as easy as it sounds.

Truth on a material level is always relative truthResearchers have found that eyewitnesses to an event are notoriously unreliable. Amazingly, the more adamant the witnesses are, the more inaccurate they tend to be. Even this simple example shows that truth can be relative; we cannot really prove what happened five minutes ago. To speak the truth is to speak from a point of view.Even trained scientists, whose job requires them to be completely objective and who study the most straightforward of events in nature, disagree on what they see and the interpretation of their results.So what does telling the truth, practicing the first level of satya,mean? 

It means that when given a choice (life is about choices) speak with the intention of being truthful. 

From this perspective, “truth” is filtered through our experience and beliefs about the world, but when we speak with the intention of speaking from truth, we have a better chance of not harming others.

Satya with Ahimsa: A wise teacher once stated that nothing could be true if it was harmful to others. In other words, unless we speak first from ahimsa we are not practicing Satya. 

Satya, Pantajali’s, second yama (yogic discipline) of Truthfulness. There are many ways to practice this yama, the most obvious, of course, is to simply not lie.  In other words to express our highest expression of truth at each given moment with the information and knowledge available, until proven otherwise. 

 Most yogis practice this basic outward expression of Satya as a guiding principle.  However, in alignment with “Tapas” (fiery discipline) we can take this practice a step deeper as we practice an inner level of truth – no agendas!  

Being mindful that our thoughts, speech, actions are not rooted in an ulterior motive to attain something in the future, but rather is a seed of purity that generously offers the absoluteness of presence to each breath as it occurs with no grasping or pushing towards anything.  Goodness for the sake of goodness is truth.

 

 Love is the highest expression of truth. 

 

Love has no agenda.  Love is not rooted in the past or future.  Love is always rooted in stillness, the dynamic alertness, of the ever present now.  Love is born in each breath, fresh, new and vibrantly alive.  There is no falsity in love, no hidden agenda, no movement toward gain or fear of loss.  Love begets love.  Or another way to express this is to say that the truth is love, and love is more and more presence. 

 Truth is not possible if there is no love.  Without love, any expression of truth is a lie. 

 As we practice Satya this week, the invitation is to move from a place of more and more presence, more and more love.  Lets find it first on our mat -TAPAS!

 

 

Love is all that matters…

From my heart to yours

All my love

Namaste

Chrystal Rae