By Dina Schaefer
Non possessiveness
Non greed
Non attachment
A- non
Pari-all sides
Grah- to seize or grab
Aparigraha can be seen in so many spaces in our lives. In our concepts, our beliefs, our relationships, our possessions, our finances, and on and on. In my opinion this is (no pun intended) the hardest to grasp.
Everyday most of us wake up, still attached to yesterday, already grasping at outcomes and trying to obtain more and more and more. We hardly ever stop and say, “I have enough”. This doesn’t make us greedy – we are conditioned to think this way. With practice, this sutra can help us find our way through the hustle culture we live in and come back to feeling a sense of safety that we actually have enough. That there’s actually nothing that we need to hold onto, we can let go. Life is working with us not against us and there’s nothing to actually do, but be.
“Non attachment isn’t that we shouldn’t own anything, it’s that nothing should own us” – Iman Ali I have learned, forgotten, relearned, and reforgotten this lesson many times.
During one of my many lives here I was a scenic painter for Theater. I would invest every bit of myself, blood, sweat, tears into each show, Oh how I would admire my art, the lights dancing across the stage, the actors transported to a magical world, so proud of my work, and then on closing day, nobody gently took the set down and lovingly stored my precious art somewhere. It was completely disassembled, almost as if I had never even been there at all. I cried the first few times, but then a sense of liberation and freedom began to replace the ego’s cries. I was not attached to the art, but could enjoy the shows with a deeper sense of presence because I knew it was temporary.
I have carried this with me, the sense of all things being temporary. I have lost people, pets, jobs, identities, forms my body has taken, and through it all have tried to stay loving, kind, open and present.
What if we brought this non-attachment and non-greed into our daily lives, and just allowed life to unfold? Not with vision boards or manifestation or an attempt at micro-managing the Universe, but with a non attached heart open to whatever comes. Letting our thoughts just come and go, our emotions flow in and out, not attached to anything, but still living life with everything we’ve got.
When I come to my yoga mat, as a student or a teacher, with no expectation, free to just move without thinking of the end result, it always works out exactly as it’s meant to. When I come filled with a story of how it’s supposed to go, it rarely goes that way. And maybe this is true for life as well.
But I laugh as I even write this, reminded of Peter Merry’s quote “Non attachment is about not being attached to non-attachment”.
So, in conclusion, Aparigraha for me comes back to the breath.
We inhale.
It can be abundant, loving, soft, strong, long, short, exhilarating
But whatever it is, we can’t hold it for too long before it must leave.
And on the Exhale we release so that a new breath can be birthed.
So breathe in and breathe out
And Smile
You’re doing yoga
And I love you