My…..Others

 

“The more you know your inner nature, the more you penetrate the other.”  

Osho – Tantra: The Supreme Understanding

I love the simplicity of this.  The more we go towards our inner nature, the more common ground we find with others.

But lets instead assume the opposite.  Lets assume I rely entirely on my outer nature.  Going by that, well you look different than me!  You sound different than me.  You smell different than me.

You are Lebanese, I am Indian Italian.  You are tall, I am short.  You have blonde hair, I have brown hair. You drink red wine, I drink white wine.

However, “The more you know your inner nature, the more you penetrate the other.”  Getting to know our inner nature often starts with getting to know our tendencies, our fears, our anxieties, our confusion, our pride, our attachments, our aversions; which inevitably leads to also knowing our strength, our serenity, our joy, our compassion, our fearlessness.

But then it doesn’t stop here.  The more I know My inner nature, the more I also come to know the fears, anxieties, attachments, aversions, confusion, pride, strength, joy, & compassion of Others.

While I may never have had the experience of being a Tall Lebanese Blonde who delights in red wine,

I have at some point felt lost, lonely, fierce, fearless, angry, mad, happy, sad.  If I know only one aspect of myself & never the other – so it will be that I will only know that one aspect of others.

It is said that Yoga is a Tantric practice.  Tan means to stretch.  Tra means cross over.  Tantra – to stretch over.  It is not that we are just trying to stretch Ourselves out in our practice.  “Oh I am going to take a Yoga class today to get a good stretch!”, uncovering My strengths and weaknesses.  Rather we are trying to stretch beyond ourselves in our practice, to penetrate the Other.

After Thought:

Through a daily asana & meditation practice, we loosen the outward pull of our senses for a few minutes everyday by directing our senses to one point.   By allowing our senses to be directed to one point rather than multiple points, we get to know what it is to be informed in the moment by something other than what we see, hear, taste, touch or smell.  We come to know that our capacity stretches beyond just the faculties of our outer nature.