Freedom Day

This is my sixth year living in the States, and every Independence Day I think about this notion of freedom—so prized and so specific-seeming, in America. As I understand it, Independence Day seeks to celebrate the country's freedom from subjugation, and affirms its people's right to happiness. These are noble ideas, I think. But I've also seen these principles turn into a sort of "Ha! We beat you!" attitude. Our minds are quick to jump to a place of dualism—the place from which most of tend to function, most of the time. We think everything makes more sense when it's neatly stacked into opposing poles—black/white, good/bad. etc.

I've been watching this happen in myself, with some amusement, during this World Cup. The competitive "instinct" that I thought I'd mostly sloughed off over the past few years has come surging back up, and I've found the cheering and the boo-ing quite thrilling—even as I've been aware that this can only happen by dint of my perceiving difference and division. When we pick a side, we become bound to it; attached, even weighted down by it.

Yoga means union in Sanskrit. It refers to an enlightened state where we don't see difference; we're all in it together. We don't try to impose structure on time; by being present, we've moved beyond past and future.

Being present, even for just a moment, you may find you relax; it's a relief to not have to consider all those things that happened in the past or might happen in the future. And as you soften a little, compassion comes. The feeling is expansiveness. Expansiveness in the mind, body, and heart. Freedom, if you like.

Resisting the urge to identify with your thoughts and stories ("I am this kind of person, with that kind of job, and those kinds of relationships" etc.) allows us to ease up. Being sweet to ourselves does this, too. My friend, the yoga teacher Seth Lieberman writes, "Be easy with yourself, take care of yourself, and allow all the feelings and thoughts and emotions to happen with less should and what it is supposed to feel like now."

BKS Iyengar puts it beautifully in his book Light on Life:

"A great boon of yoga, even for relative beginners, is the happiness it brings, a state of self-reliant contentment. Happiness is good in itself and a basis for progress. An unquiet mind cannot meditate. A happy and serene mind allows us to pursue our quest as well as live with artistry and skill. Does not the American Declaration of Independence talk of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness? If a yogi had written that, he would have said Life, Happiness, and the Pursuit of Liberty. Sometimes happiness may bring stagnation, but if freedom comes from disciplined happiness, there is the possibility of true liberation."

Rumi's poem No Room for Form speaks to this sense of infinite freedom: "No room for form / with love this strong" (click past the jump to read the full poem). I have found Varadamudra to be conducive to this serene open feeling; with the right palm raised and facing forward, the left held open, you're expressing courage and compassion, liberation and acceptance.

Have a beautiful, happy Freedom Day.




No Room for Form

On the night when you cross the street
From your shop and your house
To the cemetery

You'll hear me hailing you from inside
The open grave, and you'll realize
How we've always been together.

I am the clear consciousness-core
Of your being, the same in
Ecstasy as in self-hating fatigue.

That night, when you escape your fear of snakebite
And all irritations with the ants, you'll hear
My familiar voice, see the candle being lit,
Smell the incense, the surprise meal fixed
By the lover inside all your other lovers.

This heart tumult is my signal
to you igniting in the tomb.
So don't fuss with the shroud
And the graveyard dust.
Those get ripped open and washed away
In the music of our final meeting.

And don't look for me in human shape,
I am inside your looking. No room
For form with love this strong.

Beat the drum and let the poets speak.
This is the day of purification for those who
Are already mature and initiated into what love is.

No need to wait until we die!
There's more to want here than money
And being famous and bites of roasted meat.

Now, what shall we call this new sort of gazing house
That has opened in our town where people sit
Quietly and pour out their glancing
Like light, like answering?