Rewriting the self: the path of the Sadhak to sovereignty
Do you ever wonder how many aspects of ourselves are changeable? Is there stability in our bodies, our consciousness, or the pattern of our DNA? Or is existence in this being transient in every way?
We all have a story about ourselves - one shaped from genetics, history, and environment. This sometimes looks like a burden we carry in this lifetime. An explanation for why I am the way I am. Otherwise, it may look like a roadmap for self-improvement. The story shifts and I recognize the possibility for change within this lifetime.
The shift to a new story and the joy it brings is the fruit of our hard work.
We are made up of what we consume, beyond what we eat. Every sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste that we take in is a line in the unfolding of our story. The senses give us fuel for the mind to wander into past and future protections and introduce impurities into the body.
The mind governs our choices, based on its projections and misguided thoughts, and it pushes us to fall into patterns - our mind will ask the body to keep seeking out familiar foods, sounds, and sensations until we find ourselves in a place that feels like it can’t be changed.
Yet we are always evolving and shifting. Even our bones, hard and brittle, are remineralizing and restructuring, shifting over the course of months. The study of epigenetics offers some insight into a knowing I’ve held onto, that even our DNA is rewritable. Recently, epigeneticists have demonstrated that gene expression cycles over the course of a day. This helps to explain why the genetic code of a population may shift rapidly under stress and why over a lifetime an identical twin may show a different genome pattern than their sibling.
This is ultimate freedom and also ultimate responsibility. Our food, environment, company, and entertainment are choices that affect our future happiness, the flow of our evolution, and the story we pass down to our children.
While we are clearly moved by the waves of a greater existence, we are the captain of the ship. Practice helps to harness this freedom.
In the start of Sadhana Pada, the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali gives the guide to a practical yoga practice: self-purification, self-observation, and evolving self-awareness.
Yoga Sutra 2.1: Tapaḥsvādhyāyeśvarapraṇidhānāni kriyāyogaḥ
Tapas produces energy, burns away imperfections, and illuminates false knowledge. The fire frees a person from samskaras and the desire to continue the cycle of death and rebirth. This is showing up to the practice, cleansing the body, and concentrating the mind. A commitment we can make to ourselves to keep clearing out what we don’t need.
Swadhyaya is self-study, perceiving the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of self from different perspectives. The stories we tell about ourselves define both our past and our future. Patanjali also tells us that it is our choice to accept future suffering: we stand to reap all the benefits of looking at ourselves and modifying how we prepare for the next season of life.
Ishwara Pranidhana is acknowledging an inner awareness. It is recognition of the divine within. To me, this is the key to help the rest of the practice flow more easily. Seeing ourselves as an expression of the divine sheds the layers of negativity, shows us our true path, and establishes our place in the infinite. It brings out kindness and releases the fears that control our instincts.
These three practices show a pathway to a self-sovereign future. A way to shed the skin that binds us to an old story. It does not require special powers or a birthright, only discipline, sustained efforts, and the choice to evaluate the path you are walking.
Make yourself the hero of your story.
