better together-Surviving Covid society
Two great Danes and a Polish trade unionist have given my mental health safe passage in a world up-ended by Covid-19. Despite the fact that I work and live alone, the isolation and financial stress that flow from successive lockdowns and curfews are not what has most upset my boat.
Society is made up of many, varied and colourful minds and I generally embrace this. However, the current conflicting and often very strong views and the ensuing polarisations, conflicts and divisions I witness in today’s society are what contract my being and trouble my soul.
Being human, we like certainty. We struggle with change at the best of times and in these extreme circumstances it is instinctive to cleave to a theory or explanation that gives meaning to our experience in search of reassurance and stability. I feel most isolated by these divisions, contentious discussions, and moral judgements. While calls to find your tribe & prepare for the revolution abound it is to Isvara[1] I turn.
Kierkegaard[2] said, “life is lived forwards and understood backwards” and this encapsulates my own feeling that history will determine how befitting our response to this pandemic has been. In the meantime, offering up my challenges and actions to something greater than myself: the greater good, the common good, is the guideline that leads me through this politico/moral maze.
Amid the challenges of being exposed to many differing opinions and ideas on the origins of the virus, the correct way to deal with it and the varying emotional and mental fluctuations to which we are all vulnerable in these times I’m trying to put into practice Patanjali’s relationship advice.
Friendliness towards those who are peaceable and content, compassion towards those who are suffering, to be happy for those who are trying to do good and exercise forbearance with those I feel are unwise.[1]
My Yoga teacher, and another great Dane, Peter Hersnack[2] spoke often of the commonality of our “shared humanity” and I try to focus on this. Inspired by Lech Walesa[3] I have adopted “solidarity” as my motto when dealing with my fellow humans of all persuasions as I feel that rather than divided we really are better together.
[1] Isvara, Yoga Sutra 1.23 presents an alternate path to achieving a state of Yoga; surrender to the highest force or power, a bhakti or devotional path. While this may be a theistic approach and unusual for the Yoga Sutra and uncomfortable for many, I feel there is great value in acknowledging that life is not all about me and that there is a larger picture and greater context to my path and life experience.
There is a danger of Yoga practice becoming self-centered and generating an inflated self-importance and power. A great protection from this is to accept that I only exist in the larger context of nature and society and while I pursue my own development, I acknowledge a context and power that is greater than myself.
[2] Soren Kierkegaard, a Dane and the original existentialist who very concretely considered the role of the individual in society and responses to choices and change.
[3] Yoga Sutra 1.33 maitrikaruna muditopeksanam
[4] Peter Hersnack, I was fortunate to study Yoga with Peter for 6 years. His genius and unique insight into the human condition and the application of Yoga philosophy and practice to the relief of suffering both inform and inspire my approach to Yoga.
[5] Lech Walesa, leader of the first Polish Trade Union, Solidarity. Throughout the 1çèà’s and ‘80’s Walesa steered his fellow workers through measured confrontation to secure worker’s rights and democratic elections in his country. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and went on to become the first President of Poland.
