Spring Cleaning
I am not this body, I am “That” which is beyond all the stuff.
- Annie Carpenter
Spring cleaning!Declutter! It’s quite a thing in our times. There are books, hired helpers and social media threads on the topic. We are a people who like our stuff; just look at the container ships that clutter our bays and harbors, and the stores we frequent.
The Yogis have been on this for a couple millennia. They call it Sauca. We think of this Niyama (one of the 5 personal practices set out in Patanjali’s Sutras) as purification or cleanliness. Keeping clean, like washing our hands regularly, helps to keep us free of disease; tidying our kitchens and bedrooms helps us clear our homes, and our minds, of clutter, too. We evolve an ability to discern what is truly necessary and to release things, relationships and even thoughts and ideas that do not serve us.
Yoga invites us to do our spring cleaning daily. We de-clutter our spaces and our computers. We toss out old clothes and books, and we release old ways of seeing the world around us. We clear the mind-sets that keep us stuck in old habits that define who we thought we were. It can feel like opening curtains that we didn’t even know were there. In the new light, we may catch sight of old attachments and begin to unravel them.
Where I sit in the mornings, my meditation cushion rests on a small colorful rug that belonged to my big brother. He died a number of years ago, having the reached the age of 69, which I will be in a few months. I miss him. And I love remembering him, part of my daily ritual when I come to sit. It is a true joy which hasn’t diminished at all over these months and years. I am, I confess, attached to this moment.
When I drop into this thoroughly sentimental moment, it reminds me that his essence is still here even though he is not. Though I may begin with a memory of him —mind-stuff — it morphs, moving me from my thinking mind jam-packed with memories, to floating in the sameness of his energy/spirit now disembodied, to mine, for now still here. It helps me recollect that I am not all this stuff I have collected, books and beloved rugs nor memories and ideas. It transports me to a clear-headed moment where my obsession with my embodied “self” fades away. My beloved brother, “Bubba,” is still floating around, at least in my cache, and without all his stuff—no body/vehicle needed! He transports me to the freedom that Yoga promises: I am not this body, I am “That” which is beyond all the stuff.
The practice of Sauca can get us to this naked truth; and a memory of a loved one who has moved on can too.