Day 121 – Today’s reading is about raga (attachment, desire) and dvesa (aversion, pain). Sukha, is the attachment to pleasure, and duhkha, the aversion to pain, are more specific “hindrances” within these two hindrances. Rolf paints the picture of Clinton’s obsession with Monica Lewinsky and describes our obvious pitfall when we “seem to spend half our lives contending with our attachments to pain that conceal themselves as pleasure.” I get this, but not in a Clinton-esque way as I have a love of movement, but my body responds otherwise. My mind tells me to do something physical and my body tells me it is not the right thing. I’m still working this out, however, philosophically. Ah, desire.
Rolf does lighten this burnden up, however, writing: “A timeless, innate response to experience, desire is a powerful force in our lives. There is nothing to fear in desire; desire is an energy that is an intrinsic essential aspect of our humaity.” Through yoga, we learn to observe this, as Rolf puts it, “to allow our experince of that moment to arise and to pass away without attachment.” Thus, I think, like many people, I come with a lot of attachment to the things I’ve come to love, to desire.
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