The Martix of Yoga by Georg Feuerstein & Brenda Feuerstein

Author:Georg Feuerstein & Brenda Feuerstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-935387-62-6
Publisher: SCB Distributors

19. Community: Strength in Numbers

The life of a disciple in the midst of conventional society is not easy. Especially in our own time, the distractions are numerous and persistent. Solitude, which was recommended in the past as a major transformative tool, is hardly any longer available. Nor is our social environment of average people with conventional interests necessarily supportive. When television, football, bar hopping and other similar pursuits lose their hold on a Yoga practitioner, he or she increasingly feels the need for a support system. This comes in the form of a community of like-minded and like-hearted practitioners (called sangha in Sanskrit). This is not the usual coffee-and-gossip clique. Instead, the sangha is a group of fellow disciples who are interested in practicing together or in talking about the teachings. Some, hopefully benign, gossip is natural. But the common focus is very much on the spiritual process of self-transformation.

Not every sangha, of course, meets this ideal. If the shoe doesn’t fit, as they say, try elsewhere. Or, if there is any openness at all, you might endeavor to introduce a different attitude as long as you do it humbly and skillfully. If you encounter resistance, kindly and politely move on. You are certainly not the only person practicing with serious intention. You may not find a fellow pilgrim on the path in your local area but you surely will in another district or a nearby town.

You may feel tempted to practice by yourself. There is no problem if you can do this without feeling superior to others or simply resentful. Even then, however, you would certainly benefit from at least occasional participation in a group of dedicated practitioners. There is definitely strength in numbers. Besides, if you have a guru and want to spend time in his or her company, you are bound to find him or her surrounded by disciples. The guru might only sit quietly or deliver an inspiring talk. At any rate, his or her presence is predictably exhilarating but also inherently demanding, because the guru’s mere presence represents a challenge from within the disciple’s mind. The challenge is a steady call for transformation, for waking up as the Self.

Even gurus who have not yet become enlightened can be rather demanding in this way. They call their disciples from deep within or urge them on verbally. Often they are more demanding than enlightened masters, who know that enlightenment is a game that the mind plays. The Self is always the same free being, and therefore there is absolutely no urgency. The only urgency that exists is to help those for whom suffering is still a very real experience and who, if they are spiritual pupils, struggle to realize enlightenment.

Some yogins pursued liberation far removed from ordinary people in the isolation of a cave, a jungle, or a remote hut. Others did their best to attain enlightenment or a lower spiritual realization in the company of others. These traditional texts and teachers normally exhorted people to seek out the company of realized masters or at least (in the yogic sense) virtuous people.

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