Non-Coveting
As we have seen in our discussion of truthfulness and honesty, the mind has the ability to mold itself into the shape of that which it beholds. Especially in our many moments of lack of self-awareness, human consciousness has the tendency to turn its aspect outwards towards the material world. On an animalistic level, this makes complete sense. How could we survive as a species if we went around being unconcerned with the world around us? Many of the fundamental drives hard-wired into our genes that enable us to live on as humans keep us tied to our pre-sentient past and prevent us from transcending that side of our nature and becoming truly free. Attraction to pleasure and aversion to pain, a sense of identity and self-preservation, all these are absolutely essential on the material level, but Patañjali sees each of these as the root causes of our afflictions.
More fundamental to each of these causes of affliction is a basic misapprehension of our own true nature:
II.5
Misapprehension of one’s true nature is the
seeing of the eternal, the pure, the joyful and the
true self in that which is impermanent, impure,
sorrowful and not the true self.
Under this
misapprehension, we forget—assuming we ever
knew in the first place—that we are not our
impermanent bodies, nor are we the things we achieve
or the things we own. This is a fairly basic
understanding than many of us have on some cognitive
level, though few of us truly embody it. We allow
ourselves to be defined by our jobs and our
achievements, and sometimes those achievements
include the amount of money we make and the
possessions and lifestyle we acquire.
This relationship with the material world has given
us some very restricting notions about possession and
ownership. Here at the beginning of the twenty-first
century, it seems that notions of property and theft
are as much in the forefront of people’s minds
as ever. In the digital world distribution of
materials is effortless. Anything that is digital can
be copied and, as a result, the act of copying has
become an act of theft. The modern debate over
ownership of ideas and the public domain is an
excellent example of the qualities that
Patañjali’s observance of non-stealing seeks to
moderate, as large corporations influence legislation
to maintain control of their assets. When theft
involves taking food or some other vital necessity
from another, the moral imperative seems clear. When
the definition of property becomes so abstract it is
hard to imagine how taking that which the law has
said does not belong to you can cause harm.
With the observance of non-coveting—or
non-stealing as it is also known—Patañjali is
requiring us to go beyond notions of ownership and
possession and give up our sense of entitlement to
anything that is not eternal, pure, joyful and of the
true self. When we achieve this, our concepts of
scarcity and abundance change radically in ways that
we cannot conceive when we are obsessed with
grasping, owning and controlling. If this should seem
scary to you, Patañjali offers us reassurance:
II.37
All abundance appears for one who is grounded in
non-coveting.
Related Posts:
Yoga in Action
The Great Vow
of Yoga
Non-Harming
Truth