Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Dharma talk week of 1/21/13

Actions speak louder than words.  Nobody knows your soul or can read your mind.  They can only make inferences based on what they see you do.  My friend Saul sent me a hilarious article that outlines a few ideas about why we stay trapped in the quicksand of inaction.  Here's a quote:

"Who you are on the inside is everything - the guy who built a house for his family from scratch did it because of who he was inside.  every bad thing you've ever done has started with a bad impulse ricocheting around inside your skull until you had to act on it.  Every good thing you've done is the same.  'Who you are inside' is the metaphorical dirt from which your fruit grows.  But here's what everyone needs to know and what many can't accept. 'You' are nothing but the fruit.  Nobody cares about your dirt.  'Who you are inside' is meaningless aside from what it produces for other people."

 The way this idea manifests in the asana, the posture, practice is by focusing on the actions of the poses.  You cannot be "Down Dog."  Shapes are abstractions; they don't exist until they are put into a piece of matter, like your body.  But you can feel the action of your thigh muscles working, you can feel the action of your chest pressing back in space, you can feel the action of the fingers spreading on the floor.  The result is something that we agree to call "Down Dog," but in reality it is the culmination of the action taken in your body.

Actions garner results.  In an asana class the actions of the body create yoga poses which in turn make your body feel stronger, more flexible, and appear leaner.  In your life, your actions will lead to different results.

Do the strength of your heart and the flexibility of your mind get exercised in the world in such a way that anyone could know you are a yogi? Stop wasting your time and energy on actions that belie who you are. Think about a quality you possess that you are really proud of.  Then name a way this has manifested in the world in the past, and set a goal to grow that quality in the future.  Give yourself a deadline, and stick to it.

Off you go!