A Peacock Lesson
How proud a peacock is of its beautiful but heavy tail is doubtful, but it sure seems to carry the burden happily. Peahens suitably impressed, its purpose served, the tail is shed naturally at the end of the breeding season.
Recently I saw a peacock, with hardly half its tail left. It was sitting with its neck twisted back, had taken its beak to the very roots of the feathers and was plucking ruthlessly out, feather by feather, what still remained of the tail. It seemed too impatient to wait for all of its tail to be shed on its own. However, the feathers apparently came off easily, and the process was painless.
What I was witnessing suddenly struck me as the visible demonstration of an invisible process. The preferred route to victory over temptations such as food and sex is not to begin with outer renunciation by using the brute force of moral will, but working inside-out. Inner renunciation having been achieved through a combination of knowledge and experience, outer renunciation follows naturally and painlessly. The natural weakening of the feathers was like inner renunciation. Plucking the weak feathers out was a physical demonstration of the painless outer renunciation.
Life is littered with lessons provided we care to learn.
Dr. Ramesh Bijlani
Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi Branch, India
Hi Ramesh:
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent. I think it will spark some VERY interesting reflections.
I assume you know of the Mother's remarks on this (I think it was in 1929 but not sure) in which She says the opposite, to always start with outer change. I personally had always taken the perspective you write about, that the inner renunciation is primary, and have never seen Mother's comments discussed in relation to this, in ANY IY forum.
As a clinical psychologist whose professional job it was to support others in behavior change, AND as a long-time sadhak, I've reflected on this a lot. I think there are SO many ways to approach this; it's just the perfect topic for the SAIEN blog.
I'd be delighted to share some of the recent work I've done on habit change (for our online "How to Sleep Without Trying"), both starting from within AND starting from without, but I'll wait to hear from others first.
Spinoza has said that one cannot become happy through abstinence; but once one is happy, abstinence is effortless! I take this to mean that we need to work on a higher level of concsiousness first- let's say the Heart or opening to higher centers.
DeleteHowever, inner renunciation requires access to the inner being. That may not be easy for many at first. Sometimes an addiction is acquired from the environment, but the core of the person is unaffected ( for example, a young person in a certain phase of life). In such cases working on the outer being may be quite effective. In most situations though, a combination of work on both levels could be helpful: cutting or modifying the habits, and working on aspiration at the same time.
In fact.... I'd like to encourage folks to share personal examples. I've got years-long examples related to eating cheese:>))) (including panir)
ReplyDeleteIt a worthy knowledge and ingrained message that certain things can be shed wth the Will to reach a steadfast life aspired for.
ReplyDeleteHi again:
ReplyDeleteI just came across a passage where Sri Aurobindo recommends the outside-first approach. Before I paste it in below, I want to say, I FULLY agree with Ramesh's point that ultimately, it's very flexible when applied to a specific situation, but underlying all change MUST be the inner change first.
The tricky thing is we can use this as an excuse to indulge: "Well, I have a strong desire to eat this gallon of ice cream and two dozen brownies, and I surely will surrender the desire to the Mother when I'm ready, but I'll eat it first, because after all, inner change must come first!:>))) Obviously, most of us aren't that obviously mischievous, but I know myself - having long believed in the "inner change first" idea - have no doubt in subtle ways used it to excuse indulgence in desires.
I think it's obvious in the following passage, Sri Aurobindo is not really advocating one way over another. After initially telling the disciple to stop outward expression of an impulse or movement, he immediately goes on to give a profound inner vision of what is really going on, and finally urging the disciple to keep the contact with the Mother.
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From Letters on Yoga:
I think you have always had an idea that to give expression to an impulse or a movement is the best way or even the only way to get rid of it. But that is a mistaken idea. If you give expression to anger, you prolong or confirm the habit of the recurrence of anger; you do not diminish or get rid of the habit. The very first step towards weakening the power of anger in the nature and afterwards getting rid of it altogether is to refuse all expression to it in act or speech. Afterwards one can go on with more likelihood of success to throw it out from the thought and feeling also. And so with all other wrong movements.
All these movements come from outside, from the universal lower Nature or are suggested or thrown upon you by adverse forces – adverse to your spiritual progress. Your method of taking them as your own is again a wrong method; for by doing that you increase their power to recur and take hold of you. If you take them as your own, that gives them a kind of right to be there. If you feel them as not your own, then they have no right, and the will can develop more power to send them away. What you must always have and feel as yours is this will, the power to refuse assent, to refuse admission to a wrong movement. Or if it comes in, the power to send it away, without expressing it.
Of course the best way will be if you can keep the contact more with the Mother and her Light and Force and receive and accept and follow only what comes from that higher force.