This was actually a comment posted by Manasa Yogi Hui Hsien in response to Manoj’s latest blog on Truth & Pleasantness.
This evening I was actively practising Ahimsa awareness whilst braving the nasty after office traffic on the LDP. In desperate situations like that the average Malaysian driver does not give way to other motorists. However, I took several deep breaths and compassionately allowed 1 car into my lane. 1 led to 2 and by the time the 3rd car tried to push herself aggressively in, I realised that that was my threshold and submitted to the reaction of my manas, which was to honk angrily.
QUESTION: How do you practise Ahimsa without falling victim to opportunists?
MANOJ ANSWERS:
Namaste Hui Hsien
So heart warming to read how you are trying to apply the teachings into real life.. Now, let me try to answer your valid question through a story..
Long ago there was a deadly snake. She was truly a pure embodiment of terror to the villagers of the neighbourhood. In fact the people of the village stopped using the path which runs via her pit, as she indiscriminately attacked and bit anyone going that way.
Ask Manoj: People say yoga is about realizing the “truth”? What is the “truth” they are referring?
People say yoga is about realizing the “truth”? What is the “truth” they are referring?
Manoj’s Answer:
No verbal answer can clearly reveal the truth to the enquirer. In fact words will only act to cover the truth. Like how the great Lao-tzu said, “Those who know, do not say; Those who say, do not know.” Or like how Kant pointed out, words relate to the world of phenomenon and cannot express the noumenon.
But still, I am just throwing a few words around, to stir up some thoughts on the subject.
Now, what can be the ‘truth’? Many answers might swell up. One answer can be that ‘truth is something which lasts, which doesn”t depend on anything else for its continuous existence’.
So, a tea cup is in front of me. The tea cup is “true” as I can see it and feel it. But on closer look, the “form” of the cup is a dependent, transitory truth. A bigger truth is the “substance” of the cup, which can be clay (I realize I don”t know much about cups.. in fact lifted and tilted it to see whether anything is written on its underside, but other than some residual tea spilling, nothing there..). So the form, idea and the word- “cup”- is only relatively true, when one is relating to it in terms of its shape or utility. But as to what the cup really is, it is just clay (or whatever it is). The form can change, but the material cause remains.
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