Can You Be Like A Swan?

Can you live in the world like a swan? Even though a swan lives in water, the water does not penetrate and it remains dry. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in this world and let our troubles roll off without being soaked by them?

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In this episode I will discuss the yogic process of self-study to better understand what makes you tick, and how to you can become more balanced in life.

Yoga is classically a means to evolve your consciousness to be the best possible version of yourself. It is not meant to be an end to itself. You don’t need to go off to a cave and meditate endlessly. In fact, this will usually result in mental imbalance and darkness of spirit. But if you only focus on the outer life, your day-to-day busy-ness, then the result will be dissatisfaction and attachments.

So, we need to develop both – find the inner power and strength of mind as well as carry that into the world around us creating a compatibility of the inner and outer world.

Easier said than done! Our karmas, our patterns, are like gravity pulling us down. There will need to be effort to break free. Think about the amount of energy it takes to lift a rocket into space – to overcome the force of gravity! Sometimes it feels that difficult to break free of our patterns.

In the style of yoga that I practice and teach there is great emphasis on the practice of karma yoga, or meditative action. When we can learn to approach our daily activities with meditative action, with enhanced awareness, we can begin to recognize our emotional patterns. Combining karma yoga with mindfulness meditation, we will be able to begin the process of self-study and truly see what patterns are holding us down.

When you go to the eye doctor and you put your chin on the big device, and then the eye doctor flips different lenses in front of your eye as you look at the chart. Which is better, this or this. What about this or that? Sometimes it’s easy to tell the difference and other times it’s not! Well, we need to cultivate this same attention to what we are looking at…what we are doing…what we are feeling…this or that. Which choice will bring more clarity!

To get to this point, it is so important to engage in the practice of self-study, or swadhyaya. ‘Swa’ = self and dyaya = to meditate on. For our purposes we will think of it as the process to be able to observe or study one’s self from the little ego self to our higher self

As we move into self-study we must engage 2 important concepts – awareness and acceptance (remove tendency toward judgement)

Stages of Swadhyaya

1. observe (witness) - awareness through creation of space between seeing and action
2. understand (viveka) - discrimination
   1. to see the root of our patterns (example childhood bullying)
   2. accept and let go
3. regulate (appropriateness) – being proactive rather than reactive

Swadhyaya – what it is and isn’t

• It is not an intellectual process; rather it is finding the nature of the self, who we are, what we are, what we are trying to do, how we are trying to do it.
• Swadhyaya is not reading this and reading that, cluttering the mind with different concepts and ideas while not being clear about our own aims and directions in life.
• Swadhyaya is a complete psychological analysis of the personality.
• There are two kinds of understanding: one is mental, rational, intellectual understanding or knowledge, and the other is the application of knowledge. We have to learn how to apply knowledge to gain wisdom.

SWAN - Our strengths, weaknesses, ambitions and needs all have to be known, analyzed and understood using the faculty of discrimination and self-acceptance.

Describe the process. Divide a paper in 4 blocks with the SWAN letters one in each. Start by listing 3 things in each category.

'S' stands for strength and every individual has strengths. Strengths are those qualities, skills, talents and characteristics which support and help us to evolve. They are those aspects of the personality that can be applied positively and constructively in life, those positive attributes of our character that have been acquired through our karmas.

Everyone has a 'W' too. We have weakness, insecurity, inferiority complexes and unawareness of our potential. Weaknesses limit our progress. Weaknesses are the deficiencies in our personality, for example, apathy, anger and procrastination. Most of the time we are influenced by and try to hide our weaknesses, but by overly focusing on them we let them overshadow our strengths. When listing your SWAN aspects, do not let your weaknesses outnumber your strengths. This will make you more positive.

At the same time everyone has an 'A', ambition. We all want to become what we are not and we try very hard to do it. Ambitions are what we want to do in life. They are the driving force behind our actions; we cannot achieve anything without ambition. Ambition can be based on fear, desire, power or a natural love of life. When practicing SWAN sadhana, do not let your ambitions overshadow or outnumber your needs.

Everyone also has an 'N', need. Needs are what everybody has. The body needs food and water, clothing and shelter. There are mental needs, the desire for satisfaction, some purpose in life, while the need for inner harmony and balance with nature comprise our spiritual needs.

Utilization of SWAN

• Write your strengths and display them somewhere to remind you that these are your positive points that will develop and encourage you in life. You will gain in strength and support each time you look at them consciously.
• Choose one weakness that you want to eliminate over the next month. Focus your awareness on that weakness for a month, using your strengths and your awareness to overcome that weakness. After a month, do your SWAN again and write down the results, then choose another weakness to eliminate, or if the first one needs more work, continue on that one.
• Which negative ambitions (if any) can be changed into positive ones? For example, “I will never” can become “I will always.” List your ambitions according to priority or chronologically. When do you want to achieve them? What first steps are you going to make to achieve them? Do you need to make an affirmation that you repeat frequently to help you?
• Over the month see what comes up as needs and which needs you can successfully modify, drop or put into ambitions, and adjust your needs list accordingly.

In conclusion, Swami Niranjanananda says, “Ultimately, through the practices of SWAN meditation, a stage of integration is reached wherein the different levels of the personality, instinctive, emotional, mental and psychic, are able to function and coordinate harmoniously. The fragmented aspects of the human personality which hinder and limit creative potential are gradually unified and reinforced, creating more positive channels of expression. In this way, the practice unfolds a new vision of oneself and of one's life, an experience of internal unity and self-acceptance which is not affected by external changes and influences.”