Empty Rowboats and Not Taking Things Personally

In chapter six of Living Your Yoga, Judith Lasater tells a story on perspectives. One day a monk found an abandoned rowboat. He then worked tirelessly to restore the boat. Once the boat was finished, he took it out on to a foggy lake to test his beloved project. Not soon after the boat entered the water, another boat crashed into his brand new rowboat! The monk was so angry! How could this happen? Who would do this? Once the fog cleared, he noticed that the boat that hit his boat was empty. His anger, with the fog, dissolved.

In this story, the “fog” represents our emotional states blinding us to the truth. As we are all pursuing our various paths and projects, from time to time we collide. I usually take these collisions personally. Just like the monk assumed there was an individual maliciously responsible for destroying his boat -- we write stories wherein we are the victims and heroes instead of the honest observers. Our egos inflate to protect us -- but often gets in the way causing further damage. Sometimes when things do not go as planned, there is “no one out to get us” just simply an empty rowboat also existing in the universe -- it’s universe colliding with ours.

As I work on the niyama “saucha,” or purity, I am trying to purify the negative emotions and thoughts in my own mind. Events happen. Our response to those events is up to us. It is easy to blame and get frustrated at another individual whose life collides with our own. But if we can clear the fog and learn to “quit taking things personally,” we can see the situation for what it is: an opportunity to practice mindfulness.

Lasater, Judith Hanson, Ph.D., P.T. Living Your Yoga. Boulder, Shambhala, 2015. Print.