The Rich Vegetarian

SIMPLY BEING | SIMPLE BEING

March 25, 2023 / 0 Comments

sVaastha

The mystery of “health” is yet unresolved.

In India, the term “svAstha” is used to denote health. Now, svAstha simply means “established in oneself,” and we can safely say that health (or good health) is an integral aspect of being established in oneself. (What does it mean to “be established in oneself?” I wish I had a good answer.)

Does (good) health imply absence of disease? Or does it mean an ability to live and breathe fully, regardless of disease condition? Can health be tracked on multiple parameters? Or is it a state that defies all measurable parameters? Is there a universal definition of good health? Is good health same as immunity?

No two humans are alike, and it seems that there is not a universal prescription for good health, or for warding off disease. There are a zillion recommendations around diet and lifestyle and exercise, and there are as many individuals who appear to lead healthy lives WITHOUT following a single one of those recommendations. I know people who have survived cancer, undergone multiple surgeries, and live with chronic pain… but you wouldn’t know any of that from speaking with them—such is their zest for life. There are people who talk endlessly about health and fitness but there is such a defeated air about them that one wonders, what is the point? I know healthy individuals in their 80s, and it may be that their longevity owes itself to their disciplined lifestyle but then I also know others in the same age group who appear healthy because they have an inexhaustible, fearless appetite for life. I know young people who consume mindfully but live fearfully. There are individuals who take all manner of supplements and there are those who have never swallowed a multivitamin in their life. Really, what gives?

What is one to do? What recommendation can one follow?

Maybe what is essential for good health is a kind of “system integrity,” and I don’t know if there is an actual term for this.

A kind of honesty in how we live life, a sense of truthfulness to our own selves about our wishes and fears and desires, a simple clarity in expression, a habit of looking fear in the eye, a habit of living comfortably and side by side with fear, or grief, or regret, a willingness to see our internal tendency to push or pull, grab or shove or hide, to rush or dawdle, an intention to breathe fully through all life experiences.

Perhaps what one needs is sufficient love and faith in Life’s essential dynamism and intention to guide us in every way, including food, exercise, lifestyle, relationships, career, etc.

Indeed, the healthy ones are those that appear to be imbued with this inner love… love for? God, World, Life, whatever. Perhaps this is a complex phenomenon but maybe it is also simpler than the simplest, and so simple that this mind cannot comprehend.

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March 22, 2023 / 0 Comments

This Time Tomorrow

I just read this book that was about time travel but then it was also a book about aging, caring for a dying parent who was young, vibrant, filled with joy, oozing creativity, and then this endless, repetitive effort to go back in time and tell that person, don’t smoke! Eat healthy! Don’t eat meat! Please go jogging… and so on, all in the hopes of averting a future in hospice, and yet the woman at the center of all this sees so clearly that Time Does Not Miss, and she took one winding path after another, going to sleep each night at the same spot, and waking up elsewhere each time, and yet all paths led to the hospital, hospice care—no smoking, be damned. And this makes me all wonder about time, and whoever said that it’s an arrow—do we need clarification—because an arrow has direction, right? And in this story, so you’d think, and yet I am reminded also of something someone said about directionless time, and yes, all this likely comes across as gibberish, or newbie fan gibberish, coming from someone who’s read about time travel for the first time, hehe… but make no mistake about it, for I Have Spent A Lot Of Time thinking about Time, and it’s probably funny… for, didn’t someone say that they contemplated the nature of reality only to realize that it didn’t exist? If all this science fiction-time-reality talk feels terribly weird as it emerges from the mind of this 44-year-old (really, now?), make no mistake, yet again… for this 44-year-old is herself stuck in the strangest of time warps, and ALL of it is her own creation, a web she spun herself, for the love and fun and joy of it all.

(Thank you for reading.)

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August 23, 2022 / 0 Comments

Sticky Fear

Perhaps you have encountered this in Hatha Yoga practice, or martial arts practice, or any other kind of art/sport practice, maybe. There is a particular pose or sequence that doesn’t appear to favor you much, and you, in turn decide that you don’t care for it either. But there is no avoiding it, and if you encounter fear (or suffering) while doing said pose/sequence, it becomes a bit of a sticky affair… because that negative experience sticks to you, hard. Actually, it isn’t the one sticking to you—you are the one holding on to it because it has now become part of your story.

A skilled teacher may allow you to carry that story for a while but one day, they will come up to you and tell you, DROP THE DAMN THING. Now, you may get terribly peeved at them. They don’t understand you, obviously. They don’t know how awful that experience was, how real and concrete that sensation of fear. How you could feel your legs trembling, breath quivering… and there they are telling you to drop it. As if it were that easy… BAH.

It takes a brave teacher to come say this to their student because it takes only a millisecond for that person to go from a beloved instructor to one “who just doesn’t understand me.” Or, one who is “pushing me.”

Hmmm, I was (maybe) that student but I am now seeing the teacher in a new light.

DROP THE DAMN THING is a concession, really. One day you are able to see that there is no “thing” to be dropped, and in reality, there is “nothing” carried over from your earlier experience of Shoulder Stand to the present one. Such a relief, no?

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August 12, 2022 / 0 Comments

a choice illusion

For the longest time I have been fascinated by the idea (illusion?) of choice. There have been more than a few “big events” in my life that came through very effortlessly. Meaning, no thinking required, no decision making skills exercised. Truth be told, I am kinda uncomfortable with having to “make a choice”—I am happier trusting in the larger flow of events.

This phenomenon (is it “choiceless awareness?”) has played out in my life experience so many times, and yet it so happens that ever so often I suffer from forgetfulness, and get into a tortuous bind, trying to “choose.” I forget that in truth, there are endless options, and my limited mind can comprehend only a few of them. And that there is not a real reason to “choose,” because the road is veering on its own, anyway… and one needs to turn the steering wheel very little, one way or another, for a smooth ride. One needs only to align with the larger curve, and there is minimal driving effort required.

For me this is about trusting, again and again. It’s about placing faith in the moment, allowing myself to be led. Perhaps it’s also about going in “blind,” refusing to give in to that little need “to know,” to be on top of things, to be in charge? Honestly, I am only too happy not to be in charge!

(There is a part of me that envisions all of this very differently. Perhaps all the mental gymnastics play out on a plane that exists wholly separate from the field of real action, so to speak. So, while we may spend endless hours deliberating on Choice#1 v/s Choice#2, the truth is that those considerations have zero bearing on what manifests.)

“Brahma”

If the wild bowler thinks he bowls,
Or if the batsman thinks he’s bowled,
They know not, poor misguided souls,
They too shall perish unconsoled.
I am the batsman and the bat,
I am the bowler and the ball,
The umpire, the pavilion cat,
The roller, pitch, and stumps, and all.

— Andrew Lang

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