Dear Yogis,

It is hard to realise that this homestay will be gradually eased off starting next week, or if the local scene is anything to go buy, it is happening as we speak.  In no time we will be able to pretend it didn’t happen.  It will be like we have been on a long holiday…we will romanticise it, we will justify it, we will rationalise it – until we look at our bank accounts, and then the reality will hit.  But whatever, I for one enjoyed the enforced holiday.  It should happen yearly, and well it might. The genii is out of the bottle and no amount of wishing will put it back.  To cheer you all up, here is a photo I took yesterday of Gracie, my beautiful cat.  A Peaceful Princess…

 

We must understand that the wonderful, magical resources of our earth are limited.  We are now entering an age of scarcity (if we buy into it of course).  The message is the same from all sides – our undisciplined consumption must end.  If we continue to gobble up our resources without any regard to stewardship and to spew out our deadly wastes over land, sea and air, we may well be causing our own demise.

Over-consumption cuts the heart out of our compassion, and converts us into materialists.  We become less able to ask moral questions  Just because we have the economic muscle to buy up and corner the market in a necessary product, or divert and pay for all the water for instance, does that give us the right to do so?

Perhaps what is needed is a massive reorientation of mindset towards compassion rather than consumption. Yogis can make a big difference.  We are a large and growing community.  In the quarantine the people signing up for yoga on-line grew by 4,000%!.  That is a significant increase, and if we all spoke with the one voice (voted with the one voice) we could make a unique contribution to the world because we have a vital interest in the stewardship of the earth and economic justice for the poor.

I believe that most yogis have a commitment to global citizenship that can help us transcend the provincial claims of national interest and the multinational corporations.  Accountability and honesty are both needed if the wealthiest corporations (and people) in the world are to benefit society with generosity EQUAL TO THE PROFIT MARGIN.

One of my favourite authors (and people) is the Late Beatrix Potter – a mycologist and author/illustrator of The Peter Rabbit books.  She became exceedingly wealthy at a time when few women were independent or had their own money.  Beatrix paid a huge percentage of her earnings in tax (something in the region of 65%) which she saw as a duty.  She was always her own person, was happy, lived simply,  and gradually bought up large swathes of land which she donated to the National Trust so that they could never be built on, and generations to come would be able to appreciate their pristine beauty.  Thereby making sure they were/are protected in perpetuity.  I nominate her an “Honorary Yogi”.  I don’t think she ever did an asana, but she lived the yamas.  She lived, loved and left a legacy.  A “three step program”  that we could all aspire to.

Simplicity is part of our call to the YOGA LIFE.  It is not an “extra” that we can tack on to our yoga experience as we buy another computer or a bigger, better phone plan. Simplicity is an essential way that we can demonstrate LOVE in our homes, our family and in our community – the yamas ordering everything.    That level of communion and faith sees everything in the light of the Universe’s (God’s) governance for good, abiding peace,  and the ability to walk over the face of the earth within that power.

Simplicity may be difficult, but the alternative is immensely more difficult.

Have a lovely, warm day.  Stay happy no matter what.

NAMASTE, JAHNE