On Commitment

Day 208
Originally uploaded by ArjunaWeeping.

"The attainment of wholeness requires one to stake one's whole being. Nothing less will do; there can be no easier conditions, no substitutes, no compromises."

C.G. Jung

Something I've been contemplating a lot of late, both on a personal level and in terms of a few students (and ex-students).

The very first sutra of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra-s is often called the Pratijna Sutra - meaning the Sutra of commitment. Essentially, Patanjali says here (among other things) that if you are not committed to the path of Yoga, to take your transformation to the end, don't even bother starting. It is too difficult a path to waste your time on if you are not totally committed.

I see this all the time. Students come in, want a certain change in their life, and so in that very first session I ask them to consider their commitment. It takes a long time to make some of the major changes they want. If they're not willing to work at it for a long time, better not to start. All of them nod and show their enthusiasm face - few of them stick at it, as they realise how difficult it can be (even though the practices are not so difficult).

Truth is, just like Jack, they're after the magic beans. They don't want to work for their changes, don't have what it takes to commit to the long term slog - are really just looking for something magical that will make the change just happen so effortlessly and without any challenge. They forget that even Jack had ot climb the beanstalk, avoid the giant and then chop the damned thing down before he got the golden eggs. When they realise that there's no magic beans, they wander off to try something else, usually some no-effort therapy where they don't have to do anything as someone does it to them. And I'll bet when that doesn't work they wander off to the next, and the next and so on...

I guess I used to be like this, jumping from one 'pastime' to another - and I still question my commitment daily. I never do enough to keep myself happy, always being self-critical. "Could do better" is what I'd write on my own report card.

But here I am - years later, still with the Yoga, no plans to jump ship. And lately I do feel I've been refining my own commitment, making some headway into the changes I know that I want to make. It's time to give my all, in order to find out what my all really is, to "stake my whole being" as Jung would say.