Everything in Moderation, Getting Rid of Ego and The Yoga Sutras (Part 1)
March 24, 2024
8 min read
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Newsletter
{Body}
The moderation trap
“Everything in moderation” can be a dangerous maxim to live by for two reasons: (1) we don’t actually believe in it, and are therefore lying to ourselves; (2) we use it as a permission slip to poison ourselves.
Think about it: you don’t really believe that everything is okay in moderation, do you? Everything!? “Oh…breathing in just a litttttle bit of this lead paint is safe, as long as it’s only an inhale or two!” Or “Oh, just a little bit of rape is alright, so long as it’s not all the time!”
Of course not! Just because bingeing six hours of TikTok is worse than bingeing one hour of TikTok doesn’t mean that the one hour had no negative consequences for your mind.
Moreover, there is no objective definition of moderation — it’s completely self-made.
For instance, my alcohol moderation might be 1 to 2 drinks a week, whereas yours is 1 to 2 drinks a night. One person’s tobacco moderation might be only smoking Marlboro Reds while drunk at a bar, and another’s might be only ceremoniously smoking a organic, hand-rolled cigarette every few weeks.
The “everything in moderation” sentiment is — in principle — a valiant attempt at self-love. After all, it isn’t helpful or kind to shame yourself for “bad” behavior.
But you do want to change at some point, right? You do eventually want to be free from your addictive, self-destructive behaviors, yeah?
{Mind}
How do I get rid of my ego?
If our attitude is hatred or disgust or judgement, you can guarantee the ego is involved.
In other words, the desire to get rid of your ego is your ego.
Yes, this version of your ego holds a slightly higher intention, but it’s still just negativity disguising itself as purity.
Besides, the goal isn’t to get rid of the ego as though it were a vermin that needed extermination. Instead, the goal is to integrate your separate ego into the larger truth of Oneness.
In practice, this looks like learning to accept — and eventually love — our unconscious behaviors. To see our greed and selfishness as interesting relics of ignorance, nothing more.
Ironically, acceptance and love are the exact conditions by which the ego can dissolve into omnipresent Spirit and we attain the freedom we so desperately sought.
{Soul}
> This is part 1 of 4 on a series about the Yoga Sutras.
The influence of the Yoga Sutras on the world cannot be understated. It kicked off what is arguably the most practical and widespread understanding of yoga to date, trickling into the mind of every yogi (and wannabe yogi) on the planet.
The Yoga Sutras suggest yoga is three things:
A philosophy.
A practice.
An achievement.
Putting them together, yoga becomes a way of living life that you get progressively better at until you come to the ultimate Realization of who You are.
“Atha yoga anushasanam” — the very first of sutra in this seminal text — roughly means “now the discourse of yoga is being made.”
These few simple words encapsulate the entirety of yoga philosophy and way of life.
Yoga begins the moment a Seeker becomes aware that there is — in fact — a life curriculum to be learned. Before that moment, they steep in delusion and suffering. After that moment, their life is seen as a series of opportunities leading towards freedom.
Atha yoga anushasanam describes yoga as a process of recognizing what there is to be discovered *in* the now. It implies that everything you seek — the whole discourse on life — can only be engaged with in the present moment, nowhere else.
Every other philosophical idea in the Yoga Sutras follows from this statement. Stay tuned next week for part 2 of this series.
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