Ahead of her visit to triyoga in July 2019, celebrated yoga teacher Katchie Ananda writes about why taking risks and making mistakes are vital to becoming empowered in the design of your own life. Details and booking information about Katchie’s event ‘the art of awakening: yoga, dharma + soma’ are also shared below.
Make some bloody new mistakes!
Indeed, you have read that correctly and this is one of my favorite teachings. You are allowed to be yourself, to be human, and to make mistakes. You are perfect the way you are … and there is room for improvement.
It is also important not to take ourselves (and others) too seriously. It is good to laugh when we have made a mistake (if it isn’t too terrible that is) and to pay attention when we do.
Using the concept of sat cit ananda can be very helpful:
Sat translates as truth, cit as consciousness and ananda as bliss (can also be thought of as “being, knowing, and doing”).
Sat, or truth, is the foundation of all practices. It is to see things as they are. Truth can be both awesome and devastating, depending on the situation. It simply is what it is. When we don’t see things as they are we are either in denial, delusion, or grasping. When we are, nothing changes. The path is to see ourselves and others clearly, and to respond with wisdom and compassion.
Sat refers to the ultimate truth, the dharma or the way. But there are also many little truths in our everyday life that need to be seen and accepted. I believe we cannot understand the big truths if we don’t pay attention to the little ones.
It is said that the Buddha made one mistake after another in his many lifetimes on the way to becoming a Buddha. He made wrong choices, got angry and yelled, was envious at times, and even killed. In fact, the Buddha was just like anyone you might know.
It is said that he became enlightened because he never lied about what he did or what had happened in his life.
To me this is one of the most important teachings of the dharma. Can we stay awake to see what it is we are doing, even when we’ve made a mistake?
To contemplate reality truthfully is empowering and freeing. We can do this by asking the questions:
– What did I do today?
– Did I do it well?
– Could it have been done more skillfully?
When we make mistakes with open eyes they turn out to be just stepping stones in the process of learning. We all make mistakes, and without them we can’t really learn anything new. But if we are not honest about our mistakes, we tend to repeat them ad nauseam. It is said that the definition of insanity is repeating the same action over and over, expecting a different result.
Through the simple concept of Sat we learn to be honest with ourselves and learn from our mistakes. If we try to avoid making mistakes we slow our progress, because it means we aren’t taking any risks. As a consequence, our inner compass weakens. Risk taking is necessary on the path. When we learn from our mistakes we take responsibility for our actions. This may prove to be a powerful tool – to take responsibility is to become empowered in the design of our own life.
I am looking forward to my visit to triyoga, where we will use the art of awakening to liberate our innocent little creature body, stretch our mind and nourish our heart.
With love,
Katchie Ananda
