Latest / Sutra Squad / Ep. 25 Sutra 2.17 On the Confusion of Self and Seer
Transcript
- Seth Barron: whole lot of gray, there's not a whole lot of extra noise. There's none of that. She sees herself very clearly. And it's just ⁓ for me personally, it's a beautiful thing. One time, I, because of the way I grew up, always worrying about my weight, always being told that I didn't look right, that I was too fat, that I was, you know, and then I have the whole bunny hole around that. But because when you're born in the South, being a fat girl is not a good thing. It's not, it's not pretty. And listen, when you're born in the north, being a fat boy isn't a good thing either. So I see that. ⁓ this is true. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So ⁓ I'll give you that. So anyway, I remember saying, you know, early on that we that nobody was to in her father's family to discuss her weight, that that was just not going to happen because of the way I was raised. And I remember feeling so proud of myself. Okay, and and nobody did. And consequently, she grew up with a very healthy body self-image. And Lo and behold, you know, I don't know. At some point when I was worried about my weight, I said, you know, Elizabeth, maybe I need to go on a diet, we need to go on a diet. We, we need to go on a diet. She goes, No, I don't. She goes, I'm beautiful. Boom. See her. No, I know. And I'm like, Wow. And she was dead serious. I bet she was. I know. I've met Elizabeth. I have no doubt. Yeah. She told me. She's very concrete. Yeah. No, I don't. You know, and she wasn't ugly about it. She wasn't rude. She's just like, What's wrong with you? Like exactly. It's just a matter of fact. Not not not correct. Yeah. And I gotta tell you, I f you know, for anybody who's listening, never ever, ever just jump to a an assumption about people who have differing needs. Back to a video, right? We don't know what we don't know about ourselves and others. And then when we don't know, I can't remember the word, but you know, it's like fear story, all that stuff creates a story. Do you ever do this in class? I gotta ask you, do you do this in class? Because it goes right to this, Sally. And I'm curious, do you ever say things like, I know it's hard, or I know it's challenging, or I can feel that blah blah blah blah. But that's putting what we think on them. ⁓ that's interesting. Like I guess I guess I frame that more like like I taught I taught I taught a block practice tonight and and I was like it's hard. If it's hard, that means it's working. Sometimes I'll say it like that. I'll be like, look, if it's hard, that means it's working, and you didn't come here because it was easy. Like, so you know, this is just like and I mean, I was actually speaking to this and I said, like, so you can choose. You're gonna choose. Do you suffer it? Or can you allow the sensation, allow the intensity to like clock you in right now? Can you be with it? You don't have to like it. And I certainly don't want it to hurt, right? Like there should we don't want sharp pain. We want lifelong, you know, pain free range of motion and lifelong practice. And like a little bit of sweet pain is good for you. If it's hard, that means it's working. Is sometimes how how I'll put it. And like, don't worry, guys, you're gonna live. You're gonna like no one's gonna die inside no one's gonna die inside angle tonight. I know you've been here for many breaths. I see you. Right? Like so I'll frame it like that, but not like, ⁓ guys, I know it's really hard. That I don't do. I mean, sometimes when the whole room like it's hot and everyone's sweating and people look miserable, sometime I'm like, Are you if you're experience it hard, life is hard. And yoga can be hard. Like I try actually to not put it in there. I try to put more to are you creating suffering? Yeah, exactly. What I like is soften face. What I'll say a lot of times is what I'll say a lot of times is is this instead of of ⁓ using words, going back to the words and how we frame things, I won't say hard, I'll say challenging. Consider it's challenging. Consider that it's not heart. But tonight we were I was working on the heart chakra because it was Elizabeth's birthday and I was feeling, you know, all the heart. So we were working shoulders, did straps. And you would think anyway, and so you could just, I could just feel the frustration. I could just feel. And I talked to y'all about this prior and I said, you know, buying into the frustration, buying into the anger, buying into whatever story is going on in your head is not going to make it better. It's not gonna help. It's not gonna help you at all. No, It's not gonna get you to the end game. Right. Yeah. No one's coming to save like the the the bad news is I hate to break it to you. No one's coming to save you. The good news, the good news is that you do not need saving because like you are the savior. You know, something I actually gave this little Dharma talk at the end of class tonight and somebody I got a very sweet reflection back of like there was a great reminder and I said, like, ⁓ Yeah, something so there's a something so be really beautiful about this study that I've really found very attractive about yoga as a lived embodied practice, right? Yoga as a as a philosophy of really of life, like of this is like how I'm I'm trying to live. Like trying to be up to the big game and I'm trying to play it from the from this place. And that's by the way, that is in every area of my life. and difficult and e in in joyous in in my in my the in the way I spend time that I generate income, the majority of my income to other things I do that have nothing to do with my income, I still want to find a deeper yoga, a deeper connection of all these ideas. And what I said was like the bad news is no one's coming to save you. And the good news is that you don't need that you don't need a savior because you are the savior. And that in all of this philosophy, in all of and and actually it's true in all of the Vedanta, the savior is not from without. The savior is always from within. Even when, even in the stories of like deeply held prayers of like of of Lord Vishnu, of of of Durga, of all of these manifestations of divine energy that come to vanquish enemies, that always arises. From a place of personal practice. Right. There's the story of the great sage Prahlad, who was born to the demons but became this like highly bhakti, high, high, high bhakti yoga, yogi. And he and he was like, he was saved by ⁓ for and now I'm forgetting the details of one of the myths, but like, but like it was because he was so his devotion was so pure. Right. Like, so there's no one like that salvation does not come from without. It always arises, it starts from within, from the devotion. And so the beautiful thing is like you don't need to be saved because you are not, you you are the savior. Like the answer, you like the wisdom is within you. You just need, and we all need ⁓ some reminders along the way of what we know to be true. So with that, let's throw down a teaching tip for the week. If you are gonna bring this, this is a really big idea, but if you're gonna bring it into a class, what's one like tangible thing a a yoga teacher out there could take some inspiration from and and like bring this inspiration into an asana class? Do you wanna start, Sally? Yeah, and I'm gonna switch I ⁓ originally I was saying ⁓ to be in the physical pose of asana class or the physical moment of life. Practice creating the space between seer and what you are seeing and feeling. But I'm gonna say maybe oscillate, notice the oscillation the spaces of seer and seeing, because we're not looking for perfect, we're looking for the awakening, right? Each time you catch yourself entangled in the mind stuff, come back to your current physical foundation. Sarah Paige, how about you? What's a tip to bring some of these ideas into a a class this week? Well, I had something, but now I'm gonna go a different route because notice notice where you are kind of inflicting, for lack of a better word, there's a probably a better word out there, but transferring. Notice where you're transferring your emotions onto your stir onto your students. So notice where you're Where you assume that they are uncomfortable, that they're unhappy, that they are mad at you, that they are, you know, whatever it is. Notice where you're transferring that energy to your students because they feel it. Big time. There's nothing worse. And like I I don't want to say worse. I find it especially uncomfortable when I walk into a a class and it's very clear the teacher is like working something out. You want to give them a muffin basket. I will sometimes say if I give a if I'm starting like if I'm starting a story about something and I'm like, listen, please, I'm fine. I don't need flowers, a card, a muffin basket. I'm fine. This is just a teachable moment that I have gone through. Yes, the point is you talk about it like you're already through it. I Yes, that's my point. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I personally find it's really tricky to talk about what like if it's a in class as a teacher. Like this is a different space where we talk and we like let it be a little bit messy and like what's work in progress. In the studio, like I need enough distance from it to be able to like know how to like breadcrumb it. otherwise it feels a little bit well, it's not about because like it's the risk is that it makes the class about me. And I don't want to be the c the class is not about me, right? I'm just gonna try to remind you of something that you already know and give you some physical form to take. Like that's it. My teaching tip about this idea of the seer and the scene is ⁓ we've used this turn of phrase. I but Bethany once gave this cue. My teacher, my my my brilliant and wonderful teacher, Bethany Lyons once said, drop the significance of the pose. Right. So I'm gonna go with my teaching tip is like don't confuse the practitioner with the practice. As in, like, just take the pose. Let it the like just take the pose today as it is right now, period. And like don't have it mean anything more. It's just triko nasana. It's just triangle pose. Does not mean that you're a good person or a bad person or that you were fat when you were five, you know, in fifth grade, or like it, like we tell ourselves all those things. But like just dropping the significance of the pose means to get out of the story of it, just get into the physical creation of it right now. What is that trikonasana you're gonna create right now? And like don't Confuse the pose with the practice, don't confuse the practice with the practitioner. ⁓ and I think like reminding students all the way through, like, I want you to try your hardest. I want you to give it everything you got, and I want you to not give a shit how it looks or what anybody else thinks about it, or like if it's good or bad, like just drop all that significance, get here right now, child's pose. Right? Okay. And this is, I think this sutra. This is such a juicy point of inquiry. ⁓ because there's just so much richness here in this idea of like how we discern how we cultivate the discernment and the wisdom to know the difference between the seer and the scene. Right. It's a little bit, Sarah Page, can you can you recite it? Lord, grant me ⁓ the A thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Grant me the wisdom. no. It's The serenity pair, God grant me. I looked it up. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Right? The serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Like that is, talk about it's all yoga. Like that is. The work of this verse of all of it, but that is a beautiful touchstone. ⁓ so did I just lose my card? No. I might have just lost my my card. ⁓ no, baby. You get to you can keep it however you want it. ⁓ but ⁓ if there was a if there was a point of inquiry for you, what would it be? I think that the point of inquiry is, you know. And this is inter I think this is an interesting kind of way to look at it. Where have you been telling yourself stories? And where have you been like in the past and it was it had nothing to do with the present or the truth of what was actually happening? Like go back to that. Go back to that moment. I had a year, not gonna lie, I'm fine, everybody. Don't send me cards, nothing. I'm fine. But ⁓ I'm good. I don't like the word fine. I'm good. But I had so many stories about things that just were not true. And I just it felt good to be in that you know, in that suffering. ⁓ Yeah, yeah. You know identify with it because it's the it's the s it that's the but that's the It's the gimme, right? What am I getting? What am I getting out of it? And it's you know, so where is the gimme? Let's just rephrase it. Where is the gimme? What are you getting out of your suffering? Is it worth it? And is it true? Beautiful. Sally, how about you? What's some inquiry this week? You've always got a really interesting ⁓ I'm gonna have to be compassionately curious why I feel like I need to have so much, but with compassion, the invitation for inquiry is can you see the difference between the seer and what you are seeing and experiencing with your senses? Do your thoughts confuse you who you think you are with the situation that you're in? And how can you recognize the seer? and what you are experiencing are not the same. Can you see the power in truly understanding the difference between the seer and the scene? So good. I'm gonna say, ⁓ Couple things. ⁓ one is like notice your language and use your words very, very carefully. And notice when you're using a framing that is like implies a permanence to describe an impermanent state. So here's what I mean by that. Try to say I feel however you feel, as opposed to I am. I am happy. I am this. I am that. I am right. Or like could so like get like really be intentional because the feelings will change, but who you are, and I mean who you really are, that is beyond. So like try to notice the habit of like, I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm busy, I'm this, I'm that. And could you get a little more clear right now? I feel like right now, I feel ⁓ really, really. full content. I feel a little bit anxious that it's late. I feel ⁓ right like I could keep going as opposed to like I'm tired. Well, like I'll wake up in the morning, hopefully, and I'll be tired. So, like, I, I, Seth, like the the ultimate personage of Seth is not tired. It's a passing sensation. So just notice where you use language that like the permanence and the impermanence, so to say. And then, and like like notice the way people ask you questions about yourself or about the like how you answer questions about yourself. And like, listen, just listen. So, like if you're in a social situation and somebody says, What do you do? Like, I'm I mean, I do like to mess with people a little bit now because I find it sort of like fun to needle it. Cause it's like, just ask me what you really want to know. You're really asking me about my career, about my life. Like, do you want to look? Like, I've done this before at parties when somebody I thought was being obnoxious. I've just been like, here's my I've I I've just picked up my phone and like opened it and I've like, Do you want to just read my LinkedIn profile? Like that, like is that what if that's what you want to know? There, that's the information. Have a nice night. ⁓ Like, we're not in a when we're not in the networking mixer. Okay. Like, I wanna know when the last time you went out dancing and saw sunrises. I wanna know like what music makes your heart sing. I wanna know, like, what was the last piece of art that you saw that really challenged you or made you think about something differently? I wanna know, like, tell me about somebody in your life who you call when you like are elated or like need some support. Like I could think of a t I could think of 20 questions to ask you that are more interesting than like what I do for work. So just like notice all those little things. Get out of the default and watch what happens by the way when you interrupt people's default that way. It will make them uncomfortable. It will tell you very quickly, like what and I don't mean this to like imply a judgment. I do mean it to imply a discernment. As in, I would rather associate with people who would immediately clap that and get what I'm doing and like. want to play along as opposed to the people who would find it like annoying because they just want to know what I do. And like that's fine. If that's the plane you're on, enjoy it. I'm not there. It's not there. It makes socializing in New York a little tricky sometimes. But you know, ding. See and I just did it right there. ⁓ it's it's my ⁓ anyway. I I it's it's it's my ⁓ it's my responsibility to end this podcast, is what it is. So ⁓ wow. right now in this moment, I feel such deep and profound gratitude for the two of you who are like I hold so dearly in my heart because we get to engage in this really intimate heartwork together. And like we come to this with such generosity. And ⁓ like we come to each other with so much generosity. And ⁓ and it's it's like a real it's like it's a real privilege. Like I do sometimes say I record a podcast about the Yoga Sutra and I get to say and I do it with two people who I just love and who challenge me and like make me rethink these things that I've been thinking about and like always open new dimensions of my understanding and wisdom and like like talk about people who I wanna just like be in association with. ⁓ I just want to say thank you so deeply, Sally and Sarah Page. It's such a privilege to do this together. Same. Thank you both so much. Same, same. All right. So that's it for us tonight. We will be with you again soon on the suture squad. If you have found any benefit from our words, please consider subscribing, leaving us a review. Hey, send it to a friend. ⁓ I we got word that there's like a squad in Rhode Island listening. So if you're in Rhode Island listening, Woo. Thanks for listening. We love you. Twelve more friends. And ⁓ for that I will say good night, good day, good evening, good morning, and ⁓ good luck. And we love you very much. Bye for now.