By Sharon Gannon
My first real spiritual teacher was an alchemist. By “real spiritual teacher” I mean that he consciously gave me teachings and practices to help me understand the spiritual principles underlying all of existence. By “alchemy” I mean the ancient practice of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. My teacher was a photographer by profession and his knowledge of chemistry was not only practical but metaphysical as well. I initially came to him because I wanted to know the cause of physical matter: what makes form form? Under his tutelage I studied the basic building blocks that constitute matter-the twelve cell salts. These salts, being crystalline in form, actually provide a mathematical or geometrical grid that attracts subtle vibrations and organize them into what eventually becomes manifest form. I also learned how to grow crystals in test tubes in a laboratory setting and assisted him in classical alchemical long-term projects that dealt with elemental properties of minerals, especially mercury and gold. He taught me the value of meditation and how to look deeply into ordinary things to discover essence, which included the investigation of words and their root etymological meanings. He infused our lessons with practical science, providing what he promised was an experiential connection to truth.
During this time I was also drawn to The Theosophical Library, an occult library where I spent a lot of hours reading books about yoga, saints, Eastern religions and enlightenment. Several books stand out in my memory-all biographies: The Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahamsa Yogananda, and two books by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, Tibet’s Great Yogi: Milarepa and Padma-Sambhava’s biography. After I read these, I professed to my teacher that above all else I wanted to become enlightened and asked if he could help me. He raised his already very arched eyebrows and slowly with a kind smile said, “first you must master these three things, which are by the way, basic to alchemy: 1. Cooking-You have to learn how to become a good cook; 2. Cleaning-You have to learn how to keep the place where you live clean and organized; and 3. Gardening-You have to know how to grow, nurture and care for plants.”
I was incredulous at his response; it disappointed me, and at the time I wasn’t able to embrace his advice seriously as it didn’t seem “spiritual enough” for me. Cooking? I was an impatient skinny girl who found disdain in eating and was trying to reduce my food to a minimum and eventually live on air: how did he think that I could get into cooking, what possibly could be the point? Cleaning? Oh come on, that’s for housewives? I was a liberated woman! Gardening? How old fashioned-in the modern world we all live in cities; farmers grow crops, and landscapers deal with flowers and such; I’m too intellectual and spiritual for these types of pursuits. Besides, I didn’t want to waste my life in such ordinary activities; I wanted God/Self realization right then.
My teacher taught by example and could often be seen in the kitchen mindfully preparing a vegetarian meal, focusing on each moment of preparation-scrubbing carrots, slicing cucumbers or measuring out rice as if he were in deep meditation. His living space was immaculate, sparse, Zen-like, with every item carefully placed and cared for. His altar was simple but beautiful. He often reminded me how important it was not to allow clutter or dust to settle on one’s altar, as it was the mirror for one’s mind. On most windowsills in his place you could find vibrant potted plants, and in the summer he grew organic tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs in window boxes.
It took me many years to realize the wisdom of my teacher’s advice. Without mastering the seemingly ordinary basics of living, no spiritual maturity, much less real spiritual evolution, is possible. One has to first grasp the magic in the ordinary before the extraordinary dawns, and once it does the everyday is the same as it was before-only sweeter.
-Sharon Gannon
By Ruth Lauer Manenti, from the Introduction to Sweeping the Dust
pattram pushpam phalam toyam / yo me bhaktya prayacchati tad aham bhakti-upahrtam / ashnami prayata-atmanah
Whatever is offered to Me with a pure loving heart, no matter if it is as small as a leaf, a flower, a piece of fruit, or a sip of water, I will accept it. -Bhagavad Gita IX.26
When I first went to India, I was eager to look at Indian miniature paintings from the sixteenth century. I had seen many of them in museums in the West, and I assumed that in India I would find the best collections. But the museums in India are poorly lit, so I couldn’t see anything. What I did find, though, was incredible artistic beauty in a hand-painted spoon, the tapestried seat of a chair, a clay cup, an embroidered shawl, a hand-woven man’s skull cap and carpets made from rags called rag-rugs. So I gave up looking for art in a museum and instead found it in daily life. Worshipping is like this also. We may look for God in the museum, church or temple, but God is not limited to such places: He is everywhere. But how do we find God everywhere? By treating everyone as God. And how would God like to be treated? In this verse, the Lord says bring me a leaf, a flower, a fruit or some water, with devotion. He wants something unpretentious that expresses affection. If we can do this with everyone, we will know the meaning of this verse. One stick of incense, a single good word, food for one dog, memorizing one text, bowing down one time or one warm cup of tea-all are acceptable to the Lord. In 2009, my guru Sri K. Pattabhi Jois passed away. Shortly afterward, I asked his daughter Saraswati for something that had belonged to him. She presented me with an old and worn-out shawl. It was folded in her hands, and she extended it toward me saying, “It was Guruji’s favorite. It is very simple. You will like it. He didn’t like the fancy ones.” This shawl, torn in several places, was a perfect offering. It greatly pleased me; in this way, Saraswati had pleased the Lord. Pleasing the Lord releases us of tensions. Making me happy made her happy, even in the midst of such a sad time.
There is a man I know in India who doesn’t have any legs; he is cut off from the hips down. He has a piece of wood he has tied himself to, and he pulls himself around with his arms. He sits in a spot I pass and asks for money, yelling, “Amma, Amma.” He is calling me mother. He wants me to offer him kindness; he wants me to see God in those who suffer. Guruji once told me that that man was God, “disguised.” The word asana means a seat, something to lean on, a support. Offering someone support can take shape in a myriad of ways. These ways can be the threads that tie everything together. Offerings join the giver and the receiver spiritually. Sadly, leaves, flowers, fruit and water are disappearing as we destroy the earth. The best offering we can make in these times is to become vegetarian, a gentle diet that causes the least harm to plants, animals, the climate and human beings. If we continue to clear away the forests, trees, shrubs, prairies, meadows, marshes, grasslands, plants, roots, flowers, creeper and weeds, in order to grow one kind of crop to feed to animals who will be slaughtered, there won’t be any more leaves, flowers, fruit or water in our landscapes. Scriptures are prophetic with obvious and not-so-obvious meanings. Perhaps the Lord is telling us in this verse that leaves, flowers, fruit and water are offerings from the Lord for us to protect and offer back.
My husband Robert and I live in a cabin in the woods. Often bees, wasps, flying ants, even an occasional snake come into our home. My husband knows how to handle these animals appropriately. Without upsetting them, he puts a container over them, slides a piece of paper underneath and carries them back outside. “Sweeping the dust” is a way of saying that taking care of the ground has value. Traditionally, the yogi has always sat on the ground. Only an elder or a greatly esteemed master would be given a chair. Everything rests on the ground. The ground is the support. It’s where we can sit together and tell our stories. “Sweeping the dust” is a metaphor. In that spirit, I offer this book, like a tiny piece of Guruji’s torn shawl. -
Ruth Lauer Manenti, from the Introduction to Sweeping the Dust
asteya-pratishthayam sarva-ratnopasthanam (PYS II.37)
When one stops stealing from others, prosperity (material, mental, and spiritual) appears.
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali gives us five recommendations, called yamas, for how we should treat others if we want to attain liberation. The third yama is asteya, which means “non-stealing.” Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati defined theft as “the unauthorized appropriation of things of value from another.” People steal because they feel deprived or “less than.” They try to make up for their deficits by depriving others. When we steal, we set into motion dire karmic consequences that affect our future well-being. But through the practice of yoga, we come to feel confident and develop a feeling of wholeness and completeness; we have no need to steal from others to feel good about ourselves.
The meat, dairy, and fashion industries are founded upon stealing-stealing milk intended for a mother’s new baby, stealing wool intended to keep someone warm, stealing skin and fur intended to be worn by the being who was born into that skin. To confine an animal for its entire life is to steal its life. To kill and eat animals is to steal their lives from them. The meat and dairy industries have successfully convinced us not to see animals as having their own purpose for living, a purpose that doesn’t include being exploited and used up by human beings.
In our present time, we may not think we are stealing from others when we eat meat and dairy products because we have been deluded by our culture into thinking that animals exist for our benefit. In fact, it is expected of us that we eat them, and it is considered strange to question this expectation. But the truth is that the animals never entered into any agreement to be bought and sold. We have been stealing their lives for our own selfish reasons. According to Patanjali, this is not conducive to our material, mental, and spiritual prosperity.
When someone says, “If people choose to eat meat, it is their business. We should not interfere, and we should be tolerant and accommodating of their dietary preferences,” the proper yogic response is that whatever any of us does affects us all. When someone eats meat, it affects all of us because of the terrible environmental impact of the meat and dairy industries on the planet. By eating meat, we are not only stealing the lives and happiness of billions of animals, we are also stealing fresh water and clean air from future generations who will be born into this world.
Can we afford to care about the suffering of animals when so many human beings are starving? Yes, not only because caring about animals does not preclude caring about human beings, but also because vegetarianism is of direct benefit to the planet and to reducing starvation around the world. A human child dies of malnutrition every 2 seconds, yet it takes 15 to 20 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. If just 10 percent of American meat eaters adopted a vegetarian diet, there would be 12 million more tons of grain to feed to humans-enough to support the 60 million people who starve to death each year. When we come to understand the true benefits that come from the practice of asteya-non-stealing-the means to abolish human starvation will be realized, and all will have enough to eat.
-Sharon Gannon, adapted from Yoga and Vegetarianism
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