Yoga is Skill in Action

The Ground of Inquiry: Viveka and Santosha

VIVEKA AND SANTOSHA

—Viveka is sharp incisive clarity of vision. Viveka involves honing a razor sharp intellect to negotiate the complexity of life — the internal and the external worlds.

—Santosha is the radical willingness to see whatever is actually presenting — regardless of what one thinks about it or what one plans to do about it.

—When paired viveka and santosha form the foundation for effective — powerful and meaningful action — both internally and in the world.

Honesty, bravery, and intelligence are wrapped up in the pairing of these foundational principles of yoga. Wise use of viveka and santosha helps us carve out the inner space for becoming our most effective selves.

It feels true to me that the ways we find “fault” with the world (and obviously there are a lot of faults) mirrors the ways we find fault within ourselves. Yes, there are big problems. AND, we need skillful means for dealing with them.

What I suggest here in this piece on viveka and santosha, is that first you look at the internal means you always use to address your “own” problems. At least explore whether your perceptions may be profoundly colored by your already well entrenched preconceptions. If you want go even a bit further you might inquire into whether your perceptions might even say more about you than they do about the object of perception.

I am not suggesting even more navel gazing, as it is sometimes called. I am suggesting that if you want to be effective in both the world and your inner capacities and abilities to act, you check this out.

It is sometimes said that the arrow of action can only fly as far as it is first pulled back by the bow. Yes, look inward! Yes be brave inside! And then YES act with strength and determination…always tempered by love and presence.

THE INQUIRY

Wise yoga practice is infused with keen discrimination and tempered by radical and abiding acceptance. Self-acceptance is an absolute prerequisite for meaningful practice. Without self-acceptance, we are always in a battle with ourselves, trying to change or perfect one of our imagined limitations.

This battle is never won because as soon as we perfect or improve one aspect of our self, we are on to the next, the next and the next. Nothing is ever enough. The radical idea that you are just fine as you are is almost unthinkable to most of us. Recognizing the degree to which you are not satisfied with who you appear to be, or who you take yourself to be, is the first step toward understanding how important it is to find a deeper truth within yourself.

The deeper truth is that you are actually as you are and if you can just get over that and accept it you may actually be able to do something about it!

Santosha — contentment with what is without inferring non-action — does not mean that you can’t do things to make changes in your life. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to alter self- destructive habits. It does mean that, in order to move into deeper levels of conscious awareness, you need to fully acknowledge, without judgment, how you are, how you feel, think, and act in every way.

You may find some qualities that you don’t like. The trick is that you can’t try to make them go away. In your effort to get rid of the aspects of yourself that you don’t like, you effectively lock them in place. Learn not to resist the fact that they exist. Simply, “Oh, okay…there’s that. Hmmm.”

The struggle is the problem. The struggle is what keeps our awareness locked up in a swirl of discontented thoughts and feelings and blocks us from seeing the larger picture, which is where we will find true contentment — our true power to relate, act, and engage with life!

The struggle is also what keeps our actions in the world from having the strength that we are really capable of. Struggle creates fragmented and chaotic action. Calm recognition of the problem allows our strength to build and express

Santosha is definitely not pretending or imagining that everything is fine. Assuming an attitude of contentment is not the same as true contentment. Santosha is not a mood. Imagining that everything is fine does not offer any contentment at all. Contentment is a real and deep knowing that comes as the result of seeing clearly. Remember, santosha needs to be paired with her partner, viveka.

Viveka — incisive clear vision — keeps us on track.
Using keen discrimination, we search through our own sea of swirling thoughts and feelings to uncover how we limit ourselves with our own thinking patterns. Viveka will tell us when we are fooling ourselves with some false sense of clarity just as santosha will tell us when we are wrongly judging and devaluing ourselves. Viveka and santosha work hand in hand. 

EMBODYING SKILL IN ACTION

With every breath we take we have the opportunity to meet ourselves with fresh awareness. Our yoga practices can either further solidify a habitually fragmentary vision of self and the world, or it can lead us toward a non-fragmentary, holistic, and encompassing vision of self and all of life.

Engaging santosha and viveka, we can navigate our own journey toward seeing life as it is. In helping ourselves, we gain the tools and the vision to assist our communities and the world. Our own strength is imperative to our strength in action. One cannot short circuit ones own power at the source and expect our contributions to have clarity that we hope for.

The internal and external inquiries are best practiced simultaneously. How do we live internally? How do we act in our families and the world? How do we make a difference for ourselves, our loved ones and…others?

Might this inquiry also lead us to the direct recognition of sameness of all humanity? Yes, of course! How could it not? Ultimately, who can possibly be other? Are we not one human family? Is that your direct experience? (Be honest.)

Take up this inquiry and practice it with vigor and determination. Compassion, clear vision and love are the foundations of effective living. Far from a passive waiting for wisdom to dawn on you. Look for it. Invite it.

Personal growth is always satisfying, isn’t it? Inquiring into the nature of these balancing principles of inquiry will lead not just to the personal growth (which is wonderful on its own) but also will support growth for all of those with whom we relate. In other words…everyone.