practing compassion

in patanjali’s yoga sutras, each sutra is meant to bestow the reader with advice in order to suffer less.  ahimsa which is the practice of non-violence is one of the five yamas (restraints) outlined in sutra 2.35.  this can be interpreted in many ways but the one that I personally find resounds most with me is to maintain compassion towards yourself and others.  one way to assist in the act of ahimsa in a world where sometimes you might not want to be so compassionate, is to practice pratipaksha bhavanam.  pratipaksha bhavanam is when you replace a negative thought with an opposite, positive one.    

in this day and age, it can be very easy to let one thing, like being confronted with rudeness from a fellow commuter on your way into work for example, set off a chain reaction of negativity.   then when you get to work say there’s no milk for your tea, this can build frustration and negativity which then could very easily be transmitted to your co-workers unintentionally by simply feeling grumpy.  perhaps then you are a bit less helpful to a client on the phone and the cycle continues to grow, like a fire it can consume anything and everything in its path.  even the smallest of interactions can leave a bad taste in ones mouth. 

what if instead, as the practice of pratipaksha bhavanam suggests, when presented with something that might cause us to be annoyed or frustrated, we make the conscious effort to think of something positive?  and failing that, to remove ourselves from the negative situation in order to maintain our peace.  in my own experience i know that this helps me to neutralize the situation.  instead of letting anger or frustration take hold of you, by consciously thinking of something positive instead, you are giving yourself evenness of mind.  this evenness will allow you to interact in a more compassionate manner to either the person who may be the one causing the negativity in the first place, or anyone else you might come in contact with.  

xxx