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The Teachings of Yama: A New Light on the Ten Commandments (Part 4)
Janaka Stagnaro
Yama and I sat on a park bench overlooking the bay of Monterey, right next to the bike path where scantily clad women ran under a sun long hidden. Often my eyes would stray down the path instead of watching the otters or the seals down below.
 DISCIPLE: Yama, I am a married man, and very happily so; yet my eyes wander over the beauty of the female form, and if I am not vigilant my mind will conjure up some wanton fantasies in the blink of an eye. The Seventh Commandment is: Thou shall not commit adultery. Am I committing adultery with my thoughts? And what is the highest teaching of this commandment?
YAMA: Adultery by definition is the sexual union of a married man or woman with another person outside of marriage. While God does not care one whit what you do in time as God sees only the Eternal and sees no other; however, as a discipline for one who seeks to know God or one’s own true nature, then one needs to cull the panting after forms—however beautiful they may seem to be. After all, what are these forms anyway but decaying flesh, one moment youthful and beautiful, the next withering and decrepit. Or if one explores these bodies further by looking at them at the minutest level they are nothing but particles of energy with no solidity at all.
Running after a body for a moment of pleasure is like jumping into the desert sand after believing you saw water. Bodies can no more give you happiness than mirages can quench your thirst.
DISCIPLE: But what about thinking about it? It’s not quite as bad, is it?
YAMA: Finding yourself in bed with some woman other than your wife would have been perpetuated by your thinking; it is not the body that wants to be with another body. When your consciousness leaves your body it becomes inert such as in deep sleep. The body is neutral, but it is filled with mental tendencies. If you have a habit of wanting to enjoy every pretty body then a subconscious tendency had been created by the belief that such actions would bring fulfillment. And each time that tendency is acted upon it reinforces that notion. Therefore the mind is the one that needs to be controlled by not letting it wander after the temporal. This is where discrimination is so important.
DISCIPLE: Please elaborate about discrimination.
YAMA: Does a wise man choose to pursue something that holds it value throughout time or something that has a value that will last only a day?
DISCIPLE: Obviously only the former. Only a fool would spend time and resources chasing something that is only valuable for a day.
YAMA: So discrimination is choosing between what is truly valuable and what is not. That which is Eternal has everlasting value. Anything temporal is really valueless. And the mind only focuses on what one believes is valuable. A business man will focus on profit, a drunk on his booze, a doctor on her patients, a holy man on God.
DISCIPLE: Is therefore my marriage valueless? And if it is, why not go after any women I wanted?
YAMA: It is valueless if you think your wife will complete your life for you and if you see her as a body. A marriage is only valuable in the true sense that it offers an opportunity of expressing unconditional love towards someone you see on a daily basis—someone whom you can see every shortcoming and then look beyond to her radiant perfect Self. Marriage is a powerful tool to discover unlimited joy in a limiting framework; which is no different than anything else on this planet.
And like everything else on this planet marriage is simply a mirror. If you see your wife as a body floundering in time and space then that is what you will see yourself as. It you behold her as the Christ, so shall you see yourself.
In other words, the only worthy undertaking is to find the Eternal in the finite.
DISCIPLE: In truth then, adultery does not just entail not lusting after someone else for sexual pleasures, but may encompass other areas as well.
YAMA: Certainly. There are many ways for one to want to escape the lessons of marriage, whether it is through one’s work, socializing, watching television, reading, etc.
DISCIPLE: Well, I do all those things from time to time. So am I escaping my marriage through them?
YAMA: You can tell if you are having an affair with anything if your mind fixates on having them when you are in another activity. If you are walking with your wife and your mind dwells on the book you are reading, or if your are doing the dishes and you want to be out with your buddies, then you are not present.
Remember this teaching: that one is to be married not to a human being but to the Eternal Now, to God, and when one’s mind is focused on anywhere else other than where one is at the time, this is adultery.
DISCIPLE: Thank you for giving me your commentary on adultery. I realize now that one does not have to be married to commit adultery. And my wandering eye is simply the mind wanting me to not be content with where I am and with whom I live.
We sat still awhile, this time I was completely focused on the harbor seals lying motionless sunbathing on the rocks, these marine creatures being very hard to distinguish from the stone they lay upon.
DISCIPLE: “Thou shall not steal” is the next commandment. It seems simple enough. Anything to add?
YAMA: Why would anyone steal?
DISCIPLE: Because they want something bad enough to take the risk of being caught but fear they lack the means of purchasing it; or perhaps for the thrill of the adventure; or maybe even revenge and they feel justified. Perhaps survival.
YAMA: Delusion. One steals because they feel they lack something they need and that there is another to steal from. If they would come to the truth of their nature they would know that there is no need and that there is no other. Each person is but a member of the body of humanity, and the body of humanity is but a member of the body of the world where other species serve as other members. To steal from another is the same as the right hand taking from the left. However, due to the fear of being a little separated thing among so many other things one steals.
DISCIPLE: What about a mother taking fruit from a vendor to feed her hungry child, is that wrong?
YAMA: This is nothing about right and wrong. It is all a matter of attitude. No one owns anything after all. It is all God’s. Does not the Creator have the rights to His creations?
DISCIPLE: Of course.
YAMA: There are some cultures that have no sense of personal property. They use whatever they might need for the time needed and then let it go for someone else to use. The idea of stealing to such people makes as much sense as feeling guilty when plucking an apple from a tree they happen upon. To such a people who have no sense of ownership there exists an inherent trust that the world will provide their simple needs.
DISCIPLE: So it’s ok to take whatever one wants since nothing belongs to anyone anyway?
Yama smiled.
YAMA: Careful, the mind can argue from any direction and never touch the truth. Any teaching, any words, can be used to lead one deeper into illusion and misery.
Any fearful action will create fearful events. Cause and effect. If one acts in the state of peace then that is what one creates. To find God who is always waiting and watching, one must develop trust. To take what has not been given generally implies lack of trust. Acting out of desperation to preserve the body is falling into the illusion of being a body instead of the Eternal Spirit that has no needs.
To eat your food, or to don your clothes, or to take your child to school without giving thanks to the Creator is stealing. Remember, there is nothing that you own. Give up the sense of ownership and surrender to the One who owns it all. In this way your mind will not steal away from the awareness that everything is God’s and is God. Gratitude, instead of self-righteous pride of earning what one has acquired, will be fostered, and the Giver can then be remembered and is invited to be recognized with every action.
Then everything becomes a gift. When one sees everything as a gift then one acts accordingly.
DISCIPLE: How does one know when one has stolen the moment?
YAMA: Generally when one becomes angry. Anger is a sign of not being united with the present circumstance and feeling thwarted from acquiring what one wants or expects. Anger cannot be present when gratitude prevails.
DISCIPLE: I guess when you really get down to the essential there is no difference between the two commandments because they are both about being in love with the moment.
YAMA: Exactly
I bowed to Yama and left him on the bench. I walked home, smiling. Whatever I gazed upon I saw with gratitude: whatever shape of a body, flowers, weeds, cigarette butts, clouds, it did not matter. And with each breath I gave thanks. When I reached home I touched my wife’s hair and lifted my giggling child into my arms, and I thanked God for this moment of Eternity God had gifted me.
*******
Yama is the name of the Hindu god of Death as well as a name for Dharma, which may translate as doing what one is allotted to do. It can also mean following the Still Small Voice instead of the loud urgings of the ego. Yama has said in my book (unpublished) that he comes as Death when we do not listen to him as Dharma. When we are following him as Dharma there exists no Death for we are in the Eternal Flow of Creation. Yama came to me after a dream a few years ago which inspired the fore mentioned book, The Teachings of Yama: A Conversation with Death. Yama is not a channeled entity. Yama is only a point of focus in the ocean of inspiration. I am fully conscious and there exists no separation between Yama and me. Please visit my site Triliving: Celebrating Truth, Beauty and Goodness at www.janakastagnaro.com
(c) 2001-2007 Janaka Stagnaro - All rights reserved.
About the Author:
Janaka Stagnaro is the author of "Silent Ripples: Parables for the Soul" and "Footprints Along the Shore of an Incoming Tide." He is a Waldorf teacher, poet, artist, storyteller and mentor. He lives with his family in Sebastopol, California. He is currently looking for a publisher for his new book, "The Teachings of Yama: A Conversation with Death." You can see his work at www.janakastagnaro.com His email is janaka_om@yahoo.com. |
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