One of the reasons a yogi celebrates simplicity is for a clear view. I think it is not out of detachment but for convenience that they become minimalistic. It is surprising to think that it is more comforting to have less. Less luxuries, less food, less possessions, less clothing, less working hours, less talk … . Some things are given up altogether like music and sex. Seems no fun to a lot of people.
Largely, I feel yogis are not sadists...they just simplify things. Why make it so inconveniently convenient one might ask. The answer is: They indeed have practices that engage them for large spaces of time … but more importantly they choose to simplify to make things clear. Like in clear waters you can see the bottom/bed of the river or a pond. Like in clear weather/desert you can see far. Yogis simplify things to gain clarity, clear cognition. Clear cognition of what? Yogi wants to gain a clear cognition of cause and effect. Experiential understanding of the theory and practice of dhamma, to stay real and to progress indepedently. What right do I have to say this, how do I susbstantiate what I say here abut clear link between simplicity and access to insight?
To substantiate I will have to pull in an event from this morning. I have recently come home after a bit of traveling. Carried very few possessions with me. A small cloth bag for short trips and a bit larger bag for longer haul, apart from a handbag. That did set the context of minimalism and simplicity, cognition apprently was starkly clear and so was cause and effect of things as meditated for long hours parked at stations and while traveling.
Now, this morn at home I woke up with some pain in the back of my neck. I know from past experience that this pain has direct correlation with stress. Pain in the neck was because I have been stressed out for finances apart from … may be bad posture … though I rarely, if ever, slouch. I was experiencing a lot of clinging to money which is unusual, but the feeling came up and was grasping me:) Then this morning I spontaneously parted with a personal possession to help someone. For a brief moment I thought I will regret for it later (what a selfish state of mind!)… but the person receiving was glad and automatically I joined in the pleasure of sharing. I noticed, surpringly, that small event relieved me of sress. I also noticed that for some time the pain vanished! As the day progresses I continue to deal with my matters with a superior state of mind.
No matter how small the context, the cognition should be clear for a meditator to progress on the path of dhamma.
I recall here age old Hindu tradition of dana that is now reduced to a mere convention of pandits recommending certain kinds of giving/dana as antidote to some trouble that the native might be suffering from … but conventions don’t help at all. Cognition does.
Yogis establish this cognition and purity as the seat of change within. Cognition establishes clear links, helping one progress on the path of purification. This helps others ... but the real stuff is that one starts healing oneself. The yogi becomes stronger, from leading a pure/moral life, with right effort, right view, constant learning/mindfulness based on sound experience, sound cognition, and lastly, sound theoretical knowledge of dhamma.
Yogi bares himself to the play ... as if standing bare in such a desert where his frame of mind determines the weather. Storms of emotions are very clearly comprehended, heat of anger, depressing dark of the night, or lifedrops of love and compassion. Surise and sunsets. In bare conditions everthing is faced head on. Thats the life of a yogi, moment to moment and bare. Do not read this too literally, yogis have meditation practice as vast as the sky as the background, without this bacground do not bare yourself :) The skills of survival in the bare desert are the skills in theory and practice of dhamma, that renders the flexibility and watever else that is required … the challenges are not faced uslessly, the motivation is for wisdom
