Asteya
“When you get, give. When your learn, teach.”
The third of the Yamas is Asteya or non stealing. Sutra 2.37 states that to one established in non stealing all wealth comes.
It could be interpreted and practiced for just its literal meaning. We would be doing well to not steal objects from others. In its broader sense we could try not to steal a persons time, space, love and joy. We could try to not steal more than we need from our planet. I love the simplicity of the example in the story about adding or taking away from someone’s invisible bucket as told by Carol McCloud (see in resources below).
Sri Swami Satchidananda tells us that the root cause of stealing is greed and discontent. We experience scarcity and worry about what we don’t have. Instead of focusing on what we should and shouldn’t do like in the ten commandments we can focus more positively on our abundance.
What am I grateful for that I have or that I experience in this moment? Answering this question can bring ease to the feeling of scarcity and lack.
In a sense we are always stealing. Pablo Picasso is quoted as saying ‘Good artists copy. Great artists steal.’ I like to flip how I think of non stealing and think more about what I can give to balance it out. Like Maya Angelou’s quote above I try to give and teach and share as much as possible. I’m not a hoarder and love a good clear out so I find parting with items easy. The challenge for me is to get out of my own way and over my fraud feelings and share what I learn. Which is why I decided to venture into becoming a yoga teacher and why I set up my blog on this website and my social media pages.
I have a love/hate relationship with social media and left Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp a few years ago as I felt disconnected from my friends. I could see in an instant what they were doing every day on their social media feeds but wasn’t communicating with them. I was sharing so much of my own day on social media too but felt so empty when doing so. I decided instead to pick up the phone and call my friends.
When I re-joined social media in 2021 to promote my blogs and yoga classes I had not anticipated how much it had changed. Reels were a new experience for me. I love reels as a way to express the creative side of my yoga asana practice. On the other hand I find myself going down a rabbit hole of watching, liking, saving one after another after another of other people reels. A half hour can pass in what only feels like 5 minutes. Afterwards I have that same empty feeling. Reels steal my time from me and its addictive. This is another side of non stealing. How are we sabotaging ourselves? What or who are we allowing to steal from ourselves? What boundaries can we set for ourselves to prevent our own time, space and energy from being stolen from us?
“If you want to come, come. When you want to go, go. ”
Resources and References
https://bethichhoc.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/have_you_filled_a_bucket_today.pdf
-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali , Translation and commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda, 2019
-The Heart of Yoga, Developing a Personal Practice, T.K.V Desikachar, 1995
-Threads of Yoga, Pamela Seelig, 2021
