I am grateful that I tried to attempt the niyama of purity(saucha)yesterday. via /r/gratitude

Forgive me if this is out of anyone’s personal knowledge or interest base. For many I’m sure this will not make sense as it is not familiar to many people here, I’d guess.

I have been trying to work with the full Eight Limbs of Yoga. This is not the yoga most people think of when they hear that term. It does include the physical poses of Hatha yoga but that is only a small part. The rest is spiritual and ethical practices for a moral life and spiritual growth. One of the practices is Saucha or Purity.

I was listening to a commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali yesterday morning and the commenter challenged us to simply try a day of Purity. This practice encompasses cleanliness of the physical body as well as purity of mind. The body part was easier. I brush my teeth and shower and wear clean clothes daily already. The mind part was the real challenge. This includes practicing meditation but I’d already done that for the day and regularly do. Then comes keeping the thoughts pure. Now, here was the hard part. This includes keeping the mind calm and positive and keeping harmful, angry, hateful, violent, lustful, negative thoughts at bay.

This challenge seemed really daunting. Here the Yoga Sutras call for us to live like this but I was only trying to adhere to Purity for one day. I honestly doubted I could do it. I had a long day of work dealing with many different members of the public ahead and then I had teens and a wife when I got home. I knew interactions would be the real challenge. Being alone keeping the mind pure is much easier obviously. There is no one to challenge your calmness. There is no one who may through their hostility, unkindness or anger at you. There is no who may present you with their problems for you to solve, no one to throw out anxiety, fear or anger triggers at you. But I had a day full of strangers with their own needs and emotions, the challenges of the non-human elements of work and then an evening with family. How could I possibly do this? How could I avoid negative thoughts, anger, frustration, hostility for a whole day.

The first couple hours of work went by. Amazingly, I had not insulted anyone in my mind. I had not thought badly of myself or anyone else. My mood was positive and fixed on the idea of maintaining a pure mind. I was happy but honestly thought this would probably crack before the shift was done. I remained determined, however, and the day kept moving on.

As the day went on I settled into a loving, kind, patient mindset. At one point, I swear I felt goodness settle into me and a feeling of a glowing warmth in the middle of my chest. I felt GREAT. I think my peace and calm transmitted to everyone I encountered (and I deal with more than a hundred strangers on daily basis) and no one was hostile or unpleasant with me. I think that my personality at work does this most days but today it was even more so with my focus.

Soon my workday was coming to an end and I was still peaceful, serene and my mind had stayed pure. If at anytime anything other had begun to creep in I was able to quickly replace it with a counter and positive, kind or patient thought before it could find any purchase within my mind. I realized it was only a matter of willpower and I could control my mind.

Work ended and I went home. Different challenges live at home. I love all the people there and know them well but that also means I have different weaknesses with them. I get home fairly late so the kids were mostly settled in as was my wife. I touched base with the kids and had pleasant conversation for a bit. Once I’d eaten and gotten ready for bed my daughter came to tell me all about her trip to a local medical school that day. My wife fell asleep early. Before long it was time to go to sleep.

I’d done it. I maintained mental purity and calm all day as close to perfectly as I could have imagined doing. What I had believed was impossible for me was possible. I’d thought I would do alright and have a better than average day but never believed I could do this but I did. No negative, angry, frustrated, hostile, insulting, unkind, impatient thoughts all day. I think I still could improve on it. There were brief moments when the seeds of impatient started to appear but I had stopped them before they could sprout so I know I can do this better. But I am so encouraged.

Today, I start this again. I’m off today and have different activities and therefore different potential triggers but now I know control of even my mind is possible. I am so grateful for this lesson. Even if today falls apart and any sense of purity of mind is lost I know I can do it and can just restart from that moment. What a powerful lesson.