My take on Law 4 from Deepak Chopra’s Book “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga.”

This one was particularly interesting because my understanding of it really did change as I taught my classes. At first it seemed to want us to submit and I saw it as a great excuse to relax and not work very hard. But in the end it isn’t about not working but truly working smarter and not harder, about applying work and effort where it will do the most good.

It’s the idea of leverage, and not beating your head against a wall. It’s the idea of choices.

We see the possibility in the moment but we don’t regret the moment. We let go of being upset where we are and we sit with it, we love this experience and trust…trust…trust.

1. I will practice Acceptance. Today I will accept people, situations, circumstances, and events as they occur. I will know that this moment is as it should be, because the whole universe is as it should be. I will not struggle against the whole universe by struggling against the moment.

Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you’re going to do about it.” ~ Kathleen Casey Theisen

You can rail against the moment as much as you like, you can be angry about it or feel sorry for yourself you can, but will it serve any purpose? It is. It is. It is. So now what.

2. Having accepted things as they are, I will take Responsibility for my situation and for all those events I see as problems. I know that taking responsibility means not blaming anyone or anything for my situation (and this includes myself). I also know that every problem is an opportunity in disguise.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
Eleanor Roosevelt

We tend to be on either side of this fence, there are those living in a victim paradigm that feel all responsibility lies outside and on the other side we feel we are worthless and useless and total failures, taking blame rather than responsibility. Being responsible give us options, choices and hope and is not an excuse to wallow on either side.

3. Today my awareness will remain established in Defenselessness. I will relinquish the need to defend my point of view. I will feel no need to persuade others to accept my point of view. I will remain open to all points of view and not be rigidly attached to any one of them

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.
~ Henry Ford

Uhh yeah…I think you should just refer to my blog on Dogma for my take on this….

As per usual I can’t agree with “everything” – it’s a character flaw…defect? Skill? Well any way this particular quote from the book had me questioning.

If you observe nature at work, you will see that least effort is expended. Grass doesn’t try to grow, it just grows. Fish don’t try to swim, they just swim. Flowers don’t try to bloom, they bloom. Birds don’t try to fly, they fly. This is their intrinsic nature.

But I think nature does work hard. I don’t think nature quits just because it’s hard. It doesn’t just lay down and play dead. What it seems to do is work with what is there. Grass won’t grow in the winter, it accepts that it’s too cold and waits for spring. Fish swim upstream against current, against odds, because that is what prepares them to have the best offspring. Flowers have to push little by little working hard to push through dirt to bloom. Nature is of course the perfect metaphor but rather than saying we should just flow because nature does I think we should learn to accept that sometimes we will have to work hard, sometimes it is time to rest and wait, sometimes we have to let go…sometimes its not what we do, but when we do it and nature teaches us that all experiences are good and necessary and when we accept that it’s all good in our own lives bliss is not too far behind.