All for One and One for All!

This weekend, the Mosman yoga community came together to demonstrate support for the people affected by the recent bushfires in Victoria. Between 7am and 7pm on Sunday 1st March, Mosman teachers and students joined forces to practise yoga, chant and meditate together to raise both compassionate awareness and money to benefit the communities that have been devastated by the fires. 12 hours of yoga and over $4,000 of donations later, I sat and reflected on what we had achieved. On a practical level we have raised much needed funds that will provide assistance to families in need. We also achieved something more subtle but infinitely powerful – connection.

Yoga teaches us about non-duality, showing us that, despite the differences we may perceive on the surface, we are all one. Our suffering comes from the delusion of separation. Erich Schiffmann uses the image of the ocean to demonstrate non-duality. Rising out of the ocean are two mighty waves. They can see eachother across the expanse of the ocean and think ‘ah, look, another wave!’ They see eachother as separate, which of course they are on the surface - the crest of each wave is formed in a different place, following a different path, rising and falling in a different pattern. What they don’t realise is that they were formed from, and will return to, the same vast, deep ocean. And so it is for us. We appear as separate individuals with different colour skins, cultures and experiences, but many of us fail to recognise that we all come from, and will ultimately return to, the same vast and unified consciousness.

When we come together with a sincere intention to connect with our fellow men and women, we experience that non-duality. We recognise that we are all one. In demonstrating support, cultivating compassion and providing material support for our neighbours, we connect with them in a way that instinctively understands that their suffering is our suffering. If we want to feel better about ourselves (and, for most of us, that’s what yoga is all about!), we need to help others feel better too. My experience of watching so many caring teachers and students give their time and money to support the victims of the Victorian bushfires reminded me that this connection between people is at the very heart of yoga. It is our ability to care about others as well as ourselves that makes us truly human and brings us closer to understanding the reality of non-duality.

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