There are meditation techniques in Yoga and Buddhism which ask us to contemplate objects which might repulse or scare us. The idea is to loosen the bonds of our attachment and also question our own habitual responses. In India, some yogis meditate in graveyards as part of their spiritual practice. As they contemplate corpses they loosen their attachment to this material life.
It is certainly a fascinating exercise to observe yourself as you meditate on a thing from which you instinctively recoil. Once in teacher training we experimented with this by meditating on the idea of a dog mess and a beautiful rose. I watched my thoughts scramble, felt resistance in my body and tension in my face as I attempted to see both objects as just a similar collection of cells in the universe.
Guess what? the rose won. I love beautiful things, I feel strong emotions for people and objects. I enjoy cooking and get pleasure from food and wine. I love hearing music and reading great sentences. In other words, I was and remain firmly attached to the material world.
This realisation sent me into a mild panic. Was this contradictory to the practice of Yoga? And if so, was Yoga for me? Was it focused more on transcending life than on living? My brain hurt as I tried to reconcile this practice which had given me such joy, peace and pleasure with what felt like this cold forbidding place of non-attachment - a kind of death before a physical death.
I’m probably not the first secular Yoga practitioner to have these thoughts and I continue to mull it over. If one doesn’t believe in an afterlife - either in heaven or in reincarnation - the idea of giving up parts of this life to prepare for the next presents a major challenge. If we only have the one life, why deny ourselves the experiences, the pleasures and the joy on offer?
But Yoga can help with that age old question: How to live a good life? It reminds us of the temporary nature of our existence; on this earth and in this body. It can help us see things more clearly, listen more closely. Being attached to nothing might feel bleak and frightening but there are benefits in loosening some of the ties - caring less what other’s think perhaps and maintaining equanimity through good times and bad.
I guess the challenge is to feel and enjoy without clinging to the pleasurable sensations that develop an attachment to things that inevitably change and disintegrate, like us. Having said that, I just took a course in which a monk was suggesting a remedy to sensory attachments - mixing all types of food in one bowl. Things like chocolate would lose their appeal, he suggested. Not trying that, I thought… :)