Inside Yoga 227 (5/3/2018)

At the end of last week Britain found itself engulfed in a Siberian-Arctic snow storm which brought the country to a standstill, and this included our usually mild south west region of England. Over the last few days we have seen numerous examples of altruism, selflessness and community spirit which are always nourishing to hear about, especially in such adverse conditions.
My own personal experience on Thursday and Friday had examples of how difficult condition can bring the best out of people. I had tried to drive home on Thursday from Bristol into the countryside where I live, near Bristol airport, but I soon realised that I was not going to get home because compacted snow on main roads out of the city meant that I knew I would not get up the hill approaching Bristol airport on the A38. So I struggled slowly to a hotel at the edge of the city, where I asked if I could leave my car in the car park, because my first thought was to walk the rest of the way home, about 8 miles, but then I came to my senses and thought it through. A two-hour walk through a blizzard at night was potentially suicidal. I was prepared to sleep in the restaurant, because the hotel was full, but thankfully a room became available in the when a customer failed to get to Bristol.
You could say that the hotel receptionist was just doing her job but she volunteered the possibility of a room at a hotel which otherwise was full. So at least I was warm for the night. The next day, the main road looked gritted and clear enough to drive, so I drove home past 4ft high snow drifts near the airport which is at the top of a hill. Driving carefully and slowly I reached the turn off to my village which lies one mile down a country lane from the main road. Having initially thought that I would leave the car at the start of the road, which would not be gritted I saw a car go down it, so headed down the lane, only to get stuck in a drift which was not really high but my car is a hatchback is not a 4X4.
Thankfully, there were guys out having fun in their jeeps, 4x4s, and quad bikes, and a bunch of them helped push my car back out a drift, and then we decided to try another lane into the village and the men in the jeep gave me an escort and help all the way back the alternative route. Another drift meant another push but eventually I got home to my own driveway!
Relieved to be home but also aware of the mistake I had made by not getting home earlier in the day on Thursday, I was also struck by the community spirit where help was offered without question and with enthusiasm, which is the main reason for deciding to mention my exploits. We can become cynical about our society and the way we feel people behave, but fortunately in a crisis we can still be very good to each other.
My elderly mother told me on Friday that several people had called to check on her, and as I watched the media news there were so many stories of altruistic behaviour with so many people putting others first. There were the stories of medical staff who walked miles just to get into their hospital or some who unable to get to the hospital where they work went to their nearest medical centre instead. Plus, the images of a squad of soldiers pushing an articulated lorry out of snow and the snow clearance volunteers who were out and about clearing pavements in the hillier parts of Bristol, remind us when we as a society become a community.
This is worth noting and remembering when so many people feel that the news is filled with bad news.
One of the hardest feelings in life is a sense of being separate and not connected to anyone around us, bringing with it a sense of isolation and feeling stranded which is something most of us dread. The adverse climatic conditions threatened to separate and make us stranded, but it is these stories which show us that we are connected and not living a separate existence.
The teachings of yoga and in particular Buddhism put emphasis on how we are inter-connected, how we live interdependently not separately. When climatic situations makes us work together and think of others more than usual it is also a perfect time to see this interdependence as something that was always there even if it takes a snow storm to reveal its existence more clearly.
The other quality which rose to the surface through the snow drifts is altruism and compassion for others. Selflessness is not a word we hear very much about these days, as personal need and greed appear to be more important, but during this snowy period there were so many examples of how we helped each other.
And it was not just examples of helping others which shone through; there were reports of people commenting that due to the snow making everyone walk instead of drive, these people found themselves in conversations with people in their neighbourhood they normally never speak to! The place they live changed from an anonymous area to a community.
In Buddhist philosophy and meditation there is a practice which helps us to understand the interdependency of all things and people, and as a result to cultivate gratitude. As we meditate we contemplate how we are connected to everyone and everything we come into contact. For example, from the moment we wake up there are examples of interdependency; we contemplate that without the animals and plants we would not have our breakfast, nor without its producers would the food reach our table, and appreciation extends to the shops and delivery people who make this happen. And then as we travel to work, we appreciate the road workers without whom we would not have a road, and so forth, I am sure you get the idea now: everything we come into contact has a string of interconnected actions by others which makes everything possible. The practice teaches to feel gratitude and to feel connected to everything around us, and in turn helps to foster a better sense of well-being in ourselves.
There is also another way realising the interdependency of all things can help us improve how we live, especially if we are prone to feeling resentful of the way others work or behave; or our feelings of inferiority or superiority. It does not matter what our role, however apparently insignificant or important, everyone has a role to play. We could find ourselves demanding others to serve us, or demanding those in what we regard as lesser roles do something without gratitude yet without these people you could not do XYZ, so appreciating everyone for what they do helps us to understand interdependency, whether you are in charge of the biggest company in the world or working on a supermarket till we all have a role to play which keeps everything going equals – as this snow storm revealed to us, most of the time we do not notice how everyone around us is contributing to making our society work, we are all part of the same web of life.
There’s a thought for the day sprung from a bit of snow falling.
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