In sixth grade there were three types of kids: the ones who excelled at dodge ball, the ones who somehow managed to be ambivalent about it and the ones who feared it. For the fraidy-cats, the very notion of standing there, exposed and panicked, while normally kind and decent beings hurled balls at your head seemed anathema to thinking existence. Whoever invented this game was clearly not an indoorsy, uncoordinated strategist--rather a sadistic savage who folded her/himself back into the pages of Lord of the Flies when s/he went to sleep at night. Simultaneously, it seemed there were also the kids who actually knew how to dodge the ball and have this strange thing called fun. Were they born with this knowledge or did their progenitors teach it to them? And what was so wrong with glee club?
In the cosmic universe, that is, the world beyond the physical, there are triguna--three qualities--that exist in a state of harmonious equilibrium. These qualities are Sattva (light, truth, purity), Rajas (activity, change) and Tamas (darkness, inertia). In the manifested universe, as in the actual day-to-day world with all its schleppiness, worry and wonder, these three qualities exist in every living thing in an ever-shifting state of imbalance. Thus the dodge ball conundrum: the ragasic maniacs chucking large, round objects at your innocent face, the sattvic beings who calmly played the game and the tamasic beings who sat on the sidelines reading or pretending to have their periods. Only here's the kicker: The ragasic kid throwing the ball was technically playing fair (sattvic) unless s/he wanted to hurt someone intentionally (tamasic). The Artful Dodger, ducking and running, manifested elements of Rajas while the non-player, practicing Ahimsa (non-violence), was quite possibly Sattva incarnate. It's all a matter of perspective.
On the mat, we experience a kaleidoscope of thought versus action in which the asana RE-present our predominant guna at that particular moment. True, some people tend towards the rajasic. Especially New Yorkers. They take every vinyasa. Others are more slow moving and tamasic, which is not necessarily a pejorative, because both Rajas and Tamas are simply outward expressions of imbalance in the ascension towards Truth. Think of handstand. Do you kick and fling your legs willy-nilly, do you sulk and refuse to come into the prep or do you calmly yet assertively attempt the shape regardless of the result or what the person next to you is doing? Maybe it's not a question of recognizing your dominant guna as much as RE-cognizing your experience of the manifested universe by playing the game with an open mind even if there are giant balls coming at you from every direction. Yes, there are things you can eat or not eat to balance your guna. It is a science after all. And yet, perhaps the whole science is simply the RE-cognition of the experience as you're experiencing it. With heart. Who knows? Maybe now I'd enjoy a good game of dodge ball if the opportunity arose. The truth hurts, but then slowly, so slowly, it doesn't.
Can we start the Laughing Lotus Devotional Dodge ball team? haha great post E.
Have you ever been in a guna ricochet? Ugh it is the worst, where you over do it with the rajas and then get hit with the rebound of tamas? They are trying to balance each other out but you have another cup of coffee to wake you up and then you can't sleep until the next morning.. What you really need is the sattva, which is mostly meditation and pranayama. I have learned the hard way to not overdo it with treating the imbalance but to just breath and trust my energy to rebalance itself. The amazing re-balancing universe! There is balance at the root of everything, giving it faith and time to prevail is the practice. It's kind of like no matter what note you shout out your OM it can meld into a harmony with the other notes in the room-- everything dissolves into harmony eventually.