You are meant to develop the body over your entire life, becoming more fit and agile every year until at least age 101. After that, you may exit the body quietly whenever you want. Ashtanga Yoga is the best all-round system of fitness. Yes, it provides decades of novelty and progression, but most crucially Ashtanga Yoga also ushers severe modification to the psychophysical complex. This eliminates most physical and intellectual resistance in the organism, and allows dedicated aspirants to feed on the positive energy in surrounding regions, reducing dependency on food and sleep.
The most common Western worldview is that consciousness is merely an emergent property of biology. You probably harbour the belief that we are isolated pockets of sentience in a skin and bone structure. In the West, people occasionally rebel against this idea and seek something more. They move into spiritual affairs, higher states. But without willingness to surrender to things that seem impossible, their progress is stifled. Frustrated or tired by limited success, they succumb to age and nihilism – fully supported by materialist society. They seek the release of death, only to be born again to have another go.
Some who are more adventurous or committed make a larger leap. They come across the idea that they are spiritual beings first, and that the material world is far smaller than it seems. However, they too can fall into the trap of disdain or discomfort with physical life, seeing it as a distraction or a problem, an annoyance they would rather overcome. They reach for graceful demise, or the fabled no-self-ego-death – any means to end the cycle of rebirth.
In a chapter called “Perfection of the Body”, Sri Aurobindo says:
“The perfection of the body, as great as we can bring about by the means at our disposal, must be the ultimate aim of physical culture. Perfection is the true aim of all culture, the spiritual and psychic, the mental, the vital, and it must be the aim of physical culture also… Development of consciousness is a considerable part of our aim, but development of the body itself is an essential element; health, strength, fitness.… All is to be seized, exalted, made utterly perfect.”
The passage above describes the truly positive and integrative approach, contrary to the common scenarios I described in the beginning. We’re here to cultivate, relish, and perfect the physical existence. Not simply manage it, not just maintain health, but to have new and interesting skills development, becoming better at everything, until at least the age of 101.
There is no mandatory decay, folks. Decline comes from an increase in resistance – physically this is often termed inflammation and stress. While it often correlates to the passage of time, it is not caused by the passage of time. Decline comes from refusal to embrace the desires inside and around you. Tension, tightness, and the resultant decline is something people consent to; they buy into it and so often propagate to their friends and family. It is a story, and like the classic placebo effect, it works if you believe it.
Don’t be that guy! Instead, focus on the idea that pleasure and clarity naturally coexist and increase as time passes, as we become more skilful at the game of life. Life can be hysterically easy – if you want it to be so, if you will allow it.
Death is always a choice. Some people leave quickly at age 101, ready to explore something new in another body. Others check out at 40, then spend decades slowly fading.
I admit it can be challenging when you’re surrounded by people who all see things one way. Still, it’s up to you. Nothing can truly be imposed on us from outside– it’s all us, our choice. We choose our container, our casket. Feeling tired, fearful, or stuck is an indicator that things need a shake-up. And since we set the rules, it behoves us to set them in favour of adventure and excitement – even if that means bucking social norms or breaking the law.
Beloved Aurobindo once more:
“What can be attained can be considerable and immense: what we call genius is part of the development of the human range of being… What the mind and will can do in the way of physical achievement, bodily endurance, feats of prowess of all kinds, lasting activity, refusing fatigue or collapse and continuing beyond what seems to be possible, courage and refusal to succumb under an endless and murderous physical suffering, these and other victories of many kinds approaching or reaching the miraculous are seen in the human field and must be reckoned as a part of our concept of a total perfection.”
Get high about something! Everything is here to be enjoyed: the body, the monkey mind, the lower emotions, the higher emotions, and the subtle spiritual self. If development is not complete, not perfect, then we continue the process with other bodies for as long as it takes.
Rather than clinging to slow controlled progress and clawing at the illusion of safety – things born of childhood fears or our moral and legal systems, allow yourself to bloom spontaneously. You actually have nothing to lose.
The feeling of living this way is characterised by ease and light-heartedness. There is a moment when you must let go and jump into the limitless. Scary perhaps, like a rollercoaster or a strong adjustment in yoga where you have no choice but to go with it.
Things always work out well.
That’s the big secret.
See you in the shala.