We must ponder evil right now. Breathe and make space around the question, so that we can see clearly before we act—and not be led by misunderstanding, misperception, fear, or intentional manipulation of our attention.

We are all concerned about the destruction we are witnessing, and about what may come. We all desire to be safe, happy, healthy, and live with ease. The specifics may vary. Yet desires are similar and inquiry essential.

The other day, a person I love and respect wrote about just this: Something evil, she believes, is arriving in November. And then, in an entirely understandable desire to protect and elevate what she loves, she did the very thing she fears. She located the evil in other human beings and cast it upon them. Initially, I was shocked. The very folks she attacked are those simply living expansive lives, and they certainly were – in my view – misrepresented and misunderstood. Yes, there is challenge in the world, and those who are destructive and even hateful. But these were not that. She herself felt under attack from those living their lives and in no way destroying hers. The charge was inverted. What was happening here?

We have all done this. Put the darkness elsewhere.

I stopped to consider what in her life had led her to experience her own attack as goodness and truth. Then I thought about her considerable losses; the ways she has tried to do good in the world and been thwarted by structures far larger than herself; what those struggles have cost her health and her family. I considered what has worked in her life, and how she attributed meaning there. And how her own identities and hurts had risen.

And I felt a deeper love for her.

This is yoga, the inner pressure building, the cooking, combining, and allowing the process to soften and transform us.

Yogic practice asks us to clear perception:

To notice the veils, colorings, habits, wounds, memories, and identifications through which we apprehend the world, and to become increasingly capable of seeing what is actually before us. It asks us to examine the movements by which another human being becomes an abstraction, an enemy, a category upon which we can safely place our fear.

Yoga is not merely personal, though it is intimate. It humbles us while also expanding our capacity to receive the world.

Humbling the body through physical exertion does not necessarily humble the ego, hence it’s often far away from the yogic process and works to divide us from parts of ourselves…and others. Quite often, exercise achievements furnish the ego with fresh evidence of its own prowess. 

Yogic methods require of us something quite different and more subtle:

To question our own certainty. To consider other lives in context. 

To discover where our own habits and wounded places still blame and lash outward. 

We cultivate discernment alongside compassion, and cooperation wherever cooperation remains possible.

Years ago, I asked my late teacher Rolf Sovik how to live among people who sincerely believe they are doing good while actually destroying beautiful, nurturing things I hold precious. I have my own war stories, of course: The fall of New College; the protest prayers and false accusations intended to close my business and run me out of town. Betrayals and my own missteps. Like my worried friend, we all have them.  

Rolf replied simply: “Avoid them. They, too, have their things to fulfill, their role in this world.” Avoidance, however, is rarely possible in my situation. Still, I remember his counsel. I let people be where I can. I return to practice:

What hurt places in me still need an enemy? What am I failing to see broadly enough? Where has fear narrowed my perception? Where am I tempted to reproduce, in another form, precisely what I say I oppose?

And yes: people whose perception has become profoundly clouded can cause terrible harm. Dehumanization has consequences. Demonization has consequences. The living world suffers from what human beings fail to perceive, as surely as other human beings do. We all suffer. And so we practice.

We clear the lens. We widen perception. We cultivate compassion without surrendering discernment. We do the difficult inner work that keeps suffering from simply passing through us and onward into another life.

We will break the cycle.

Our Being offers another way.

We offer love.
We contribute to thriving.
We expand freedom.

I am praying for your renewal, your well-being, too.

By your side,

xo Virginia

Does your heart feel heavy, too, and thirst for inspiration? Check out our accompanying Instagram video here. It always helps us when you like, comment, and share – thank you for your generous spirit!

Continue with Practice…

These questions are part of the work we are undertaking in Yoga for Freedom, an eight-week exploration of the kleśas: the habits and colorings of mind that obscure perception, constrain freedom, and shape the worlds we create together.

Through yogic philosophy, physical challenge and ease, contemplation, breath awareness, meditation, and inquiry, we’re learning to recognize these forces within ourselves—

To cultivate greater freedom in how we perceive and act.

Yoga for Freedom is now full, but I invite you to join our community list. You’ll receive more contemplations like these, free stress-relief audios and practices, as well as registration announcements and special offers first.

No matter the external challenges, you are so important in this world.

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