Last week I outlined the eight limbed path (ashtanga) of yoga as set out by the sage Patanjali in 200 AD.
This week I would like to discuss one of the yamas in particular – aparigraha or non-hoarding.
The Oxford Dictionary defines to hoard as “to amass and hide or store away.”
This definition in itself reveals the driving nature of the hoarder’s mind. Those who hoard carry definite beliefs about their nature in relation to others and their nature in relation to the universe.
Those who hoard believe there is not enough to go around. The idea the universe provides or what is needed for one’s path comes when needed, is not held as true within the mind of one who hoards.
The mind of one who amasses also holds the belief enough is never enough. As a result, hoarding is never a state that is satiated within the mind. Hoarding begets hoarding.
When one hides away whatever one has amassed, one displays the mind’s belief one is separate from all others. One who hoards is unable to see one is, in actuality, directly connected to all others and as such, one cannot truly gain, while creating a loss for others.
This mistaken belief of separation gives rise to the belief in ownership. In hoarding, one desperately attempts to hold onto that which one mistakenly believes one now owns.
Hoarding shows great attachment and aversion within the mind. Yogis seek to release these attachments and aversions with a recognition holding on offers neither security nor control.
Rather, peace and ease of life is gained only through the acceptance of change, and impermanence as the natural flow of the universe.
Hoarding can manifest in differing ways. It can appear in one’s unwillingness to let any item go, despite the fact the item is of no use to oneself, or is of better use to someone else.
It can appear in the seemingly compulsive acquisition of illogical items. It can appear in the desire to amass wealth for wealth’s own sake.
But hoarding can also appear in more subtle and less recognizable ways. One may hoard or hold onto one’s memories.
One may hoard or hold onto one’s beliefs. One may hoard or hold onto one’s sense of ego.
By practising aparigraha, as well as the other limbs of yoga, these mental patterns and belief systems are changed at their root, allowing one to live in the moment, instead of hoarding for the future.