The Power of Reading Between the Lines

When what is said is not actually said.

How much wisdom can a short text have? It’s a question that makes me speechless when it comes to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Said to be compiled prior to 400 CE by the sage Patanjali in India, the sutras are a collection of 196 Sanskrit aphorisms on the theory and practice of yoga. A while ago, verse 33 of Chapter 1 was kind of haunting me: in any yoga studio I would go to, the teacher would open up the book and read it. It goes like this:

maitri karuna mudita upeksanam sukha duhkha punya apunya visayanam bhavanatah citta prasadanam

Nice, right? Ok, here is the translation according to Sri Swami Satchidananda:

“By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.”

This is a sutra for cultivating peace of mind by developing certain qualities: friendliness, compassion, delight, disregard. It is easy to read a piece like this and feel its good vibes. Who would argue against a life of friendliness and delight? But if we contemplate it, we will find what the sutra is talking against. Because mind you, when a sage writes something, you can be sure every word was chosen deliberately.

By being friendly to those that are happy, we get close to them and learn what happiness is. We reflect on our own ways that prevent us from being happy. Community is important to keep our discipline and commitment. The people close to us influence us greatly, so, by all means, be close to the ones that are genuinely happy.

Compassion for the unhappy allows us to practice love, empathy, and understanding. We can learn from their sorrows and we can offer help. We can be reminded of our own fragility, past states, and impermanence by connecting to them instead of turning the cheek.

Now the virtuous… let someone you love get a great accomplishment that is very different from what you want in life and all is probably good. Now, what if someone you don’t like gets exactly what you want? Envy. Hatred. Annoyance. Envy comes from a certain belief of scarcity as if one person doing great means there would be no space for me. The sutra is asking us to not feed our envy and instead be delighted in other people’s successes for all successes are ours together, as a species, for the greater good. We can leverage each other instead of trying to put each other down.

Finally, practice disregard towards the wicked. Here we are not called to love them or pretend everything is fine, but we are called to not judge and not hate. To not nurture within us that which could contract us out of love and light.

It is a sutra that is calling us to find peace of mind by opening our hearts, and not contracting to fear. This is, of course, my own interpretation. I am sure there are many more layers in this text that I am yet to find out.

The Art of Active Reading

Reading and speaking are forms of self-expression, and last time I checked, we were humans, not robots. We are not fully rational, linear, and black and white, for more that we tend to pretend. Through words, we express our beings and all of our subtleties. A sentence like “She did not get the job because of her tattoos” does not only tell us someone did not get a job and has tattoos but also about values and prejudice.

Remember when discussing books with the English teacher in school? We probably wouldn’t need to analyze books and articles if all that was there was what was written. Things are implied. What is said is also what is not said, and to grasp that we need to read between the lines.

And no, I am not for passive aggression or silent repression. I am in favor of active listening, contemplation, and questioning anything unclear to avoid misunderstandings. Communication is to be open and clear, and for that, we need to be present and aware, and not listen like robots on autopilot while multitasking.

The Power of Words

It is often easier for someone to open up and listen to us if we are friendly and holding a positive approach, and not scorching. The message of both messages can be the same, just the way it is said that is different. However, the first one might require a bit more thinking, as it is not so in your face.

Picture us, humans, as containers full of beliefs, values, and mental models. For something new to come in, something else has to come out. We can focus on positive language to melt the negative. But if we don’t contemplate and understand fully what the positive words are saying, they might come across as fake and empty. Flowery and inspiring, but lacking action and attitude. Alright, friendliness for the shiny happy people is nice, but what the hell do we do with that piece of information on its own? Words on their own will not get us moving. Their contemplation, however, is the first move to something deeper to come from within.

It does not help that in 2020, we are living in the era of “in your face”. We like things given to us already chewed (urgh). Efficiency in the form of apps that summarize the main ideas of books so we don’t have to read the whole thing. Writers, make sure you write for readers in the 9th grade. Convenience is king, and contemplation takes too much time for that. Still, the power of words is way bigger than the letter contained in any word. The art of living is not a three-step formula. Or maybe it is: Presence, Presence, Presence :)

Sometimes we only understand what we are ready to understand. That is true to many spiritual texts that are easy and accessible for the first-time reader but have so many layers. “I Am That” is such a book for me. From the first reading, I’ve “got it” and yet not, as every time I read it I can grasp a new layer. The way to get to the other layers is to keep questioning, contemplating, and not skimming.

What is the point of knowledge that is only in our heads if it is not embodied in our being? What is the point of being a sponge for the writer’s views without going deeper into what that actually entails in our lives?

That is how reading becomes an ego trip. It is about how much we can read, and what we have read. We leave behind the sheer pleasure of it, and the potential to reflect and improve our lives.

Words carry power but to embody this power we need to do some work. Contemplate, question, integrate. Reading well-written pieces can comfort us as we read them, and that's ok, sometimes that is all we need. But no amount of beautiful texts can make us learn and embody the teachings simply by reading.

Hi, I am Aline Ra M, spiritual guide, energy worker, and tea lover.

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