Do you have a Personal Ethos?
Part 1: The 5 Ethical Stands required to establish a personal code of excellence.
Navy SEALs rely on proven strategies to accomplish their mission. Strategies are the over-arching methods employed to direct the energies, focus and resources of the team. In Kokoro Yoga, we also employ a variety of powerful strategies to accomplish our mission of accessing the inner warrior and achieving maximum performance. In this blog post, I would like to address one of the most important strategies – developing a personal ethos.
Excellent results in life are the result of hard work built on a personal code of excellence. I call this your personal ethos. Defining this ethos requires deep introspection and skillful methods leading to a continuous pursuit of self-knowledge and growth. Life without a personal ethos can leave you directionless, not able to answer the question, Why? when faced with life’s many challenges.
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” wrote Henry David Thoreau, exposing a truth that holds true today. Finding stillness to eliminate the noise and distractions that obscure the voice of our soul from being heard is not easy, but crucial for us to find and fulfill our ethos. Rather than reacting like a pinball to the myriad of forces and stressors rushing at us every day, we must take the time to question deeply what we are meant for, what we are passionate about, and how we can serve meaningfully through our unique gifts.
A good place to start developing a code of conduct such as this is to study our relationship with ten concepts introduced by the Indian Yogi Patanjali, in his work Yoga Sutras. These are called ethical stands (Yamas) and Personal disciplines (Niyamas). These point the way to excellence, and also serve as practices. Aligning with these principles can produce a profound grounding effect in your life. In this post, I will address the first five ethical stands. Here they are:
Nonviolence to oneself or others. This code poses a challenge for warriors. I tell my warrior students that it is violent to allow a violent sociopath to conduct violence, so their role as a sheepdog is the protector, and protectors must use controlled violence in service of his or her duty and mission. This is in alignment with this precept.
Speaking, thinking and acting truth.
Not hoarding unnecessarily. Being honest with what belongs to you, what belongs to others, and what belongs to the common good.
Balancing your energy in work, play, and relationships.
Not grasping for or getting attached or clinging to ideas, material objects, or relationships.
These five ethical stands, when viewed as questions, provide a powerful guide for our actions and thoughts. The code developed as you align with them defines your integrity. They are to be practiced in thoughts, words, and deeds. How do you act truthful? How do you speak truthfully? How do you think of truth? Truth is different in the domains of action, speech, and thought. To have integrity means they are aligned. Next week I will take a look at the 5 personal disciplines, which will take us even further toward an ethos of excellence. Until then, train hard, stay focused and get to work!Do You Have a Personal Ethos?
Part 2 – The 5 Personal Disciplines
We discussed in the last post how the 5 ethical standards define how we interact with others (the We sphere) and provide the starting point for developing a personal ethos of excellence. Now I would like to turn to the 5 personal disciplines, which ground our personal and daily journey toward mastery. These 5 disciplines are:
1. Developing control of the body and mind. We accomplish this with proper fueling and a daily practice of functional fitness and pose work, or some other skillfully executed method of somatic movement training.
2. Contentment of one’s circumstances in life. We are where we are for a reason, so be okay with it while working methodically to improve your own condition and the condition of the world . . . one relationship at a time.
3. Taking control over your desires, the constant grasping at pleasure and striving to avoid pain. Neither pleasure nor pain is good or bad on its own, but it is the craving or avoidance that makes it so. Consider the avoidance of the pain associated with intense physical training. Choosing to avoid this kind of temporary discomfort means that we won’t develop our warrior body and mind. Or being constantly drawn to the pleasure of sweets. Consistently folding to this weakness means that we sacrifice control and we slowly kill ourselves with sugar.
4. Self-study and study of spiritual works. This is a deeply spiritual aspect of yoga. It’s about what we choose to focus our mind upon, whether our internal states of mind and emotion or a parable of Jesus, we come to understand deeply. Our awareness of reality and knowledge of the nature of things increases.
5. Surrender to a higher power. This is your concept of God, whether you have a religious orientation or not. Let go of the mental grasping and contracting of the ego self and surrender to a “now” presence where you can connect to this power. Offer your actions in service to this higher power.
These personal disciplines are meant to tame the body, mind, and senses so we can advance through deeper concentration and meditation. Similar to the 5 ethical stands, they arise in thought, speech, and action leading to three elements needing to be examined and trained. For instance, do you think you are content? Do you talk about contentment and do you act content? Upon deep reflection, you may find that there are subtle differences in each of these, and this awareness leads you to work toward their alignment.
Write down any insights that come to you as you consider your relationship to the ethical stands and personal disciplines. Then review weekly and note what comes up in your silence practice. You will be developing a powerful personal ethos through this process. Ultimately you want to always be able to answer the following questions: Why am I doing this? Why is this happening to me? Am I aligned with my ethos? When you can answer these questions confidently, you are living a life of excellence. That is the Kokoro Yoga way.
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