High Resolution

by Scott Blossom & Michael Blossom (Jan 2006)

As the embers of the old year cool and darken, and the sun is its most distant, we reach instinctively for a light, or, more beautifully, an angel of light. An angel of light to renew hope, to guide and focus us, inspire and purify us. One of the names of this angel is Resolution.

The angel perches brightly, sometimes atop a Christmas tree, waiting to be called. As we exchange gifts imbued with our love for each other the angel whispers something sweet and wise inside of our hearts. When we listen the angel offers us the gift of his or her graces: Wings to fly to the ones we love or have neglected, Courage to speak truth, Power to stop smoking, Will to keep the house cleaner. This is the same angel we find in the niyamas of the yoga tradition. Resolving to maintain a purity, to appreciate things as they are, to make a more earnest effort, to know ourselves, to surrender to Divine Will, we enter an ancient practice and tradition of resolutions.

Why make a resolution? To perfect ourselves? To be “good?”

We resolve to find and found, re-find or refine the light that is the gift we give and receive in many ways every year. The yoga tradition leads us to ideas of purity, contentment, intense effort, self-reflection, and surrender to Divine Will. It also leads us to the story of Prince Siddhartha, the soon-to-be Buddha, who resolved not to rise from the base of the Bodhi Tree until he had awakened to reality in its ultimate sense.

Assailed by demons and temptresses, hunger and doubt, the Buddha stays true to his simple resolution not to leave his meditative seat at the base of the tree. Upon awakening, the world bursts into flower; reality fills with freedom and transcendent peace. This is ironic: freedom from self-imposed limitation, focus, discipline, flowers from dark night. This is the tradition and practice of making resolutions in which we allow light to manifest in ways it may not without proper preparations, attitude, work, sensitivity, and devotion.

Bravely we enter resolutions, disillusioned or distracted we abandon them. Rumi's angel answers us:

Whoever you are! Wanderer, worshipper, Lover of leaving

This is not a caravan of despair

It does not matter if you've broken your vow, your resolution

A thousand times, still

And yet again

Come!

It is a caravan not of despair, but of heart and light, lead by angels and all those who have gone before, that we join, each year, in our resolutions to love anew, love in sickness and in health, love through joy, love through loving ourselves, love without doubt. It is a destination of beauty that is ours to which to arrive to each breath, each day, continually in our resolve.

About ten years ago I made a resolution to share yoga with cancer patients. Over time this work generated an organization that shares yoga and other forms of complementary medicine with patients facing life threatening illness and their caregivers in Santa Barbara , CA and most recently in New York City . Staying true to this resolution has brought me profound rewards and daunting challenges but most of all it has inspired trust, awe, and a sense of humor for the mysterious ways that Spirit moves within and without. My resolution has taken on a life of its own, it is no longer “mine.” This process has changed me in ways that I never could have conceived of when I started.

In his book, Yoga Rahasya, Krishnamacarya describes hatha yoga as a form devotional or bhakti yoga. This echoes the core teaching of the last niyama , Ishvara pranidahana or “surrender to Divine Will.” For me personally this has proven to be the mahavratta or great vow of all the niyamas. Ishvara can be more literally translated as meaning “Divine gift or boon” and is none other than the sound OM. Ishvara is our personal Angel of Light whose gift inspires us to resolve and whose companionship is essential to undergoing the transformations it engenders. Nowadays I start each day by humbly praying for guidance because I have learned over and over that what guides me in the right direction is a force that transcends my notions of what is right for me. I still have to show up for Work but I am conscious that all of it can be seen as an offering and surrender. The Angel of Niyama shines and sings with every OM and takes flight when we offer her the wings of our own hearts.