This was fascinating! I was just getting to the point where I saw that the practice of purity was leading to the (proper) desire for more purity - purity begets purity - when we went off to Vancouver for the weekend to spend time with some new, lovely friends. First night and we are out for dinner in Kitsilano, arriving at the restaurant a little before our friends and were seated at the bar to wait. I ordered a non-alcoholic beer and found that they had none. I ordered water and pondered. "Should I have a glass of wine at dinner or not? ... hmmm"
When our friends arrived and we were seated, they took on the role of fabulously gracious hosts and ordered a really nice bottle of wine (actually, two to be precise) and I graciously accepted. The interesting part came in observing myself throughout the evening and weekend relative to this practice. I had failed at the practice and (willingly, knowingly) ingested the impurity of a mood altering substance. And yet we were making new friends, developing a wonderful connection in the midst of it all. What was wrong? what was right? Fascinating!
Now that I'm back home and grounded in my practice once again, I have had time to recognize that my life here at home with the studio and my heavy load of practices places me in a ashram-like setting. On the weekend, I stepped back into "the world" and lived in it as I had done so in the past. I remembered Swami Rama's words, "Live in the world, but be above it."
Back to purity ...
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