Which is more important, experience or explanations?
I’m sitting here reading this morning, and the question comes to me...Which is more important: experience or explanations? Experience is singular and explanation—there is no single explanation for any experience, so it’s got to be multiple—explanations or experience, which would I rather have? That’s a tough question. I really enjoy understanding things. That’s important to me. Understanding things helps me to accept whatever it is I’m trying to understand. But it’s the idea....it’s the concept....it’s the word. It’s the concrete thing that I’m trying to understand. But nothing is really concrete so can I ever really explain or fully understand anything?
Maybe it’s better simply to experience and not be too concerned about the explanation. With the experience, I can either really enjoy or I can really hate it! Can it bring me pleasure or pain? You know, pleasure feels good, while pain doesn’t feel so good. Although for some people, pain’s the thing. That they can feel, pleasure is tough.
So would I rather have the experience or the explanation? Can I really enjoy the explanation, the way I can enjoy the experience? I don’t know. Can the explanation be painful....not as painful as the experience....but then neither can pleasure be as pleasurable if I have only the explanation rather than the experience. It’s just so interesting. It’s an interesting idea. It’s an interesting something to think about, but it’s also something to experience (laughter).
So, how this fits in with practice. Our practice, Kundalini Yoga, is the practice of experience—what’s happening from moment to moment. Rather than trying to do anything, we’re simply experiencing the effect of it. If we can let go of any thoughts about what we’re doing and if we can let go of trying and just doing it—allowing the body to move, allowing the mind to experience movement, feeling the sensations, the pleasure or pain rising and falling, coming and going. Like Life, it comes and goes, it’s never static. Our practice is not static, it’s dynamic. Life is dynamic. So we’re practicing Life. Can we just go with the experience of life without figuring it out, without explaining it. And just be okay with experiencing the pleasure or the pain. Or maybe even just observing it, observing how it comes and goes, the sensations ebb and flow, wax and wane.
So that later in whatever we’re doing in our everyday lives, we can do the same, that is simply experience rather than try to control. Can we do that? Can we simply experience life for what it is, moment to moment?
