1.3 Asteya and Cultivating Curiosity

Asteya and Cultivating Curiosity

We are beginning to see that the Yamas, or the great restraints, of yoga offer us entire pathways into the heart of the Self.  To reduce these concepts into small quips or a single word is to miss the complexity of the human process in self-investigation.  The third Yama is definitely an example of this complexity.  It is Asteya, or non-stealing.  If we were to leave it at that- don’t steal- the moral line is drawn and we might understand it, click, and move on. 

Like Ahimsa and Satya, Asteya offers us multiple layers.  We know it is illegal to steal, cheat, and take goods or objects from someone else.  We know it’s ethically wrong, sometimes also illegal, to steal another’s ideas, plans, and intellectual property.

This is where the clarity of Asteya ends and the internal practice begins. What is it that makes someone want to take something away from someone else?  This impulse only arises out of a feeling of lack, of missing something, of having a need that feels unmet. But when basic necessities are met for our survival: food, shelter, companionship, where is it that we start to drift toward wanting and needing more?  Is this a form of stealing from the resources around us?  Most classical teachers would say yes.

There are numerous ways that we steal from others.  When we are late we are stealing someone else’s time.  I consider timeliness to be one of my Asteya practices and as one of my observances of yoga-in-life. 

I am also learning the very hard lesson of not trying to steal another person’s process. By this I mean thinking that the solution to everyone else’s problem is something that maybe worked for me or that I believe would be right for them. How do you know what’s right for someone else? Always having an answer or a “you really should try this” reaction to a friend in process is not only unhelpful but it’s just plain annoying. When we’re very honest with ourselves we just want to be heard and supported- we do not want to be shuffled along or controlled or constantly suggested-to. We do not want others to steal our process.

What about stealing someone’s energy?  All forms of abuse, including psychological, verbal, and physical abuse are a form of stealing someone’s autonomy, energy, and vibrance.  When we feel we are missing that autonomy or vibrance we may decide to rob it away from someone else, too. 

All forms of racial injustice and racism are a form of stealing someone’s agency, inner authority, and identity.  If you resist or diminish someone else’s basic humanity based on how they look, aren’t you committing a terrible form of theft?

When you feel a deep lacking inside yourself then you might steal from those around you: time, energy, agency and authority, or even physical goods.  So the key to understanding how to develop a relationship with Asteya is to look at your wholeness, inner gratitude and abundance, and, critically, your faith in that abundance.

Do you have faith that the divine is unfolding within, through, and because of your life?  I write about faith frequently because it represents one of the great keys of the self-investigation process and the ultimate path of yoga.  At the core of almost every philosophical or existential question lies a lack in faith, a hardening of wonder and curiosity into something brittle and painful. 

Any “why” question arises out of hierarchy and assumes that there is a better way, a more just way, a preferable way.  I look at all of these questions in my posts on faith and describe how these mechanisms operate within us in so many aspects of inner life. We do not often stop and pause to understand the source of the question: you can only ask why when you do not trust the fullness of yourself, your process, and your path.  Another’s path is better- the sage, the rich and famous, the one who is recognized as valuable. 

This opens the way for you to try to take from that person: take advantage, nudge in and take the recognition.  Take from them to give to yourself because it’s not enough to stand independently in your glory or in your crushed places alongside your brother and sister humans.

Curiosity is an Antidote

Curiosity, somewhat surprisingly, becomes a part of your vibrant Asteya practice.  Stay open to your process by not stealing, shutting down, and manipulating your deepest authority and intuition. 

Even when you have a real spiritual insight, does this insight come out of the inspiration of your curiosity or is it a stolen concept that you hold jealously?  You can absolutely feel the difference.  The first is free and multiplies upon application in the world- the more people that teach this truth the better; the second is a closely guarded and trademarked item that you monitor like a dragon over its keep.

Of course this is not an invitation to take advantage of yourself or to diminish yourself so as not to budge into another’s “place.”  Ahimsa and Satya must be firmly rooted in order to understand Asteya.  Kindness for yourself and the truth of your wisdom allow you to live your boundaries of discernment.  To even see in yourself and those around you the many ways you steal small things in your heart and mind all day long.  How else can you even know what’s yours?  What is the essence of your nature?  

Curiosity is far more than a simple awareness of the things around you. It is the critical mechanism that brings us out of lethargy, out of stubborn and shut down thinking, out of inertia and ignorance. In some ways staying curious is the height of grace. You may begin to cultivate a gentle wonder for the small things around you. You may begin to see in the strange and mysterious unfolding of life the very abundance of this world.

Curiosity is what turns you from a glass-is-half-empty to a glass-is-half-full kind of human. And maybe the empty half is full too in a different way.

So we need our earlier principles to help guide us as good friends on the path of the heart.  You do not need to fix someone else by taking over their process.  You do not need to fix yourself by giving away your authority, agency, and intuitive truth.  If the flowering of the Asteya practice is a recognition of your inner abundance then you will begin to live with the very satisfying sense that you are enough exactly as you are.