Emergence
01/2010
“We shape the clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds what we want”
~ Lao Tzu
I have been so inspired by the Anatomy class I’m enrolled in. A few weeks ago, we learned that 7 bones of the skull come together to make up the eye socket! I instantly fell in love with the idea of several smaller things coming together to make a kind of nothing, which then holds inside of it something greater. A scientist friend of mine illuminated me to the fact that this is actually a law that many things in life follow, called Emergence Theory.
Emergence is the way something complex arises out of a multiplicity of other, less complex interactions. The dynamic of several smaller factors joining together to create a kind of emptiness, which then supports larger, more unified thing, is prevalent in so many aspects of life. Whether it is a scientific discovery, anatomical landscape, mixing together ingredients to bake a cake, or a worker’s strike, the idea of emergence permeates. This is the kind of joining together that the practice of Yoga is so much about.
Another example; a few months ago, as I was putting together my Halloween costume, a thought occurred to me…I’ve adored Halloween since childhood. Dressing up, be it as a cowboy, a cop, or a Canary, was a way to highlight some aspect of myself that, most of the rest of the year, does not sit so close to the surface. We’ve all heard the expression “I wear many hats”, as a way people talk about their many roles in society. We wear many masks too; there is a mask that we wear when we are at work, another one for relatives and close friends, another one for lovers, etc. Teachers have explained the process of yoga similar to peeling away the layers of an onion, HOWEVER, if the practice of yoga is a movement from compartmentalization towards integration, then, I say put more layers on!! The layering of the many facets of ourselves, like the different faces on the sides of a die, and then bringing those many ‘masks’ into harmony with one another, is not only in accord with the idea of emergence, but also bridges the gap between practice that and daily life, which is what this is all about.
