'Disrespect will close doors that apologies can't open'.
This is a great quote. There's quite a lot on this if you search but I quite liked this one from coachavery6.
What do we count as disrespect?
These values are actually covered quite a bit in the first limbs of yoga. Yamas and Niyamas which are ethical principles, or core values.
This is from Yoga Journal.
The five yamas ask practitioners to avoid violence, lying, stealing, wasting energy, and possessiveness. The five niyamas ask us to embrace cleanliness and contentment, to purify ourselves through heat, to continually study and observe our habits, and to surrender to something greater than ourselves.
The whole article is here if you want to read more.
These observances are pretty hard though because of the way we live, consume and the desire to 'live our best lives'. I believe all we can do is allow our own moral compass or conscience to lead us.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about intuition versus instinct. How in the in Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arjuna, 'Remember who you are and immediately you will know what to do'.
Whilst the whole ethos of the yoga tradition is about sharing with others there are some instances where it seems the ethics around sharing can be a bit blurred. To me this is down to showing 'respect' or a 'disrespect' for what we have learnt from others. I'm just going to give a couple of examples.
Taking ideas from others. Whilst no idea is completely original, there are I believe some boundaries (or self governance). I feel taking an idea straight off and using it for your own self worth or profit doesn't sit right with the yoga tradition. Nor do I believe directly using others material without the right recognition.
Also, I'm sure we've all come across people who think their time is more important than ours? Someone doing something else whilst talking to you is a big bug bearer of mine.
In the spirit of yoga and life. We are encouraged to respect others and their teachings. As well as each others time and energy.
I'm sure we can all relate to circumstances in our own lives like this. This is where being a 'Warrior' off the mat comes in. Sometimes we have to or step away from situations or circumstances which don't sit right. 'Remember who you are and immediately you will know what to do'.
We should treat each other with the same respect we would expect to be treated with ourselves.
Namaste.
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