Satya: Seeing Truth.

Satya - truthfulness

The second of the five yamas is satya, translated as truthfulness, through the practice of satya we are called to become fully aligned with not only our own personal truth but to endeavour to align ourselves with universal truth. 

Many of us have heard the quote “we do not see things as they are, we see things as we are”. Our perceptions are coloured by our conditioning, which in turn affect our thoughts & emotions. To truly practice satya, we must seek to see through our own layers of conditioning, how our upbringing & experience of our own gender, race, class, nationality etc. have influenced our view of the world. 

We might start practicing seeing the world through another's eyes, practice seeing through their lens, so that we may find the truth that lies between differing views.

In the age of social media, fake news & relativism, truth can sometimes seem to become a flexible concept. We are fed highlight reels of each other's lives & marketed 'instant transformations', how often do we stop to question how much truth we are actually being shown?

Sometimes we may hide our truth as a method of self-protection. We hide our truth from others, with the unconscious belief that if they really knew us for all that we are, they couldn’t love us. Through this action, we create an environment of secrecy & never get to have an experience of being loved fully. 

When we truly live in the principle of satya, we cultivate an environment of transparency, in a world increasingly filled with half truths, this is a radical stance.