Aparigraha is the last of the Yamas. It can be translated as non-possessiveness or sharing.
This past week I was back at the Presidio YMCA with the 3-5th grade yoga campers.
On Monday we learned the Yamas: Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Bramacharia, and Aparigraha and together the kids decided on a group name The 9 Yogi Jedi including all 7 campers, myself, and one other counselor.
On Tuesday Grant, a new camper, joined us. We went from being The 9 Yogi Jedi to The 10 Yogi Jedi. We spent the day on a fantastic field trip to Green Gulch Farm.
Visiting the honey bees at Green Gulch Farm
On Wednesday we were back in the yoga studio and we went over the Yamas with Grant, the 10th Yogi Jedi. We spent a little extra time on Aparigraha. Detachment or non-possessiveness is an interesting and difficult concept. I offered an example, “It’s like if one day I buy a nice sweater and I really like my nice new sweater but I actually already have a pretty good sweater at home and I don’t really need a second one. Then I meet someone without any sweaters at all so I offer them one of my sweaters.” We also talked about not being too upset when we loose something as well as sharing space like sharing a room with a sibling or guest.
On Thursday Darth Vader, one of the campers, was out sick for the day. The rest of us made meditation jars.
Watching the glitter fall. The yellow one on the left was the original demo jar.
On Friday Darth Vader was back and impressed by our cool mediation jars. He asked if he could have the one I had made as a demo. I had been thinking about holding on to it to use in other classrooms but then Grant said, “It’s just like the sweater. Darth doesn’t have one so we should give him this one.” I was so happy he remembered the story. I couldn’t argue with that, nor did I have any desire to argue with him. I definitely wanted Darth to have the meditation jar. About 45 minutes later we presented our end of camp yoga demonstration to one of the parents who was a little early for pick up and wanted to see what we had learned. After the demo all the kids picked up their awesome meditation jars to show her. This poor woman was swarmed by 8 Yogi Jedi. One little Yogi Jedi, Gabie, in all the excitement dropped her glitter filled glass mason jar on the breezeway’s cement floor. Everyone was fine but the jar shattered. Glitter and colorful water spilled in every direction. We cleared the area and got some help cleaning up. Practicing aparigraha, Gabie wasn’t too upset by the loss. Another 10 minutes or so go by. With the exception of our short presentation Darth had been gazing at his new mediation jar for just about all of the last hour. Now he picked it up and brought it over to the table where the girls were sitting to offer it to Gabie to keep.