santosh

I’ve got it tattooed on my arm. When someone that can read Hindi script sees it, they pronounce slowly “…san…toh..sh.” Then smile and say, “This is a boy’s name. Who’s the lucky guy?”

In proper spiritual-white-lady fashion, I decided to tattoo one of the Niyamas in Sanskrit on my arm after being inspired by the general meaning of the term. If i’m being honest, just like all other humans that give a heartfelt meaning to why they got their tattoo, underneath it all, I just wanted something that looked cool and interesting tattooed on. I am not saying this is a bad thing. Humans love two things: themselves and beautiful things.

By the way, the full word (I hope) is “Santosha.”

I’m learning that practicing Santosha entails being peacefully satisfied with how the world works. Loosely translated as “contentment,” Santosha calmly motions me toward laughter in any given moment. I’m learning to step back, see the ridiculousness of human nature, and love it like someone loves their kid that’s just found green paint and colored their entire body with it, hair and all.

The balancing side of the principle is that though there is a constant inner peace available for the having, Santosha includes dissatisfaction. Doing the “right thing,” growing, helping, leading, learning–these would be unavailable if we stopped at a one-dimensional contentment. A one-dimensional contentment, my friends, is known as apathy. Pretty sure that is not an ancient yoga principle.

How can Santosha include dissatisfaction? The answer lies in previous words: the ridiculousness of human nature. It’s part of our lives to experience both satisfying moments and dissatisfying moments. Santosha is the acceptance, the love, the contentment of all aspects of our nature.

At this point, we could go even more deeply into the tangles of philosophy, as we are starting to touch on the argument of duality versus non-duality. To that point, I’m learning to say: “Eh, no thanks. Want to go get lunch soon?” and then keep scrolling through a Pinterest board of pretty tattoos.