Chaos + Clarity

Chaos, is unsettling, overwhelming. Like a storm, it reminds us of all that we do not control. Still Rainer Maria Rilke suggests: “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” Surely this is the practice—learning to witness the storm without becoming it, to engage without being consumed, to be as aware of the wondrous as the worrisome. And to recognize when action, beyond bearing witness, is needed.  Not all storms are to be passively weathered; some demand that we stand firm or make a move with awareness. The world’s turmoil is not to be ignored. This moment is not to be ignored. It calls for presence, for the discipline to see things as they are. The Yoga Sutras specify: “Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ”—yoga is the cessation of the mind’s whirlings. Yoga is a quiet mind, not an avoidant one. 

Clarity is not an escape from chaos; it is the source that allows us to move through it with wisdom. It is the stillness that emerges when we surrender to the present moment, not in passive retreat, but in deep seeing. Clarity does not dismiss the weight of disorder—it reveals the right path through it. B.K.S. Iyengar reminds us, *“When your body, mind, and soul are healthy and harmonious, you will bring health and harmony to the world—not by withdrawing from the world, but by being a healthy, living organ of the body of humanity.”  Yoga teaches us that we do not practice for ourselves alone; clarity is not just for personal peace, but for right action in service of the whole. Clarity emerges when we acknowledge that chaos has its place and must not dictate our course. It is through neither denial nor despair that we find the wisdom to act. Be clear and be bold, friends.