The THREE GATES: Cover Your Blind Spots!
I strained my hip using the IsoMax (I'm pretty sure) a few months back. At first I tried to ignore it, assuming it would fix itself. Then I tried to use some specific stretches and exercises to heal the pain, and that had "iffy" results.
I've known for a long time that eventually I'd have to do yoga every day, and that perhaps now was the time. But, perhaps because I associated that necessity with aging, I fight with it. This is a problem with Yoga--you don't really understand what it does for you until you stop doing it.
In 2025 I've been doing my yoga 6 days a week. Sometimes Bikram, sometimes Ashtanga. Yesterday, due to workmen coming to the house, I only did the first move of the Ashtanga, but sandwiched between two days I was going deeper, it actually felt fine. But understand something: my DEFAULT now has to be daily yoga.
The truth is that although I've "done" yoga since childhood, read countless books and attended countless classes, actually took the Yoga Works teacher training course and have studied directly with K. Patthabhi Jois (Ashtanga) and BKS Iyengar…
I'm just not smart enough to understand how all the movements, focus, breathing, and so forth fit together in a specific syntax, all in an epistemological and ethical matrix (the "Eight Limbs of Patangali") to produce a magical effect. "Magic", as in Arthur C. Clarke's famous "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
I think the same is true, even MORE true, of ethical laws and principles. As said, the trouble with yoga is that when it works, it doesn't feel as if you need it. You just feel…good. And most of your younger life, you might well feel "good" without doing much of anything…so why bother, right?
And with ethics, most of the time you can just "get by." And privilege (of one kind or another) protects us from the natural world, where there are immediate consequences for ineffective action: hunger or getting eaten. Inability to find and hold a mate. Being shunned by your tribe, which leads to death.
Ethics arise because the wise people of the village observe what works, over time. And this is critical: OVER TIME. And another thing: our actions have to align with our deepest values. And what is our ultimate goal?
Escape Suffering. Embrace Joy. Be of service.
And in what arenas need this apply: "Health, Love, Money…and time to enjoy them."
And what is one simple but powerful ethical system? The Three Gates. "Is it True? Is it Kind? Is it Useful?"
I submit that just as the poses of yoga must be addressed and sequenced in certain orders and intensities to produce a given effect, those effects NOT detectable immediately but only over time, the same is true with the Gates.
They have tensegrity. In other words they are interdependent.. Truth and Kindness are useful. Kindness and Utility lead to truth. Truth and Utility lead to kindness. These three, together, can produce any real-world result along that "Ultimate Goal" continuum.
What of the people who are dishonest or cruel, but rich? You have to look at all three arenas, and if you do that MOST of the time there are observable major flaws in their health, fitness or relationship life. Those who claim to prize these things but still complain that dishonest people are "winning" either aren't being observant…or they aren't honest about what they find valuable in life. They can be protected from their mistakes while they are young, or privileged…but with time wisdom will grow, and they will understand they've chased fool's gold.
What of the people who do prize honesty, and utility, but are unkind? These people either do not love themselves, or do not feel the connection between themselves and others. Either of these things is a lack of clarity and depth, and ultimately undermines their honesty, their ability to see reality as it really is. They too will find themselves imbalanced, and unable to walk that path from suffering to joy to service with effectiveness and efficiency. They have not dealt with their fear of pain, because when it recedes, what remains is clarity, and at the base of clarity is love.
What of the people who prize kindness, and honesty, but not utility? They don't accept the adult responsibility of hunting and gathering…in other words "money." And often tell themselves that the ways of making money are of necessity corrupt, as opposed to "corrupt people can game the system to make money" but not notice there are also fine people who climb that ladder by providing honest goods and services to a community that needs and wants them. They often are caught in a terrible loop: criticizing those who have abundance, while simultaneously complaining about lack of resources, and holding personal mythologies that abundance is evil…when in actuality, it enables you to protect your family and be of service to your community.
###
If you are part of a disadvantaged or oppressed community, it can be easy to believe that all those doing better than you are either "lucky" or are cheating. You often cannot believe that they might be using different and better strategies, something you would see if you look for people who started where you are and accomplished your goals…or preferably started with LESS and accomplished MORE.
And if you care about health, love, AND finances, you will start seeing that it is perfectly possible…if seemingly more difficult…to have all three AND stay within the Gates. And that the Gates protect YOU from the illusion that you can cheat life. You can't. It just seems that way to those who will not look deeply into their own hearts and fears.
You can be healthy, and protect yourself and your family from predators and remain within the Three Gates (the Bhagadva Gita is, in many ways, an extended conversation about how to commit the ultimate sin--killing loved ones--while maintaining honor. Heart-breaking, and important)
You can have love for self and a deep passionate love for another soul without deception or games, and while pursuing financial abundance…and stay within the Gates.
You can build and protect real wealth while staying within the Gates…but note: that doesn't mean everyone will agree with you. Remember that those who have NOT organized their thoughts and actions to overcome their disadvantages (which can be very very real) will often be suspicious of you. After all--your success violates their beliefs about what good people can do.
The Three Gates: asking before every word or action: "Is it True? Is it Kind? Is it Useful" are a goal. It is hard to commit to them. It seems easier to ignore them. And if you have privilege, perhaps born to wealth or of the dominant group, power definitely protects you for a time. And it is easy for a poor or disadvantaged person to believe that the real law of nature is "The Law of the Jungle" or "The Golden Rule: He who has the Gold makes the Rules."
Well, that last has some truth to it. The rich DO make the rules, influence the laws. And if those rules and laws are currently to your disadvantage, then on some level, YOU WANT THE POWER TO CHANGE THEM and make the world a fairer place. Stop lying about it. And you can gain that power without it corrupting you…
But you will need safety rails. Ways to motivate yourself not to tell the convenient lie ("This doesn't matter"). Or practice the casual cruelty ("but they deserve it!") or pretend not to care about becoming more efficient and effective in your hunting and gathering ("I don't care about money!")
Admit you want to escape suffering, embrace joy, and be of service.
Admit you want health, love, money, and time to enjoy them
And work every day to create these things, to walk this path, while staying within the Three Gates.
Just get 1% every week progress, and over time you will evolve in a beautiful way. And you can do that just by checking your goals daily and taking a single step in each. Need to change faster? Use the MAGIC formula to find better mentors and maps, take massive action, flood yourself with love and gratitude, polish your goals to crystal clarity (while remaining flexible about how you reach them!) and daily ask "who am I?" to be certain your actions and goals are in alignment with both survival AND spirit, so that you can put everything you have into everything you do.
The Three Gates are ESSENTIAL to the disadvantaged. Those with privilege can afford, for a while, to ignore them.
You cannot. The illusion that you can is one of life's greatest traps.
Namaste
Steve
