Can of Worms

Aha! One of those moments.

Oh crap! One of those moments.

Why, why, why? One of those moments.

Anyone else feeling this way lately?

I've been feeling all of these, mostly because I opened what I'm going to refer to as "The Universal can of worms".

I questioned the ethics of everyone around me, after reading this amazing book, "Teaching Yoga" by Donna Farhi. I questioned my own. That was the official opening right there. Questioning myself. Ultimately, I'm not responsible for anyone Else's ethical dilemmas.

Four times in the past week, I've been at the Vedanta Society, where I've been blatantly presented with the possibility of stealing from them, and them never catching me. One time, I went in the temple someone had placed a large sum of money in a donation envelope and put it back into the envelope holder, rather than in the locked donation box. The money was right there, where I was picking up a schedule, and I left it there. I went into the book shop and told the monk at the register, he then left me alone in the book shop to go get it. Another time, I walked in the book shop and the lady at the register gave me back all my money, plus the money that would have been my change. I quickly noted her error to and she thanked me for my honesty. I won't tell you the other time, I'll leave that for another blog.

I've worked places and been in stores where people, especially the employees, and have even had friends who have stolen something, whether it be tangible or not.

I brought up the issue of non-stealing being a yogic principle at a meeting, just prior to my being laid off, and everyone looked at me like I was nuts. Let me remind you, I worked for a yoga studio. And, I sat there, looking into the faces of my co-workers....ripe with the knowledge that I had been privy to each of them stealing at some point..and the worms from that can just spilled out all over the bamboo floors.

Someone posted that it was "Steal from work" day on Tribe.net yesterday. Really? Does anyone out there know that when a company takes a financial loss, due to stealing, that the company has to make up for it in some way, including cutting hours, putting a hold on pay increases and laying people off. So, who are you really stealing from? "The MAN"....or yourself. Because it's all the same, whether we chose to believe it or not.

I'm leaving out all the pondering I did on my own ethical dilemmas, those are between me and the Divine.

What I'm realizing is that I'm in the minority here. Ethics...having one's that are based on principles of love and unity...dare I say P.L.U.R.? Where have they gone?