1950s-little-girl-roller-skating-vintage-imagesYippee! I was around 10 and we were roller-skating along the sidewalks and driveways of Cherry Avenue in San Jose. We attached the roller skates to our shoes and they didn’t roll very well, but we pushed hard and were able to pick up quite a bit of speed.

We were playing cops and robbers. The cops would chase the robbers and the robbers would skate away as fast as possible. Sometimes the cops would reach a robber, or the robber’s skate would fall off and they would be captured.

Nobody wanted to be a robber. We wanted to chase, not be chased. We didn’t know why, but the robbers were bad. The cops were good.

Our parents were like the cops, and if we didn’t follow their rules, we would end up as robbers and in jail.

I wanted to be good, stay out of jail, be liked. 7418cb08ebb41913347fe2b7d4e98f36

Eventually we see through childhood games and realize that we create our own reality. There are no cops and no robbers, good guys and bad guys. When  children grow up, they have to decide for themselves what is their “good.”

We have an inner sense of right and wrong, what we should and should not be doing. “To thine own self be true,” say the Gita and Ayurvedic texts. The more we try to please others, the less we have access to our own unique power. If we listen to our inner voice, we will be on our right path, doing our “dharma.”

Yoga students in Dalat.

Me with my yoga students in Dalat, Vietnam 2018.

Doing good, according to yoga philosophy, is doing what must be done, what only we can do. That is our “dharma.” Giving our gift to the world saves us and the world both.