Zero Waste
a Yoga-Sādhana for the Consumer
ZW
We cannot control climate change, wars, or asteroid hits - but we can control our consumption patterns, and refuse, as much as possible, products that impact negatively our environment
There is a Kalā, or Beauty in Yoga, to the coevolutionary process of Zero Waste consumption :
Composting - of organic leftovers
Upcycling - reusing inorganic materials
And then Flowering - from these processes into creations of Beauty.
Yoga
Further, underlying the Kalā of ZW is Yoga, skill in action, to this process
The consumption-based economy is based on the Asura of Money, so
if we are unable to completely consume what we buy, we need to stop buying,
else the Asura starts to rot in the firmament of the human psyche.
Here is what the study of PYS would suggest:
1.1 अथ योगानुशासनं
Atha yoga-anushāsanam
Thus starts the continual discipline of ZW.
Since economic consumption is a continual affair, so too must be the practice of ZW.
Samādhi indicates we completely know the object of our enquiry, in this case :
where our consumables come from, and
what is their entire lifecycle.
1.23 ईश्वरप्रणिधानद्वा
Īshwara praniDhānāt-vā
To that Concious Being which instills the capability (Īsha) to manifest our wish (vara), we dedicate our efforts (praniDāna), and from that we get to Samādhi.
Understanding that ZW practice could be treated as a process of divinization of the Earth, by instilling Ishwara in the psyche.
2.1: तपः स्वाध्यायेश्वरप्रणिधाननि क्रियायोगः
Tapah-svādhyāya-IshwarapraniDhānā-ni kriyā-Yogah
Burn, study, offer it up to the all-pervading wish-granting Ishwara
If we continue on the path of Divinization, then this would be a Kriyā :
Tapah : stripping away all the non-essentials of our goods consumption lifestyle.
Svādhyāya : study what it reveals about our consumptive patterns and thus our identity.
Ishwarapranidhāna : doing it for the higher cause makes the journey easier.
Economics
It is to be reminded that it is human consumption that drives the need for all economics.
This is particularly important in the age of Ai, because robots are not consumers, we are, because we have a purpose, and they don't, other than to serve us.
Consumption
However, the consumption is :
not about reducing consumption of energy to zero, which would be contrary to Kardeshev principles as we head to a Star-based civilization,
but it is about focusing on the consumption of goods without letting them go to waste at the end of their lifecycle.
Thus :
maximizing our consumption of energy (yes, scaling the Asura)
while minimizing waste (harnessing the machine super-tight)
would be the most fulfilling outcome for humanity.
The Collective
Now, to manifest the Avatār effect in the collective, from the transformation of a few core individuals.
We simultaneously paint these two pictures :
a dire scenario of microplastics invasion, and
the Beauty of Zero Waste lifestyle
That balancing act is the Samudra-Manthan, the cosmic churn by Asuras & Devas for the nectar of Amrit, of immortal bliss.
Until we slip, as we have now, and have to tangle with the Asuras again, while dealing with our mortality too!
The story of humanity. Let’s make it Beautiful.