Day 7: October 21
Tapas / Discipline
From my notes studying with our dear teacher Ramaswami Srivatsa …
‘Purification thru discipline; thru discipline we burn away impurities and ignite the divinity within ourselves, and by example, that of others’
We most often hear Tapas translated and described as different combinations of Discipline, Commitment, Effort and Heat. This hopefully leads us to the understanding that we have some work to do and that the results we are working for will not happen overnight. This is one of the main reasons we call it a practice.
Coming up as an athlete, I practiced a lot. I used to hear ‘Practice makes perfect’ a lot, which always sounded good until it was elevated to ‘Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect’ (thanks Vince Lombardi) Now that sounds better but still leaves us hanging with a question; What does ‘Perfect Practice’ look like?
It could be as simple as taking One Yoga Teacher Cecily’s advice ‘Just do what works’. I love this as it puts us into an enquiry around what works for us and what does not work. When we look back at the long, ancient tradition of Yoga we see many opportunities to suit our practice to who and when we are; different paths for different personality types and shifts in practice depending on factors like age, station in life and worldly responsibilities.
And if we really dig into the recent history of this Path we see that our teacher’s teachers were committed to tailoring the practice to their individual students' needs which can be summed up in TKV Desikachar’s instruction to make the practice ‘personal and personalized’.
While sweaty group Yoga Parties are fun, create community and support us on the way, at some point we need to discover what works for us and do more of that. What works for you? When does it work for you? And how can we get more of that? All great enquiries while remembering that what works for us is what we need, not always what we want. Hence, the need for disciplined, committed effort.
Another important enquiry here is why we are doing this work? When the Sage Patanjali refers to Tapas, he talks about cleaning or purifying the sense organs; the senses of perception and the organs of action. He instructs that this will start us on the path to Samadhi by diminishing the Kleshas or obstacles.
But why are you practicing? I believe having purpose is important and encourage a practice of showing up on purpose with purpose.
And this is where we get to set intention and consider motivation.
What’s your ‘Top of the Mountain’ intention, the big goal? Maybe Samadhi? Maybe beyond that?
Also, let’s get a little more practical or present about it; what’s true for you right now? What do you need from your practice in this moment?
I would love it if you brought some of your answers and questions around those enquiries to our Sunday Session this weekend.
See you soon, yogis!
Peter
