I love new beginnings. Who doesn’t?!
A new season or moon, fresh school year, a clean notebook, or re-organizing a room’s purpose. I love an awakened fresh step back into an old practice.
Happy Autumn Equinox! Fall is a gorgeous time to ground back into rituals that were lost during a summer of play. Fall is a powerful time where the sun and the moon balance their time in the sky and we begin to come into more balance too. It is a time to prepare us for the inward journey of winter. :)
Yoga is both a state and a practice. In the first chapter of The Yoga Sutra, Samadhi Pada, Patanjali describes yoga as a state mind state. 1:2: Yogas Citta Vrtti Nirodah
Yoga is a meditative state of mind where the thoughts and emotions of the heart- mind quiet and the veil of inner conversation thins away. It is where we can peacefully observe all that enters and leaves an experience with our reacting from the first thought that enters our mind. This is the mind state called Nirodha, a sublime state of mental purity and stillness. It is a mindful application of an inherent wisdom, but it takes lots of practice and hard work to get to this state of ease.
Why seek this state of yoga? There are so many benefits to doing yoga. We know the lists of health benefits we gain through the practices of yoga, but the main purpose of practicing yoga is to radically transform your sense of who and what you are and how you see the world! The true purpose of yoga is to have fundamental insights into the nature of your mind. Insights that change your entire approach to life. This sutra teaches us about the state of stillness. This chapter and this sutra is for an advanced yoga students. To advance, we must practice.
So, invitation to begin again. :)
In the second chapter of the Yoga Sutra, Sadhana Pada, the chapter on Practice. Patanjali describes the action of yoga in 2.1 Tapah Svadhyaya Ishwara Pranidhanani Kriya Yogah.”
Kriya comes from the Sanskrit root word “kri”. Karma also comes from this root word. Kri means action. Karma is an action that has already occurred. Our past karmas are actions or activities from our past that have prodeuced impressions in our mind field. Kriya is the potential energy that moves an action forward. This sutra teaches us about practice in action.
Kriya Yoga is a set of tools that bring advancement on the spiritual path. It consistes of the last 3 niyamas - tapas, svadhyaya, and ishwara pranidhana.
Tapas comes from the root word tap and it means to heat or burn. It is most often translated as “discipline”. Tapas is the burning of old unserving habits and beliefs. Tapas is about making conscious and deliberate actions to transform by setting healthier patterns in the body and brain. It is the effort to do something hard that will bring more ease into your future. It can be anything- waking up early, going for a morning walk, or engaging in mindful movement. It is a spiritual discipline or austerity.
To release impurities in gold one would place it in the fire.
To soften ice, one would heat up the water.
To release your toxins and soften your edges, turn up the heat in your dedication.
Svadhyaya is the practice of studying one self. Sva is "self” and dhyaya actually means “to meditate” or “to be absorbed within”. In yoga we learn that there are five layers of the self called the Pancha Kosha, or 5 sheaths. The 5 layers, from most dense to most subtle, the body layer, the energy layer, the mind layer, the intellect layer, and the spirit or bliss layer. Through yoga we work inward to clear up the layers of self as they damping our ability to experience the brilliance of our inner most light. Svadhyaya also implies studying the self through the wisdom of ancient text and application of mantra repetition.
Ishwara Pranidhanani is the concept of giving up control. It is an advanced practice! Ishwara pranidhanani is our capability to realize that we can only control our own reaction so let’s accept life as it rolls out and trust that everything that we want, we will receive. I love Rama Jyoti Vernon’s description of this concept. Ish is to wish and wara is to fill. Prani means to bring forth and dhan can mean wealth. To feel this practice we must imagine the feeling of all our wishes coming true and wealth pouring abundantly. :)
We practice Kriya Yoga to weaken the kleshas. Klesha are the thoughts that bring us unnecessary suffering. Klesha are negative, harmful, critical, judgmental thoughts that we spin in. Kriya yoga brings us peace as we learn that our mind is simply one distraction in the action of connecting to peace!
Spiritual progress begins with a little conscious effort. It might be a simple act of lighting a candle in the morning and saying thank you for your life or practicing 5 sun salutes while you wait for the coffee to brew. It doesn’t matter what you do but your intention behind it!
Thanks for being on this journey with me, I hope we can keep walking forward on the path of awakening.
xo Brit