Yoga to Transform (00:48)
So we are up to the third of the Niyama, which are these moral observances. And this one is called tapas. So it's not the Spanish site, you know, yummy dish that we all love, tapas, yeah, but tapas is discipline or burning desire that's this kind of fiery enthusiasm and drive.
I've s I've seen words like penance and austerity be used to describe this this concept of tapas, tapas. And it's whenever I think about tapas, tap tap should say right, tapas. tapas. my gosh, tapas. it's the fiery path of transformation in my world. So tap tap.
means to burn and it evokes this sense of fiery discipline. So it's this ability to really create a sense of self-discipline and courage in order to kind of burn away the impurities physically, mentally, or emotionally, so that you can pave the way for your greatness, like pave the way for that ability for you to just reside in this moment, in this experience of life as it is.
So it's the discipline that we have to turn up for ourselves. And some people like, you know, you're a very disciplined person, I'm a very disciplined person, like there's a commitment, there's a driving force, there's an energy. Like I've I've had the fiery enthusiasm, the other word that I've heard used to describe it is that passion, right? It's like you're
Passionate and enthusiastic about what you do. So it drives you to just keep showing up. And then I've got that discipline and that routine and that structure to be like, I'll show up for myself every single day and do my yoga practice and do my meditation practice and keep that showing up. Because in the showing up, what I know I'm doing, even if you don't feel it immediately, is I'm burning away the impurities, I'm burning away.
the stuff that's holding me back, and I'm building the stuff that I need to take me forward into the person that I'm becoming. So quite what I've seen a lot of yoga teachers do when they interpret this concept of tapas is they interpret it. So the third chakra is the seat of your personal will, right? And it's the seat basically your life.
And your spiritual practice and your spiritual path and your life is all determined by your willpower, right? and your ability to to to have willpower to direct your energy and direct your focus in a certain direction. So you know, and I was talking about it this morning in a business mentoring meeting where you know people
Would rather continue living a lifestyle that is destroying them or could even kill them than evoke their own will to transform and to take a new path. Does that make sense? It's like it's too hard for me to impose my will and get strong. And so this the seed of your money poorer is the seat of your will center.
And so because it's in your belly, you know, just above your belly button, they, you know, it's quite often you'll do a core-based practice when you're on the yoga mat if you're working with a yoga teacher, or that it'll be a really fiery practice and strong and might involve arm balances, etc. But sometimes the tapas, the discipline,
Is just even rolling the mat out and getting on it and saying you're just gonna do 10 minutes of breathing or 10 minutes of salutes to the sun or whatever it might be. and it doesn't necessarily have to be a core workout or or a really strong fiery practice that you're sweating. and sometimes the tapas when it comes to our yoga practice is sitting in meditation.
in silence for 10 minutes and you know being in that challenge because it's really challenging right to do the meditation. so there's no kind of practice as such except to do the practice, yeah, to keep showing up and to do the rituals. And the rituals in and of themselves like don't have any meaning.
So the the asana practice doesn't really have any any meaning. it does, it was designed by the ancient yogis because hutha is strong and powerful and forceful. And when I teach, you probably notice I say send your energy down to your foot and up into your fingertips, you know? And so you're directing your prana through the core lines and the nadis in your body.
From the core out to the periphery or from your fingertips into your core. And that forceful, the moving the energy into those parts with your awareness is forcing the energy down the channels and clearing the little bits of blockages that may be built up along those channels. So you're actually kind of, which is why everyone feels better after a yoga practice. Because we've moved energy.
With purpose around the body. But while we've done that, it's like sweeping the floor. You've also swept the floor where you've sent your energy. And so the particles have all been have been moved around and and cleaned out. So we're literally kind of forcing the prana around our body and clearing the blockages in the imprints as we do that. And
When we're so that that that is one of the reasons that we do the physical arsena practice is to actually literally remove the impurities by forcing the energy around our body. But the other thing too is that we're building the discipline of doing the practice and that builds the container of our body. So we need a strong body and a fit and a vibrant body to hold bigger life force.
Right. Because you you look at so I'm a small person, but I have a strong and a vibrant body, and I have a big life force. And the bigger your life force, then the the greater, the bigger your life can become. Yeah. So we build the physical container through the practice, the physical practices of yoga so that you can have a bigger life. you know, and you look at the people who are not running very much energy in their body, you can see them, right? The
They kind of slumped forward and they're not very energetic. and their physical container, you don't see the big muscly guys kind of looking weak and like they haven't got any energy, right? And so the physical container when it's not strong can't hold a strong life force and can't achieve its greatness. So the practices are building discipline.
building confidence and building the physical container of our life force. And when you do something like go on a spiritual retreat where it's silent for three days, and you have to stay silent, like there's no specialness in the practice of being silent, right? That discipline, the will, will, will power of being silent. Accept to see yourself.
And the discomfort that being silent brings up. And then to see the fact, the idleness of the chatter that you have with people on a daily basis, right? Like we don't really talk that meaningful, deep and meaningful stuff, you know. And some people like it's just that, you know what, you shouldn't be saying anything right now. Just be silent. And and but it's more that you're developing your will.
And learning how to focus and control your will. Like if you've got the it's or the fasting isn't the the ritual of fasting or cleansing isn't that you're not eating. That's not the point of the fast. and it's definitely not to lose weight, it's to build the willpower that your body and your mind knows that that you can direct your will in the direction.
That you want it to be going, that you're you're teaching yourself to to have that fiery discipline so that you can burn away the impurities, burn away the old habits, you know. I can see when I do the five day silent retreat that most of what I have to say is meaningless. So now I'm going to become more, more conscious of how I speak or what I have to say or when I speak.
Or I can see that most of what I have to eat isn't really nourishing me. And so I'm going to eat in a more conscious way now. et cetera, et cetera. So the element of fire is the element of transformation. Yeah. It literally and it's it's agni.
In Ayurveda is one of the key things that we focus on working with with our clients is how do we build the Agni is fire, right? How do we build their internal digestive fire? How do we build the fire in their liver? How do we build the fire in their lives? And tapas is literally that same fire, but more on that spiritual path of of driving your life forward so that you live your greatest life possible.
And when you're stepping into that path of transformation, into the fire of transformation, I mean you can think of the phoenix. You know, in Western mythology, we have the phoenix that rises from the ashes, the bird that kind of dies but is reborn again in the fire. it's it's kind of the same concept. So when we step out of outside of our comfort zones, that is when we change and grow.
So that that path of transformation is this path of stepping in and doing the rituals which may make us feel uncomfortable or doing the practices which may make us feel uncomfortable. But then as you know through your own yoga practice, that there's a certain tipping point where it's not uncomfortable anymore, but it's enjoy it, it's it's it becomes a passion and a
And there's something that starts burning within you and you keep showing up and you're like, what else could I do? You know, like, my goodness, I can do handstand. What else? You know, like what else is possible for my life? And obviously yoga says, well, nothing's possible. If you keep showing up, you keep doing the rituals, you keep burning away the impurities and offering them into your own sacrificial fire.
Nothing is impossible. So that after a while, that the willpower just kind of kicks in and you stay on the path. And you're really just learning to direct your will in the direction that you you want to. Even the Yoga Nidra that we just did, and it directs you to bring your attention to your fingers, bring your attention to your chest. That's training your mind to direct your will and your awareness where you want to send it.
In your body, like you know, it's all you don't realize it at the time, but we just these are all just just different ways of training the mind. so
It's that willful exposure of yourself to the metaphorical element of fire while you're doing the practice and while you're studying and then just beginning to really align your actions that you take on a daily basis to who it is that you truly are, to your true self. so the Yoga Sutras.
Is says willfully exposing yourself to the metaphorical element of fire within your practice brings complete attainment of bodily power and completely removes the impurities within. Right? So the metaphorical fire is what will sustain you, your burning enthusiasm, and your practice of the spiritual discipline that is yoga.
So that the Yoga Sutras. So there's the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras, which are this text that we study when we study yoga. So there's this quote, right? so there are three kinds of tapas. There's Rajustic tapas, and that's when you're Rajustic, you're doing the practices for the show of it, yeah. And you're doing the practices to get something, yeah. Like
I'm showing up and I'm meditating and I'm doing yoga so that I can get an outcome, right? And so it's really eye-focused. And then the other type of practice is the tamastic type of practice, tamastic tapas. And these people, they're doing this in a name of real severe penance, like, you know, like really self-flagellating themselves, really punishing themselves.
And torturing themselves in the name of spiritual discipline. And so they're actually kind of going too far into this torturous self-denial, to be like, you know, sacrificing themselves rather that so there's the one extreme, which is it's all about what do I get, and the other extreme is just self-beating each other themselves up. And then the third kind is sattvik tapas, where you're not.
Requiring anything from the rituals or the practices. and you're not denying yourself anything, and you do not require, you're just flowing with life, and there's nothing to gain or nothing to suffer. You're just burning with enthusiasm and endurance and acceptance. So there's that fiery enthusiasm that's bringing you through. So when
We do the practices of tapas. There's the bodily practices. So that's physical hygiene, staying active, managing your diet, keeping yourself fit, strong, and healthy, and just building power over your senses. And even in that yoga nidra, remember, we kind of in quite a few meditations, we work with the senses. So it's like starting the senses kind of control who we are. So we start to control them. Then there's the tapas of your speech. So yeah, you start.
Managing what you have to say when you have to say it, and you start speaking your truth and with pleasantness, and you control what you have to say. and start to learn to speak in a way that is calm and compassionate and brings calmness to the mind of the people who hear your voice. And then the third tapas is the tapas of the mind.
So our brain is a pleasure-seeking missile. Like a hate-seeking missile, but it's like a pleasure-seeking missile, right? It's like doo doo doo. so your mind is like always looking for for stuff to like distract it and give it pleasure. So it's just always looking for that short-term pleasures. And so when as you when you're doing tapas to train the mind.
You're learning to voluntarily relinquish the pleasures that distract and fill your mind, and you begin to distract be able to turn your mind to the long-lasting fulfillment rather than the temporary highs that the pleasures bring. So there's that. Instead of going for the glass of wine or the chocolate bar, I'll go and do the meditation and I'll figure out why I want the pleasure of the glass of wine.
And it's not that I'm denying, but I'm working through and burning that desire within me so that I can get to the underlying like, what am I really wanting to feel? Because it's already inside of me. How do I burn away the belief that I have to eat chocolate to feel good? so the tapas are really your personal discipline to practice yoga and spirituality with no other intention than to reach your own highest potential.
whatever that might be, right? And not to reach it in a certain time frame, not to, you know, like it's just just, it's just a path of unfolding. and as you cultivate the purity of mind, contentment, the difficult practice of beneficial change, this is from the Yoga Sutras now. So that in the Yoga Sutras they refer to tapas as the difficult practice of beneficial change, the study of yourself and alignment of actions with your true self.
Then you you start to step into basically that path of transformation, which steps you into your greatness. In a nutshell, right? Yoga is the path towards your greatness. but you need the tapas, you need the fire, you need the burning enthusiasm to keep driving you forward into that place. and for some of us.
depending on where we are in the path, it's tapas, you know, it's different for all of us. So just for some people, it's going just sitting down for five minutes and trying to do a meditation is really hard or whatever it might be, it's we can't judge where, you know, it's all it's all powerful work, whatever level it might look like on the outside to anybody.
Do you have any questions about that? so tough as would you say it's light risk, like nothing risk, nothing gained.
yes, yes, but calculated risk. Does that make risk, yeah. Yeah. So it's like, well
So if I use the example of direct, like so basically we're learning to direct the will, because the spiritual path is about learning to direct your focus, learning to direct your wellness, your awareness. And so as you expand your comfort zone and you expand your capacity of your body to hold energy, you will take risks. because as an example,
You'll say to your friends, I'm going to go on a silent retreat and not talk for five days. And your friends will think you're crazy.
But you're not, you're actually creating this pound foundation to burn away those aspects of yourself that are holding you back from your greatest potential. But if you're not courageous enough and brave enough to take that risk of being silent or doing the yogic fast or doing the yogic practice of meditation with asana.
Yeah. Work outside your comfort zone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll never know what's on the other side. Yeah. So yeah, you're right, but it's a calculated risk in a way. But you there's no, whenever you take a risk, there's actually no guarantee, right? Like I say to you every yoga class, or yoga promises you that you'll live in bliss and peace and you know, and peace and calm. Like, but there's no guarantee.
So you're like, okay, well, I'm guess I'm willing to take the risk of doing the practice and I'll find out. Or not, you know, you might say, actually, quite good just watching TV. Yeah. So yeah, it is, it's a calculated risk in probably the opposite direction of what everyone else that you know is doing.
Yeah. As well. Yeah. Does that answer the question? Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions? Or I think that's me for the day. Beautiful. So gosh, we did talk a bit at the beginning. So with with this one, I thought we would just do a straight 10-minute closed eye meditation because it's actually really hard and it is.
The discipline of tapas is just can you sit in meditation with your eyes closed and just let whatever happens, whatever arises, arise and let it move on and allow it to kind of burn away as you sit in the meditation. So we'll give ourselves 10 minutes of closed eye.
Meditation. It's taking a deep breath in, closing your eyes, getting comfortable.
Slowly just begin to deepen your breath.
When you're ready, just begin to open your eyes.
Just bring your hands together in front of your heart.
This fiery practice and path of transformation that we walk. May we bow namaste Thank you.
