Weekly Letter: The heat of Tapas
Dear Reader,
Tapas is the part of yoga practice when a person experiences friction or heat. It might be as small as noticing an imbalance in the body. It can grow to become a sensation so strong you feel the heat or intensity of what you’re doing. Both require active awareness because tapas cannot happen without your attention.
Tapas is the process required of a person to transform and grow in their practice. But often, I see people trying to delegate their transformation to something else or to Me! They want me to change for them, instead of them changing for themselves and it happens more than you think.
Instead of making the commitment of going to class. The student blames the space on not having a class at their most preferred time.
Instead of committing to class, the student lets every little plan become a detour from going to class.
Instead of holding the pose, the student gets irritated with the teacher that they are asking too much of the student.
An example of active tapas:
Imagine you’re holding plank pose. At first, the position is ok. You feel the work in your limbs and make adjustments to your body, but initially, it’s ok. Then after a few breaths, you start to feel the work in the body. The breath gets a little deeper and you start to use your breath as a way to hold it longer. The mind might start to fire up with thoughts like, ‘we wont be in this much longer,’ ‘you’ve got this,’ and the longer you hold it, the thoughts start to transition as the body does. The body might begin to shake a bit because of the work and then you’re imagining the relief of letting go and how good that feels. Until eventually you do come out of the posture.
But what if this ended differently?
Instead of letting go, what if you stayed in plank. You stayed with the shaking and even though you know it will feel good to get out, you stay regardless. You want to see exactly how long you can remain. Not for anything else other than your own awareness. So you stay and shake and wonder. The breath is thick and heavy and you are sweating, but you’re still in it, you’re still going. The teacher is talking and you’re not even hearing them. Their voice is far in the distance, masked by your own breath and inner dialogue. You know you can come out at any time, but still you stay. You’ve already been in plank for longer than you’ve ever been, so let’s see where this goes.
At some point, something inside shifts. You don’t hear the teacher, now your entire world has changed, you are apart of everything, you can feel your breath in your heels and elbows and when you close your eyes you don’t see anything but the darkness behind your eyelids. And still you stay and you watch. And you forget you’re in plank anymore, you’re still shaking, but it’s different now, there’s something beyond the shake and the noise, it’s now a bigger vibration of something that’s coming from deep inside of you.
The teacher’s voice changes and snaps you back. You gently lower down to your belly and put your head on the cool floor and for several moments, there are no thoughts, there are no images-it’s just pure release and quiet.
And then do it all again, seated in meditation without moving. And again standing in tadasana. And continue to find these levels of intensity, to let them go.
Who would you be then?
What would your practice become?
Are you ready to strengthen your container in this way?
~Carmen
