Greetings Yogis and
Yoginis,
Described in the second chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the Niyamas
establish the rules of conduct that apply to individual discipline. Practicing and adhering to these principles
creates self purification in the practitioner.
This week in class we will be exploring Tapas, the third Niyama.
Tapas is found in verse II.43 of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
Tapas comes from the Sanskrit word tap, which means to
cook. The heat of the cooking process
purifies and transforms. The word Tapas
is also linked to the idea of deprivation.
In order to deprive ourselves of something we are habituated to we must
resist acting in our habitual patterns.
This resistance creates a kind of internal heat that purifies,
strengthens, and transforms us.
The practices prescribed by yoga are intentional means of
purifying and strengthening our systems.
They may be understood to be any discipline designed to reduce physical,
emotional, or mental impurities. In this
context, Tapas refers to a process of “getting rid” of something that is not
desirable in our system.
According to the ancients, without Tapas, there can be no
real success in yoga. The various means
and methods of Tapas used in yoga practice include asana, pranayama, and dhyana
(meditation), as well as other actions – such as dietary restrictions, fasting,
refraining from idle gossip, or other forms of selective renunciation – that
serve to break our habits. Controlling
breath, limiting speech, and restricting diet are said to be the three most
important areas for Tapas. And it is to
these ends that we are taught to eat less, speak less, and work on our
breathing.
When we fast, we purify our bodies; we gain appreciation of
the nourishment that we usually take for grant ed. We also have the opportunity to recognize how
much we rely on food for our sense of emotional well-being and even as a source
of entertainment. When we avoid idle
gossip, we save energy, and our minds become more focused. When we control our breathing, we interrupt
an automatic process that is going on at every mom ent. This is a very deep and profound method of
Tapas that is immediately accessible to any practitioner.
There are things that we desire that are harmful for
us. These are also things we desire that
are beneficial, or at least not harmful.
It is easy to understand how it can be useful to give up things we are
attracted to that are harmful. On the
other hand, Tapas may sometimes involve giving up something we like that is not
harmful to us at all. This is a form of
selective, disciplined renunciation – in which we give up something that we
like. It should be done carefully in
order to avoid any harm to the body or the mind. The ancients suggested that this form of
selective renunciation will accelerate our progress in personal practice.
The various methods of Tapas are a means to strengthen
ourselves so that we are able to break the cycle of habitual and addictive
behavior. They challenge us to wake up
out of the mom entum of our daily
lives, to pay attention, and to look at life in a new way. Tapas requires that we cut through
distractions and bring our full attention to the present mom ent. To do this, we must break patterns, and that
requires energy. The means and methods
of personal practice are designed to help us build sufficient energy to break
free of our conditioned responses.
Homework: Explore what
your habits are in relation to your yoga practice. Do you always practice the same asanas in the
same way? Challenge yourself to break your
habits in your asana practice. Next
explore how what you learned about yourself from your asana practice and apply
it to your life off of the mat. Choose
something you like and give it up for a week and choose a behavior you want to
let go of and figure out what your Tapas will be that will enable you to free
yourself of this habit.
References:
In Iyengar the Yoga
Master, edited by Kofi Busia, Kriya
Yoga: Transformation Through Practice – A Western Perspective, by Gary
Kraftsow.
Blessings,
paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal,
and Vancouver Washington
