Tapas

Thy desire is thy prayer; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. . . . The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.

 -Saint Augustine

I once had a physicist friend who would gladly discuss electric power; but harnessing the power of a passion or a craving - well, that was not dynamics; that was poetry. "Power," he told me sternly, "is the capacity to do work. Work is the energy required to move a definite mass a definite distance. No movement, no work. No work, no power."

Day or night I had never seen my friend far from his desk. Then late one evening I came out of a movie theater and saw him striding along like an athlete, several miles from his office. "What got you up from your desk?" I asked. "You're breaking the habits of a lifetime."

"Coffee," he muttered. "I ran out of coffee."

"Here," I said, "a very definite mass has been propelled at least three miles, simply by one little

desire for a cup of coffee." He got my point.

Every deep desire is a prayer. Every desire also contains a certain quantum of energy - energy to grasp the desired goal.

Words to Live By: Inspiration for Every Day – Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to explore the third Niyama - Tapas.  One definition of Tapas is to use burning effort under all circumstances to achieve one’s goal in life. Consider what Saint Augustine means by “desire” and apply Tapas to your discovery.

Rushing Water Yoga, 417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA  98607, 360.834.5994

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