Tapasya

Once my teacher mentioned that many people had been commenting on how beautiful, clean, peaceful, and sacred the Ashram (yoga school) felt to them. My teacher made the observation that to create a place for the study of yoga that looks and feels like that takes a lot of effort. She said that it is important not only to recognize the beauty but how it came into being. Sometimes we look at places like that and for some reason we think that it is just like that on its own.

During a particular difficult time in my yoga practice I talked to a swami, a yoga monk. I told him that I was planning on decreasing the amount of time doing my practice because it had gotten so difficult for some reason. First, he seriously asked me several questions about how my physical and mental health were. They were great. Then he reminded me of the goal of a yoga practice and told me to continue practicing the same amount and in doing so I had to find a way to move through the difficulty.

Both of these stories were a "No mud, no lotus" moment for me. They were a reminder that beauty in all of its forms requires us to get our hands dirty more often than not in order to create it. It requires a lot of good and genuine effort on our part. Tapasya is a word in Sanskrit that connotes the fiery feeling that is stoked by the effort that we make to create beauty and anything worthwhile in our life.

The next time you see something beautiful I invite you to recognize and contemplate how it came into being. You will be surprised how quickly you can recognize and appreciate the effort behind all the beauty that surrounds you.

See you in class soon.

Blessings

Jorge Nihal