Intro to Tapasya & Effort Over Time
Tapasya
The Transformational Power of Spiritual Work
Below are 2 Guided Meditations to dive deeper into the topic of Tapasya, and specifically the concept of Effort Over Time. Below that, you’ll Find the workbook text for reference.
Please leave a comment at the bottom about your current understanding of Tapasya in your practice and/or your experience with Tapasya in Meditation. Thank you!
Tapasya: The Transformational Power of Spiritual Work
The next time we celebrate New Years, let’s all try counting down from 66 instead of 10. Why? Because then we might glimpse the effort over time it takes to fan the spark of inspiration into a flame of transformation. Scientific research shows that, on average, it takes approximately 66 days for a habit to become automatic (FSUnews), unfortunately though, only 12% of new years, or any other kinds of, resolutions make it past day 40. What does it take to make it from day 40 to day 66 and beyond? It’s not something money can buy, or even something we can will into being— this kind of lasting transformation can only be grown and cultivated from deep within, through the spiritual work of Tapasya. According to the yogic tradition, this kind of work is not dull, or full of doership, but is seen as the wish fulfilling tree, the bestower of grace, the redeemer of imperfection and the source of our spiritual growth. Reflect on anything significant you have ever accomplished in your life, and you’ll see a time in your life you walked hand in hand with this fiery gem Tapasya. So let’s take a moment to reflect on this powerful source of transformation, so that we may can make our resolutions into realizations. Ready?
66…65…64…63…62…
Effort Over Time
One way to understand the concept of Tapasya is through Swami Rudrananda’s adage of “Effort over time equals growth”. As Babaji says, “It’s regularity over time--practice, in other words--that really builds a strong discipline, a strong practice” (SP, 143)
If you want to generate transformation, it doesn’t just take effort, it also takes time. In 2020, we saw the exponent of time change the growth potential of our meditation and yoga teacher trainings dramatically. Due to stay at home orders, like so many, we pivoted to doing our work online, which for us is meditation and yoga teacher trainings. So instead of a training lasting 15-21 days, meeting everyday in person, it lasted 60-70 days, meeting once a week for nine weeks. This means these trainings typically last about 63 days, 3-4 times longer than any of our in-person trainings. As the time element increased, the effort quality simply had to keep up, and we found ourselves reaching new heights in our trainings— making deeper and more meaningful connections than ever before and seeing students reach new levels of their practice. One thing is for sure, if you want to transform, it takes time.
“At times your experience will be rocky. At times you are going to hit things that will shake your tree, but you have to keep working at it. Remember how when you were learning to ride a bike you fell off the first ten times, but you did not give up and you eventually found your balance? Well, it’s the same with meditation. Once you find your balance, what you do in the next stage of work is that you use that balance in all the different situations that are a part of your life.” (SP, 49).