Tapasya: Curated Resources
A Curated Content on the topic of Tapasya within the Shambhavananda Yogic Tradition
This is a very special satsang teaching from Sri Shambhavananda specifically on the topic of Tapasya.
Excerpts from Spiritual Practice, by Sri Shambhavananda
I have a tendency to distract myself when I feel stuck, instead of taking a breath and surrendering and going deeper. How can I work past this resistance?
Almost everyone has that pattern. We know what we need to do, and we know what’s productive, and then we do the opposite. We should step back from that movie in our minds that has nothing to do with growing, but is trying to kick in and take over our minds. We must learn how to untangle ourselves from such movies. Then we are able to gain the realization of what’s illusion and what’s real. The illusion is that the third slice of pizza will make you feel better, and the fifth beer will improve your life.
Over the years, some students buckle down and are too hard on themselves. Then they get to the point where they resist everything. It’s regularity over time--practice, in other words--that really builds a strong discipline, a strong practice. You can’t keep score, minute-to- minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day. You can’t judge where you are un- til you can get above it. Often we expect things from others or from our lives that are illusions, or impossible for someone else to give.
Occasionally I have succeeded in releasing my tensions, but they always come back.
If you have vanquished them once, you can vanquish them again. You don’t take a vacation and think, “Oh, now I am done.” Tensions are always lurking in the background. Just think of how much time you have invested in creating them, how many years of karma you carry with you from both this and past lives. However, once you have learned how to work, then you can apply your new tools. Eventually, the negative chunks of karma will get smaller and smaller and fade away.
I find that practice is a powerful tool. Meditate twice a day, and you will start taking the air out of the balloons of tension that you have accumulated. You will create the energy to see through the illusions that you have clung to.
A big part of my spiritual growth involves my discovering what I
am not. The first 20 years I would think, “Oh, I was really wrong about that.” As I uncovered more and more of my misconceptions, I learned not to pay attention to most of the negative stuff and sams- karas that bubbled up. I looked for a deeper understanding of myself. That improved my ability to function in the world instead of being a victim of clashing egos and energies. I have learned how to be pres- ent in the different aspects of my life. I now watch these things come and go.
Seeking the witness state in your meditation will help you make a transformation in the way you view yourself, your life, and your karma. You repeat a mantra or you do pranayama, and you work at being present. If you succeed in becoming expansive enough, you will feel or visualize a thought arising. If you catch it when it first demands your attention and you don’t give in to it, it will start to dis- sipate. In the witness state you allow the thoughts, feelings, and emo- tions to come and go without identifying with them. It is as if you are emptying a huge warehouse full of junk that you carry around in your unconscious mind. Who knows how long you have hung on or clung to it. The ability to allow these thoughts, feelings, and emotions to come and go without attaching to them will give you a deeper experience of your true self--your true nature.
We identify incorrectly with parts of ourselves that are created and built upon tension and misunderstanding. We become tangled in the definitions that we have created. The experience of the witness state teaches us how to avoid being sucked into our old, old patterns and we learn new ways to be inside. This is how we find out who we really are as opposed to exploring all those products of tension that usually crop up in our minds.
How is it possible to do meditation every day in our busy lives?
When I was a baker and in the ashram, I would get up very early to meditate first, even before going in and making donuts. I would also pick certain points in my day when there was a natural pause, such as a coffee break, and I would spend a few minutes breathing and circu- lating energy. Those meditation pauses every day were very helpful. Eventually I reached the point that no matter what I was doing each day there would be times when I could also feel the shakti moving through my chakras and I could feel its flow of energy.
This is how we gradually bring inner awareness more and more into our everyday lives. Meditation and living a spiritual life are
not something that just happens on Monday nights or when we are feeling bad. We have to practice it daily! It is difficult to sit down
in a room and meditate all day. However, we can at least sit down
to meditate for 30 minutes to an hour. In addition, during the day when we find ourselves getting too caught up in something, we take can take a breath into our hearts, and we can ask to surrender all the spinning in our brains. We find the heart chakra and the navel chakra, and then, as we exhale, we genuinely surrender the tension of the moment.
At first your co-workers may wonder what you are doing, but eventu- ally you will be able to turn inward on the run. In my day-to-day life I deal with a number of people, some of whom are difficult, negative people. I do not approach these people unconsciously or ill-prepared because I know that the minute I do, they will throw me a zinger. Keeping our energy inside gradually allows us to become more and more balanced. Over time keeping our energy inside becomes our natural state rather than something we have to reach for.
Can you talk about the circular breath?
(Excerpt) 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.
What students normally do is that they try to get out of the situations they got into, or they try to change things externally, so they don’t feel bad. It is much better to learn how to work inside and to get free of the need to react. Manipulating the world outside of you doesn’t solve anything. What does resolve your difficulties is that you can change your state of being through an inner practice and meditative discipline.
After you have been meditating for a few years, you will be able to share part of the process with others through teaching. Then you discover all the things you never thought of. The more I teach, the better I feel because I know less and less and less. Hmmm, how could that be? You go to school to learn more and more and more.
Can you talk about resistance?
You will recognize resistance in thoughts such as, “I don’t want to
do this or that. I don’t like him or her. I don’t want to give up sugar. No, I want pizza.” We all have many different levels of resistance to just about everything. Many of us have developed strong likes and dislikes. A good yogi, however, neither accepts nor rejects. If you
can imagine living without accepting or rejecting, you will begin to understand the concept of surrender. To be able to surrender you are required to dissolve the mental constructs that you have created. You will then be able to use the energy that was holding on to acceptance and rejection to move your resistance through the chakras, refine it, and turn it into surrender. When you surrender, you are consciously releasing your attachments, definitions, and illusions.
The ability to identity or feel these things and release them creates an inner heat that begins the purification process. That inner heat will move through each of the seven chakras and create the fire of yoga that will purify much of the debris you have within your chakras. The goal is not to suppress your attachment and resistance. It is to devel- op the ability to expand beyond them and to release them.
You have to let go of you. We construct a personality that is a mental and energetic construct defining the world we live in. We have iden- tified and defined who we think we are. The process of growing spiri- tually and evolving as a human being has to do with developing the ability to move beyond our contracted definitions of self. To succeed requires focus and discipline. Pranayama and mantra, for example, are tools that we use to move beyond this container that we live in. They are tools that help us expand. We use them just as we would use a pump to put air in a tire—but we are the tire, not the pump.
I have been feeling very challenged by many issues in my life. How can I deal with this?
I can honestly say my most annoying, biggest challenges usually brought me the most growth. What does that mean? It means I had to work very hard to get above some of the people and things in my life that at the time seemed unjust, uncalled for, and unnecessary. That hard work helped me to jump light years ahead of where I was, whereas when things were going the way I wanted them to, I put less energy into my growth process.
Rudi referred to the challenges of life as fuel--fuel to burn, fuel to heat up this inner purification that takes place when you begin a spiritual practice. He said our tensions create natural resources. We have mountains of fuel inside to use and the way one burns these tensions (this fuel) is through the process of surrender. Surrender means not rejecting, but releasing, our tensions, and this process cre- ates a chemistry. We sometimes experience changes in our psychic systems that feel like heat literally starting to burn up our tensions. We don’t even have to know what they are. We are able to create
such a tremendous flow and heat that we are performing a massive purification. There were times that physically I was so hot in winter weather that I would wear a tee shirt because I was burning up so much stuff from deep inside. The difficult things in our lives hold the greatest potential because they symbolize a big chunk of locked up energy in our bodies and nervous systems. We don’t have to go look- ing for trouble. Trouble usually finds us, but we have to know how to handle it when it shows up.
Excerpts from Spontaneous Recognition By Sri Shambhavananda:
“Real spiritual growth comes from the ability to transcend yourself over and over and over again. The internal crystallization most people feel secure with and try to fortify represents the tensions that limit their evolution. Spiritual growth arises when barriers are broken down. A seed planted in the soil surrenders itself completely and becomes a tree that bears flowers and fruit. The seed is totally lost in the soil and transforms into something else. In spiritual work, the lower, mundane self is shed so that the purity of the Inner Self can shine forth.
Often people try to have a spiritual life while hanging on to all their limitations and misconceptions. They do not dare venture beyond an area where they feel comfortable and can control and understand. Real growth comes to those who have a very deep and powerful wish to grow under all circumstances. They must be willing to go beyond their own limitations and tensions.
The secret of life that we are searching for is to be found inside. You do not need to voyage to the top of a mountain to find it. You will find it inside yourself, but you must have a burning wish in your heart to transcend your fear, limitations, and philosophy. In my spiritual work, I had major realizations at the death of a closely held ideal.
Meditation gives you the ability to turn your attention inside and experience a state beyond the mundane. It helps you go beyond the mind and emotions that define your world. Life brings plenty of opportunity to grow. One can either open up to the challenges of life and transcend them or build barriers and be crushed by them.”
Excerpts from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
As translated by Shambhavananda Yoga
Yoga Sutra 2.28
By devoted practice of the limbs of yoga, ignorance is eradicated by the radiance of wisdom.
Yoga Sutra 2.41
The accomplishments of yogis can be attained through the use of ayurvedic herbs, mantras, discipline, deep meditation, and auspicious birth.
Yoga Sutra 2.43
“By cultivating discipline, one is redeemed of all guilt and imperfection, and the higher abilities of the body and senses are attained.”
Excerpt from
Jai Deva Singh’s
Introduction to “Shiva Sutras”
THE MAIN SOURCES OF THE NON-DUALISTIC SAIVA SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY AND YOGA
The Saiva system of Philosophy and Yoga is generally known as Agama. The word Agama means a traditional doctrine or system which commands faith.
The Saiva system,, in general, is known as Siva-sasana or Sivagama, The non-dualistic Saiva system of Kashmir is known as Trika-Sasana or Trika-sastra or Rahasya-sarnpradaya. The words sasana and sastra are very significant. B o t h contain the root sasa which means discipline. Sasana or Sastra means teaching containing rules for discipline. A Sastra or Sasana in India never meant merely an intellectual exposition of a particular system. It certainly expounded the fundamental principles of reality but at the same time laid down on the basis of t h e principles certain rules, certain norms of conduct which had to be observed by those who studied the particular Sastra. A Sastra was not simply a way of thought but also a way of life. The Saiva philosophy of Kashmir is generally called 'Trika Sastra, because it is philosophy of the triad - (1) Siva (2) Sakti (3) Nara - the bound soul or (1) para - the highest (2) parapara - identity in difference and (3) apara - difference.
The literature of the Trika system of Kashmir falls into three categories, viz., (1) the Agama Sastra, (2) the Spanda .Sastra and (3) the Pratyabhijna Sastra.
Agama Sastra:
Agama Sastra is considered to be revelation by Siva. It lays down both the principles and practices of t h e system. Among the works belonging to the Agama category may be mentioned the following Tantras.
Malinivijaya or Malinivijayottara, Svacchanda, Vijnana Bhairava, Mrgendra, Netra, Rudra-Yamala, Siva-Sutras, etc.
Most of these taught generally the dualistic doctrine. The most important Agama of the Trika system was known as the Siva-Sutras.
Excerpt from Swami Lakshmanjoo’s translation of the Shiva Sutras
Shiva Sutra 2.3
“Now the Tantrasadbhāva explains further: ‘But how to awaken her? He now explains how this is done. This goddess cannot be awakened with force. She can only be awakened by (nāda) supreme I consciousness filled with supreme awareness. To awaken her, the yogī has to churn his point of one-pointedness in the heart, without break, again and again.’
He must churn it by inserting sparks of awareness, one after another, again and again, in unbroken continuation. The process is to insert one spark of awareness. Let that one spark fade. Again, insert fresh awareness. Let that spark fade. Again, insert fresh awareness. This process must be continued over and over again in continuity.”