Latest / Sutra Squad / Ep. 22 Sutra 2.1 on the Sādhana Pāda and Kriya Yoga
Transcript
- Seth Barron: I am thine, all is thine, thy will be done. Mine binds, thine liberates. Mine binds, tapas, thine liberates. So if you drop minds all over, they will undermine your life or blow up in your face. I know I tell them. But if you change all the minds to thines, you will always be safe. Hello and welcome to the Sutra Squad podcast brought to you by One Deep Breath. My name is Seth Barron. I am with the superstar Sutra Squad, Sally Moore. Hello, welcome. And Sarah Page Hall. Hello, hello. And Sarah Page, what is one word that describes how you feel right now? Abundant. ⁓ First word that came to mind abundant. Perfect. Perfect. Sally Moore, what's one word for you right now? After spending hours in the depths of this sutra yesterday, I was gonna say enthusiastic, but I'm just gonna be cautiously enthusiastic. Cautiously enthusiastic. Two words, but okay. Two words. We'll say cut. hyphenated I ⁓ yeah, hyphenated. So yeah, it's a compound. ⁓ I'm just ⁓ flow. Like as in like feel I'm like in a kind of a flow state moment of life. That feels good. Feels really good. Yeah. Sometimes it's, you know, sometimes it flows and sometimes it I don't know. I was trying to think of something. Like it's sometimes it don't. Sometimes it don't. Sometimes you feel like a flow. Feel like a flow. Sometimes you don't. and that's actually the perfect place to to talk about like where we're at in our study. We're this week we're gonna begin our exploration of the second chapter of the Yoga Sutra. So the first chapter is the Samadhipada that describes I always just think it's so fascinating how like there's this cycle, right? Because we begin at the end and then we'll get to the beginning again. And so the samadhipada sort of describes like yoga and these big conceptual, sometimes and and often contrasting ideas. Like we're we're presented with with some really big ⁓ ideas to sort of like hold concurrently like abhyasa and bhairagya as the the means by which we achieve the nirodha, the the restraint of the swirl, the chittavrithi of our mind. and we've explored that and we've explored like even the locks and the keys has these like contrasting ideas. It's actually full of them, right? That like punya punya, like vi like virtue and the lack of virtue, ⁓ sukkha dukkha. Right. Like sweetness, ease, and happiness and pain and suffering and and challenge. And like, and we're told that like even in both of those, we have to find our way through. And and then, and so there's all all these big ideas. And then at the end of the first chapter, Master Patanjali describes like the different levels or like flavors of samadhi that one can achieve. And fascinatingly, then when the second chapter begins. The second chapter is the sadhana pada. And pada means here it means chapter. It's also means foot. Sometimes it means step. And and so now we're like in the second step. Taken the first step, which is to try to understand the nature of samadhya, like where this is all going. What is this thing called yoga? What does it mean to find a sense of chitta vritti nirodha? Like that restraint, like that swaddling. of the mind. And sadhana is ⁓ sadhana means practice. Often it refers to like to describe to another way this word is often used is that to have a sadhana is to have a personal practice, like a personal spiritual practice. Like what we're doing right here and right now is sadhana for us. ⁓ I'm very rarely presumptuous so presumptuous to speak for my my my fellow ⁓ sutra squatters, but like I think we could all agree, like, and even like the origin of this whole podcast is sadhana. Like we wanted to stay in studentship together. And we've just found such richness and i in this study together. And the sadhana and the commitment to our sadhana was really was really meaningful. And so we found a way to do that and to st stay hopefully in a in service so that our sadhana is of service. So here The sadhana pada often is translated as the chapter on practice. So it's like we've been given these great big ideas, and then Master Patanjali gives us like the instructions get more detailed as to like what do you like what do you actually do? Which brings us to then the first chapter, the beginning of that journey of practice, in which we are given three ⁓ Practices, three ideas to put into practice as a yoga of action. And it's the verse is tapa svagya yeshvara pranidhana di kriya yoga. There's a little bit of ⁓ Sanskrit grammar happening here. The three ideas are tapas, svhyaya, and ishvara pranidhana. It sounds a little bit more melodious as. Papasvadya Yeshvara Pranidani. Right, you can hear it as like a more melodious feel. So we will hear that in just a moment. As we do, ⁓ and as we invite you to join us to do is to just take this moment and ground back to where you are. And that might mean just like noticing, I think all three of us just sort of like shake it out the shoulders. Maybe get a little bit intentional in the seat that you're taking right now in your asana. and if it is safe to do so, maybe find just a moment of stillness. Hmm, my hands just sort of landed on my heart today. And if it's of service to you in that cultivation of presence, you could close your eyes for a moment. And if it's part of your sadhana, your practice, you can bring your hands together in Anjali Mudra. In a prayer right here at your heart. Take a deep breath in. Let it go. And for one ohm together, breathe in. Chanting Yoga Sutra two point one kri. ⁓ Hapa svades. Pas prani cria. So as I said, there's three big ideas tapa or tapas, svadhyaya, and then ishvara pranidhanan. So we've talked a little bit about the last one. If you remember in verse 123, Ishvana Pranhidhanadva, in which we're told that the only shortcut, if there was to be one, ⁓ it's l its most literal translation is, or you could just surrender everything to God, as like a path to samadhi. Sarah Page's favorite, one of her favorites. But before that. We get these other two. And this is like the first time we're gonna engage. And these are all gonna come back because also fascinatingly, these three components are all three of the first, ⁓ not the first, they're the last three of the niyamas, which is the second lamb of yoga. The yamas are the ⁓ moral observances for the yogi in the world, and the niyamas ni is in or like ⁓ to turn in are like the personal practices of the yogi and they're ⁓ Shoucha Santosha and then tapas, Svathyaya, and Ishvara Pranidhana. So let's start with the first. Tapas is a word that's used very often in our shared lineage of yoga and Baptist yoga. And it's a word that's used a lot in ⁓ modern asana practice. So let's just start with like instead of doing translations of the whole verse, like what does tapas mean to ⁓ to you, Sally? ⁓ you know, it's interesting. So tapas. has always meant to me like heat staying with the heat, staying with the struggle of life. Yeah. And literally it often is translated as heat. One of the ways I like to translate that, I like to I like to teach that heat is like if you bring your hands together and then you start rubbing them, hear it, right? Like you can do this at home. You can start to feel the heat in your hands and then you can even put the hands up to your face and you feel that heat like radiating off. That's the appas. It's the heat of friction. Right, ujayi pranayama, ujayi breath has an element of tapas. Right. Because that little bit of friction in your throat, right, it creates a l it's part of the heat that we generate in asana practice. Also, tapas also means austerity. And austerity, usually in the context of like of sadhana, of spiritual practice. So like. You can engage in ⁓ or to be a tapasya like you is like one who one who ⁓ like invites in the like austerity of practice. So like people in India engage in all kind in all manner and forms of tapasyas as part of their sadhana. ⁓ you could for some people like you know fasting is a practice of tapas. So I I also think it's fascinating actually in re in ⁓ Sri Swami Sachindananda's translation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Here tapas ⁓ he offers this translation, which is accepting pain as purification. You stole mine. You stole it. That's exactly I love this. Yeah. Do you want to say anything more about it? No, I just I think that Quickly, I just think that accepting pain, I ⁓ d we we run from pain so much, but to be able to accept pain and I got to thinking about it when I had my daughter, you know, I accepted the pain of labor because I knew that after the pain of labor I was gonna have a baby to sh to to hold up. So that's ⁓ that's some toughest. So I mean, yeah, but I I was very moved by that actually. And it tends to Helped me to look at tapas, which I've always seen as very negative, as friction, as pain, and this and that and burning, as to accept it, because after that it's going to be something, you know, to almost be grateful for it. Because once you get through it, you're you're at a point of grace. There were a few things that from inside Patanjali's words by Reverend Jagnath Kwara that I noted about tapas. It said the yogi learns to regard hardship as opportunities for pure. From negative states of mind. Tapas is not simply grimly enduring pain and suffering. Adversities encounter with the proper yogic attitude of acceptance, equanimity, and mindfulness can become time of discovering or developing strengths and virtues that we never suspected we have. And then just a tiny bit more, which I think. Really saw this time for the first time, Tapas holds one more great benefit. Heat can also unite. How often have we witnessed the unity of communities when challenged by natural disaster? Empathy and compassion rise quickly with, and a great unifying power allow us to nurture hope and behold examples of the beauty of human nature when it's freed from self-interest. Cultivating the attitude of tapas helps us convert experiences that bring suffering into a heat that purifies and unites and the light that enlightens. And I just the picture that kept coming to my mind, I'm not sure if it was New York City or I think there was also in some other countries during the beginning of COVID when there was a lot of lockdown and people were standing on their balconies singing. Like I just was that just kept coming to my mind. We banged pots out the window in New York. Yeah. ⁓ every night. yeah, I mean that's all Tapas. Like, ⁓ I mean we c we'll do a whole episode on Tapas, by the way. We will get there. ⁓ for sure. but so this is just an introduction to a really big idea. It's a really big idea. And I think the only thing I'll also say is that, like, ⁓ you know, there's always a difference in the discernment that we have to stay curious with and cultivate that like There's big difference between the sweet pain of challenge and like the sharp pain of injury. And, you know, when it comes to like topas in the asana studio, sometimes like we've all we probably all each of us personally walked up to that line and maybe dipped a toe or two across it. And I've seen seen students do the same. And so I think it's just really, really, really important to note too that like, you know, I think Sally, you've said this like, you know, yoga is never punitive. Yoga is never punishing. ⁓ yoga is kind at all always. And like and there's a kindness to like staying in the heat. There actually is a kindness, like sometimes kindness means being honest in a way that creates friction. And that's also tapas. Telling somebody you love that they aren't living up to who you know they want to be. Right. That's a there's that's both generous and it's challenging. And there's heat there. Right, it can be. But like all of that is in it's a so this is a really, really, really big idea. and and that that sense that heat is also it's painful and it's purifying. Right. Like the like we go through the fire and it's only by only by the the the the austerity and the friction, and our willingness to really Cultivate some curiosity. Do we truly find growth on the other side? So let's talk about that curiosity. ⁓ sorry, go ahead, Sally. Sorry, I just went back one ⁓ Ruben Vasquez in Unravel a Thread used the word enthusiasm for tapas. And I was just thinking when you were talking about this, like my daughter's partner broke his neck a few years ago. And the heat was actually in stain still. Like the the the enthusiasm in healing meant on the days you need to stay still, you need to stay still. You know, when you need to back off, you but the enthusiasm of moving through this into healing, like keeping the healing moving forward is that enthusiasm to move through it, but not to bypass where you are in the journey. You know, it's like it's like Shivasana, right? Everybody can't wait to get to Shivasana until you're in Shivajana. And then it's like, okay, I gotta go, I gotta go to grocery sho this this it the discomfort of silence. So then in that silence often is the curiosity about like who's who's who is that? Who's in the silence? And that's the second idea, Svathyaya. Sarah Paige, what is Svathyaya? ⁓ I'm so glad you asked. Because this is one of my favorite things, it's self-study. But I love ⁓ in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, ⁓ by Sr ⁓ Sachatananda what he says, and it's just so beautiful because we've had this discussion. This is not religion, this is not a religious study, it's not. ⁓ but we've also had a have had discussions around how ev this is also similar. You know, Hinduism has the trimurti. And Christianity has the Holy Trinity. And it goes on and on and on. There's so many similarities. And he goes on, he says, ⁓ this means the study that concerns the true self, not merely analyzing the emotions of the mind as the psychologists and psychiatrists do. He says, anything that will elevate your mind and remind you of your true self should be studied. The Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, the Quran, these Yoga Sutras, or any uplifting scripture scripture. Study does not. just mean and this is this is for me, does not mean passing over the pages. It means trying to understand every word. It means ⁓ studying with the heart. We've had that con conversation before. And the more you read them, more you understand. For thousands of years, many people have been studying the Bible. Every day, thousands of people will read the same book. On the other hand, we have millions and millions and millions of books that after we read them once, we throw them away in the trash. We don't exhaust the Bible even after reading it hundreds of times because it's different every single time. And I just love that. I love how he drew it, you know, it's not about self-study isn't about journal. Listen, I love to journal, but it's not, I don't remember what I journaled yesterday. It's not that. It's what we've done for five, six years, going through these scriptures, going through these, you know, texts and finding something new every single time that we go through it. It's, you know. We are never the same self. So yes, it's easy to say it's self-study, but which self? The self you are now, the self you are in the present. And that's what I see th now. Like that was new to me yesterday looking through this. You know, he talks about, he says, you know, it's like going to the top of the Empire State Building. When you start on the first floor, you see a little bit, then you go to the second floor and you see a little bit. And then you climb all the way up to the hundred and first floor. And you can see everything. But you had to go through all of these steps and stages and floors. It's just, I love him so much. I mean, that's a and that's actually that's a great analogy though, because it really plays it great. Like if you're gonna take the stairs up to the top of the Empire State Building, first couple floors, card flood flights probably pretty easy. We all could walk up three, four, five, even six flights of stairs without getting too pressed. Then you get to the sixth, seventh, eighth, and then you're on the twentieth. And now your legs are probably feeling some topas. And maybe you pause there and you take a look around. But there's more. So you keep going. Right. Like one of my, like ⁓ my teacher Bethany says, this practice is a mountain with no top. Right. It's like it's like it's like you just keep climbing. The Buddhist saying is at the top of one mountain is the bottom of the next. I haven't heard that one, but it's nice. Yeah, it's like once you get to the top of one mountain, you're at the foot of another one. Yeah. And the curiosity then is to say, like, okay, well, right now at this mountain, who am I? Who's here? Who is this person? And so again, like many, like many words in Sanskrit, this has multiple connotations. There's both like sometimes this is like Matt Swat ⁓ Sri Swami Sajanananda actually translates this as study of spiritual books, in addition to that sense of study of self. Like who is studying the books? Sally, is there like what else? Like is there anything else on Svathyaya? So ⁓ once again from Ruben Vasquez, he used the word intelligence, which I really kind of hadn't seen before. But then from Reverend Jagnath Carrera on self-study. I hadn't noticed this before either, but he said the sutras portray an understanding of study that shares the framework as same as scientific research. Research begins with a clear statement of its objective. In yoga, the objective is to eradicate suffering born from ignorance. In yoga, as in any research, the results need to be replicatable, not pronouncing that word, ⁓ By others following the same essential methods, the body, the mind of the yogi are the laboratory for this experimentation. We can summarize the goal of study as bringing the light of wisdom, I really like this, into the darkest and most unvisited corners of our minds, hearts, and lives. So once again, not punitive, like am I just seeking the truth? But do I have a method? To this seeking. And through this svadhyaya, is it intelligence, like a really embodied intelligence, right? I love the word embodied, Sally. An embodied intelligence. And Reverend Jagannath Carrera also in in ⁓ Inside Patanjali's words, I just think it's interesting. Sva as a root is like self-referential. It's like self-reflexive. And adhi. To go over or on, to turn over in the mind repeatedly, to recite until memorized and absorbed. And so he says, Svadhyaya could refer to the study of self or to integrating the teachers learned from scripture and the guru into oneself. How fascinating. Right. It reminds me, Sally, I think you said, like, I think it's I think this one is from the secret power of yoga that you like that you've quoted many times, which is that like, Yes, study these practices, study these study these words, but let them be a path to study the person who is studying. Absolutely. I'm pretty sure that is from yeah, Nikila Joy Devi's book. Yeah. But I love that, right? It's and like, or like Arjuna, like like Arjuna is instructed in the Bhagavad Gita that yoga is the journey of the self through the self to the self. And again, like it's always just important to note too that like all these ideas. There's this tension because it's it's all in their application. It's all in their practice. Because like that can from that place of self-study, it is, I've also seen ego arise, as we'll get to very shortly. One of the klashas, one of the obstacles to yoga is is sometimes literally translated as I amness. So it's it's like ⁓ It's like how there is a tapas to going to class and committing to going to a class and going to class and being in your practice and the tapas of the discipline and the austerity that, like, I'm not here to have a great class. I'm not here to get anything right today. I'm not here to get my handstand. I'm just here to practice for the sake of my practice, period, with no attachment to the outcome. I'm just here to practice. And there are times where it's and it's very subtle where. The practice actually, like that part of the practice, is a distraction from the other practice. Where like the bypass is actually going to class as opposed to just sitting still and being with your thoughts that might make you uncomfortable. And instead just be like, nope, that's not like, like, and there's no fixed point of that. Like there's no that's it's it's so deeply personal. And that is also moment to moment as well. Right. There's the tapas of showing up on your mat. The Svadhyaya of like getting super curious about like who's on this mat today? Like who? Who's that guy on the mat? What's he doing here? Why is he even here? What does he want out of this? Why'd he show up to this class today? Like with without thinking that there's a right answer. And this is the coaching I give to myself, right? Like Th there isn't the or thinking of that as a fixed point or destination. You just said something that just really ⁓ resonated. I rediscovered this book, ⁓ The Heart of Yoga, TKV Desakutar. ⁓ and he says, and I love this, and I and when I read it, it it sounds very similar to what you were just referencing. He said the rep the practice of yoga must and he uses very literal words, which are interesting. Like I don't I don't love like must, shoulds, and but I he said The practice of yoga must reduce both physical and mental impurities, but here it is. It must develop our capacity for self-examination and help us to understand that, and this is it, in the final analysis. We are not the masters of everything we do. We're not. There's just some things we're not in control of. And we are not the masters. So we may be sitting on our mat going, Why am I, what is why am I doing this? You know, who is that guy? And I love that. And it's just, you know, I love that. It we are not because how many times and it's it goes like you said, set to to the ego, the I amness of we think we can control everything. When the fact of the matter is we can't control a damn thing. Excuse my language, but it's true. We can't control it. We don't create or destroy. We merely like shuffle around and move and reorganize a little bit. But that's like creation, true creation and true destruction. Is the exclusive purview of the divine. So now let's talk about that. Like Ishvara Pranidhana as the third piece of this little prescription that we're given. So just to remind us, Ishvara, Ishvara is often translated as God. And it is not, it is and is not, right? It is and is not the idea that a lot of us who grow up. With a cultural entrainment in the Abrahamic lineages of Judaism of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, where God is sort of presented as this very fixed point. ⁓ like over there, like up there in heaven, there's God, down here on earth is humans, and then there's holy people who might serve as like a conduit to help us mediate that engagement or connection. ⁓ And in the Eastern construct, it's a very different idea where Ishvara is like the ruler of our the of the of our of our own choosing. It's a personal experience of divine presence. It is not like in this text of the Yoga Sutra, where again, like this is not a religion, this is a spiritual practice of devotion, there's a very important difference. We'll say it. As many times as we need to, over and over again. It never hurts to repeat. And every time we're talking about God and surrender to God, like we have to be clear about what we mean by that. So we're not saying like give it up to Jesus, and Jesus is the right answer. It might be for some of you out there, and that is beautiful. Right? Jesus was an amazing teacher. There are plenty of people in the world who I wouldn't call themselves Christian, but who would say, like, Jesus was just another incarnation of the Buddha. And really, if you look at the Buddha's teaching and you look at Jesus' teachings, like like Sarah Page was talking about, you know, the the the Brahma Viharis, the highest divine abodes of the Buddha, again, like the the la the keys that we discussed of Maitri Karuna Mudito Pekshanam, like those sound like some qualities that Jesus lived. And again, I didn't even grow up Christian, so keep me honest, Sarah Sarah Paige. Right. But that, like those those attributes of loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity or centeredness or confidence, right? Like Jesus had a quiet confidence about him. He didn't have to yell it from the rooftops. He just he just did what was right. He didn't do it for the attention. He didn't wash the feet of lepers and prostitutes for attention. He did it to be of service. Deeply, profoundly. And for his father, Ishvara, it was a dedication. It was a deep, deep dedication. A tapas a a tapas, right? Like a like a austerity even. So there's this idea of the divine, and it's a again like a a divine of of I love this like turn of phrase, a divine of our understanding. And then Pranidhana. Pra is before, like the prefix means like like if you think prasarita padratanasana, right? Like forward fold. So the kni is like in word. So if you literally think about what it means to put something before and within, you just like you like physically it like you bow in, right? You you bow into yourself. prani dhana. Let's Pause and talk about this idea of like surrender to divine. We've spoken about it before. So maybe Sarah Page, since I know how much you love this idea, like give us just like a little recap about what it means to be in Ishvara Pranidahana. Well, it's complete surrender. It's in my in my mind, and for me personally, and and what I I do a lot is just basically say, you know, when I find myself in tapas where I'm efforting. Where I'm finding myself in deep friction and I'm heated, I will take a step back. I will take my breath, and I will say, I just, I, I give it up. There's nothing I can do. I'm just gonna give it up. I usually say, you know, I've I've always been very clear that I am a Christian. So what I say is, you know, I give it to you, Lord, whatever it is, just take it. And inevitably the weight is lifted off. And I can see more clearly what it is. Setchatananda says something that I think is just beautiful. He says, he says, once something is ripened, it should be passed on. So dedication to is true yoga. Say, I am thine, all is thine, thy will be done. Mine binds, thine liberates. Mine binds, tapas, thine liberates. So if you drop minds all over. They will undermine your life or blow up in your face. I know, I tell them. But if you change all the minds to thines, you will always be safe. And that's I mean, is that amazing? That feels like it was just called from the ages to this exact moment. Exactly. Exactly. I'll just leave that there. I got goosebumps, Seth, who said that. Thank you. Yeah. Sally, I know you have a different yeah, Sally, you have a different relationship to The divine, like of your own. And I'm interested in like how what the for you. It's taken me some time to get comfortable with this. And once again, Rubin Bhaska is like, I love the word that he used for Ishrana Pranidanaha, ⁓ was humility. And I was like, in his commentary, I want to read the whole thing, but let me just read this section. It says, When you release the illusion of control, you cultivate humility. Humility and cures encourages you to be honest and patient while also helping you accept and appreciate yourself and the world as it is. And it just takes a load off the shoulders for those of us who have for me who sometimes thinks I'm responsible for everything. Like, ⁓ no, I'm not. I'm just responsible for me and the choices I make, you know. And that's not selfish. And that is taking the lifeline and the oxygen mask and placing it over your ma your face first. And then you can give more to others. I don't know if I'm circling back to this whole sutra, but what it's integrating these three practices. And so he's using enthusiasm, intelligence, and humility. And it's like comparing it. Wait, let's say that let's let's slow that down. Let's let's let's let's yeah let me let me just before we get into I get where you're gonna go put like this quick pause because let's just quickly get into the last two words kriya and yoga. So kriya is usually referred to as like action or practice. And I think it's like it just I just don't want to gloss over that because like it's a really important idea that in the beginning of this chapter on sadhana, on spiritual practice, like kriya. it has like a more even even more embodied context. Because in other, like in the Hathi Yoga Pradipika, for example, there are described pro there are proscribed kriyas, which in that context are purifications. Like if you've there's an like, for example, like, ⁓ I I I I am not like really trained to instruct this, but I've done it, which is like the the Uriana Bandha kriya. So Uriana Bandha kriya is Done. And I'm like, if you're interested at home, I'm just going to give the quick example of it. Like, it is literally like pulling the navel so dramatically into the spine and up. You're actually supposed to hollow out the space under your rib cage. And it is like a deep, deep, deep, deep, deep like like ⁓ purification practice. And then you would move on to the nauri kriya. Have you ever seen anyone do nauri kriya? It looks like ⁓ belly dancing almost. It's it's an intentional undulation of. I I can't do it. I can't do it. and then like so in the Uriana Bandha kriya, you're like pulling in and up and like pumping it like all the way to like hollow out your ab like compress your abdomen. You definitely can't do it after like it's usually done first, first, first thing in the morning because you have to be empty. ⁓ or if you're not gonna be, you gotta get. right, because it's physically like what it's partially it's Again, the unbelievable wisdom of the ancients. Like they understood how to solve so many problems. And Naudi kriya was another one. And it was like it, it's like a this intentional, it's like mirroring the peristalsic musculature movement that moves material through your intestines. And except it's like literally, it looks like I'm starting to like like it's like as if you were undulating your whole abdomen. So it sort of looks like belly dancing, but even more elevated because again, it has that like hollowing out. So anyway, so like these are really intense. Purification practices and those are kriyas. So there's this sense then that Kriya yoga is this like, is like the like it's the first time really that like we are given specific practices. Because we've been given these ideas of like what is practice? What does it mean to devote yourself to the divine? What is the nature of the divine? Well, the divine is. The unexcelled seed of all knowledge. The divine is that which transcends cause and effect, space, time, and like, right? And like, so like but it's all pretty conceptual. And now we get into something that is way more about action. So then, Sally, take it into those three ideas of how it was referred to by, I think it was. by Ruben Vasquez. Yeah. So ⁓ the the definition he uses for 2.1, Sutra 2.1, yogic action, Kriya Yoga, combines enthusiasm, tapas, intelligence, and humility, Ishva Raphaidana. And then in his commentary he goes on to say that Patanjali defines yogic action as an action that combines Enthusiasm, intelligence, and humility. You can only act in the present. An action in the past or future is a thought about an action, not an actual action. The definition of yoga requires enthusiasm, tapas, to bring your attention to the moment that you are in, intelligence, adhyaya, helping you distinguish between the helpful and unhelpful ways of being that you have cultivated. And humility, Ishvara Panitanaha, frees you up from constant engagement, striving, judging, and resistance. And if you'll give me one more paragraph, I just thought it was so good. Understanding yogic action as an act that integrates enthusiasm, intelligence, and humility conveys the richness of this idea while also making it possible to apply it in your life. Enthusiasm gives you the energy and inspiration to act. That enthusiasm motivates you to do your best. Without enthusiasm, ideas are rarely acted upon. Enthusiasm provides the determination and energy to remove obstacles and inefficiencies. Swadhyaya means the study of wisdom, text, chanting, and self study. Sadhyaya is embodied intelligence that can be applied by ensuring that you know, and this I thought was key, why you are doing what you are doing, and by confirming that you are, in fact, doing what you think you are doing. And then when you release the illusion of control, you cultivate humility. Humility encourages you to be honest and patient while also helping you accept and appreciate yourself. And the world as it is. And to me, that just tied it up. And and somewhere I heard an explanation about maybe a single corded rope and a three corded rope and the strength of the three together. Yeah, that's in the ancient commentary. It's like that like, you know, if you think about one piece of string, easy to pull apart. You take three pieces of string and you twist them up and you try to pull them apart, much more difficult. I think we're all living examples of this, right? Like How did we come to this practice? Like what ⁓ none of us were born into lineages of yoga. Like many, many, many very lucky births to have been born into into these lineages. We were born with other karma, and yet somehow Some spark was ignited, something that was, I think it's something like I don't think the kind of like love of yoga that like I think it was it's I don't think that comes from anywhere but from within, personally. Like it's it's it's it's and I do think it's within everyone. It's just a matter of like the right frequency to harm it that finds like the resonance for every single for for every single person. It's like It's why there's no one right. We've we've said this. It's like there's no no there's no one right yoga. There's no like correct answer to yoga. And why we always constantly bring in multiple references from our own life, from our own practices, from different lineages, because we're we're in, I think something that I love about how we're about our approach is that we're we're not ⁓ trying to present anything with certainty. We're prying, we're we're we're trying to like we're inviting you into our studentship, but with enthusiasm. Right with enthusiasm, because like I know for me, one of those moments was like we were chanting the guru mantra. I've been practicing at Jiva Mukta Yoga in New York for about six months, and and we were chanting the guru mantra in class. Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Devo Maheshvara, Guru Sakshat, Param Brahmha, Tasmai Shri Guru Venamaha. There's a guru of creation, there is a guru that sustains us, and there's a guru of transformation. There is a guru seen and nearby, and guru in the intimate infinite beyond. ⁓ that's a funny slip of words, but it's they're both true. Intimate and intimate and infinite beyond. ⁓ and I humble myself before the teachings of my guru, right? I offer my loyal, my humble obeisances at the lotus feet of my guru. And I remember I was driving my mom, I was moving her. And I had been divorced by that point for about three and a half years. I'd since I my ex and I, and we like divorced probably two. And and I remember this is one of the first times this that was like one of the first moments where I started really getting curious about like the yoga off the mat. And I remember somehow it came up and he came up, and I remember thinking to myself, like, well. What if he's my guru? Not the only one, but certainly I learned a lot in the experience. So he's a guru. Like he's a remover of some kind of darkness. And what would it mean to really humble myself before that? Take my ego out. What if I it's the first time I ever really wondered what would happen if I tried to let go of my own rightness of the experience that I was right and he was wrong? How would I feel? And it's the first time I think that a little like a a different kind of crack opened to let some new light shine in. And I remember like I and I then I caught myself and I was like, wait, this is weird. ⁓ but I had an enthusiasm, right? I had an enthusiasm. Like these these ideas, these teachings started to just like make sense. And and you know, along the way, I've discovered this one of my favorite quotes of the ancient Greeks now is the Socrates that all learning is remembering. I think this is all wisdom we remember. And I just love that contact concept of enthusiasm, intelligence, and humility as ways to then like understand what it means to be in the action of yoga practice. You gotta wanna do it. Right? Like it is again, it's another cliche. And because it is true that like your teacher will manifest and appear to you at the time you are ready and are are able to receive it. Which, you know, I'm again, I've said this so many times, and I'll say it so many times. One of s two of the most unbelievable blessings of my life are Rima and Bethany, because they are two masterful teachers who are so different in their style, lineages, methods, ways of ways of teaching with unbelievable depth of understanding of these practices from their respective lineages and life experiences and I know how much they love me, how much they believe in me. Like to have two people who are teachers, is something like like I like it like in this practice, like I am so enthusiastic. Like I, you know, ⁓ to get to practice with masters. I, you know, like it's like there's like I get so excited. I I really do. I really do. And and and there's like an intelligence that arises, and it's not an ⁓ like a epistemological, it's not an intellectual intelligence. It's an intelligence of experience, it's an intelligence of deep, deep, deep knowing. It's yes, I've learned so much from them, but what I've learned maybe more than anything from them is like it's always felt like remembering. They've just illuminated something that was already there. And and like a humility. To be so grateful and to never think I've got the right answer. Cause they don't. They never, I neither of them has ever presented that to me. And I don't believe it is like presented that way in either of those lineages of practice. ⁓ there's just a deep cult, a deep, deep, deep humility. So I don't know how that lands for either of you. Like, what does it feel like to live those values? Well, I wanted to comment on something that you just said that I it it goes to ⁓ chakra work, which I love, which is the ajna chakra. Everything we need to know, we already do know. We really do. We know it, it's somewhere. It may be something that we don't want to really look at right now. It may be something that we don't really want to face. That's the topics of life. But it's there and we know what we know. And so, ⁓ but I just wanted to touch on that because you know, it's energy. Chakras all energy. So we have it in ourselves to do what we need to do. And we know what we need to do. Either we do it or we don't. And we right, but we always know. And then the question is like, do we have the courage? Do we have the courage? Right. That because again, like this is where these practices too, like this is so cyclical. It's like you have the wisdom. I mean, I I've actually said that in class before too. Like, what if you told yourself that you know everything you need to know because it's exactly what's brought you to where you are? And that's exactly where you're supposed to be. What if that, what if that is what you started your class with with, right? That like you have an like you have this enthusiasm for what you've learned and trust it, trust that it's exactly what what's needed. Not to say that it's complete, but it's but it got you here. That goes to Tapas, right? It goes right back to Tapas. I mean, and and Tapas also I think oftentimes when I think about the the friction, it's fear. We run from it. Fear stops us from so many things. I mean, if I think about this podcast, listen, I'm the Labrador retriever of the group. I I'll just go along with the two of you, you know, whatever y'all want to do. I'm in the sandbox and let's play. I'm there for it. But I'm not gonna lie. There was a moment or two where I was like, No, I can't possibly I'll say something stupid. I'll and I have. And I don't really care. I mean, I've been who I am. in this podcast. But if I had let the fear stop me, if I had let it, you know, if I didn't get into the friction of it, if I didn't get into the surrender of it, if I didn't get into all of it, then what a loss. You know, what an absolute the Krea of it, the action of going out and buying the microphone and getting the kit and not knowing how to plug in the microphone and trying to figure out how to Or Riverside, our little platform. Sarah Page story. ⁓ my God. Yeah. Well, did you push the bottom? Did you? It's in the book. Did you? And I was like, yes, yes, yes. So anyway, ⁓ but but but it's like I think that's actually it though. Like, so wait, what we're referring to, if you didn't listen, there's a funny, this is a really funny story. So Sarah Page and I went to B and H in the city to go buy these microphones. And ⁓ B and B and H because like you actually can get really great service there. It's an iconic. retail experience in New York City. And and so we get back home and we're like, I'm plugging my microphone in and like we're gonna studio headphones and we're gonna be cool podcasters. And Sarah Page is dead set convinced that her microphone doesn't work and that it's like faulty. And I'm like I'm gonna have to come back into the city and get a new dead convinced. And I kept saying to her, Did you put the connector in all the way? Did you hear it click? Yes, I heard it click. Are you sure you heard it click? Yes. I was convicted. Yes. You are convicted and convinced. ⁓ totally. And so then I'll pick it up from here. Yes. He goes, go to the Apple store. And I said, I'm okay, fine, but it doesn't work, and I have to come back and I got to change it out. Of course, mine doesn't work. So I went in, honest to God, I go into the Apple store and I said, It doesn't work. The woman in three seconds goes, click, you just didn't plug it in all the way. Three seconds. Three seconds. And all I could think of was, you know, and then of course it goes back to, you know, fat, lazy, stupid. And then I just I couldn't stop laughing. And then I had to call Seth and say, Guess who didn't do what you were saying? You know, but I didn't I didn't have to go to the Apple store. You know what I mean? I didn't have to do those things. I know, but ⁓ what I'm saying is is that it would have been easy To just get a new one or s or something let somebody else fix it. The thing that this has given me is is that I can do so much more than I thought I could do. So much more than I, you know, like plugging in, like figuring out how to work the mic. You stayed in the heat. Yeah. You stayed in the heat with some enthusiasm. You listened to that inner wisdom and then you called forth a d incremental when you was needed. And then you just and then you surrendered. That's literally Kriya Yoga in action. And you know what? It was fine. It was funny. It was, and here we are. I even took, you know, when I had to go home, I thought, okay, I got it all, you know, is it gonna work? Is it gonna am I gonna make it work? I mean, I remember asking my brother, do you have Wi-Fi in the guest house? He's Sarah Page, yes, we got Wi-Fi in the guest house. And was like, okay, I just need to make sure it's gonna work. And I w I remember once we set it up and Sally got on, and I was like, Can you hear me? Can you hear me? And she's Yeah, I can hear I was like, ⁓ my God. Yes. Yeah. And then all of a sudden taking it on the road and it works. Yes. Amazing. All right. Six months ago that wouldn't have Yeah. Six months ago it wouldn't have happened. Yep. But but here we are. Here we are. And like and beginning again, right? Cause like I think it's just so important to say too like these like Kriya Yoga, this is not like all these practices. This aren't these aren't boxes to tick. And if you're just it's the classic Cliche, like if what if you're coming to class for a handstand, Mazl Tov, you figured out the first part, which is go to class. But if you're gonna get the handstand and then you're just gonna, it's just gonna feel empty. If you're just making money because you want the money because somebody else has more money and you think that like the money will be the thing, unfortunately, I I hope I am not the one informing you of this, dear listener. ⁓ but it probably won't be the thing. But what is the thing? Is being honest with yourself about that enthusiasm and about the courage required to engage with tapas, right? ⁓ Bethany, one of the mottos Lion's Den Power Yoga of Bethany Lyons Studio is be courageous. And I like to say that ⁓ courage is not the absence of fear, courage is the willingness to acknowledge fear and the choice to move forward, regardless. That's real courage. Right. Like that's and that's real. Tapas. And it's fadhyaya too. It's the intelligence to know like when do I stay? When do I go? Because both require tapas to know when to stay and to know when to go. And to like not have that be for you. It's not mine, but thine. That it's in service truly when we're when we're in this Kriya Yoga, the Dharma. Like the real path for each and every one of us. And it's a deeply, deeply personal journey. But to get so curious that we're willing to then just let it go. Just let it go and surrender it so that we can stay in action. Right. And if, and if nothing else, may you find a path to your own understanding of this Kriya Yoga. May each and every one of us cultivate that. Courage to be with the heat and accept the pain of purification and know that the only way out is through. And to do so with a deeply profound and loving curiosity about the student, which is you. Deeply, deeply curious. ⁓ because in curiosity is possibility. Right. Curiosity requires us not to see ourselves as a fixed, completed object. Curiosity requires that we see ourselves as a work in progress. You know, I like to say, you know, I I as much as I let go of rightness, as much as I try to let go of rightness, one of the ways I've said it that's sort of a little bit w helpful for me is that like all I can do is the best I've figured out so far. Right. It's just the best I've figured out so far. It's just this is just the best Seth I've figured out so far. It is by no means the best Seth ever that will ever be. Hopefully there's a better Seth to come someday. Right? Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next word I say. But that like it's just the best Seth I've figured out so far. And that like the that best Seth is at his best, at my best when it is ⁓ In service, right? I was ⁓ and like it's ⁓ I've learned I've just had a lot of attraction to the the the story and the of the the Ramayana and especially to the the character of Hanuman. And ⁓ I've quoted this a bunch, and it's that you know, Lord Hanuman says the most devoted servant of Lord Ram, ⁓ the most devoted servant of the divine, and are and and who's believed to be like an avatar of of Vishnu, of Krishna by way of Vishnu. Hanuman tells Lord Ram. When I forget who I am, I serve you. When I know who I am, I am you. And that is like Kriya Yoga so beautifully, right? That he is in the action, in the tapas of service in the story of the Romania, right? Lord Hanuman is in service. He is in action. It's in the in its heart. Lord Hanuman is the one who has to go and find Sita in Lanka and then gather the monkey army to build the bridge. all the things. And there's a Deep intelligence, a profound intelligence of Lord Hanuman. And the study of self, he knows that his dharma is to serve. He serves his brother, the monkey king, and he serves Lord Ram. And he does so as a practice of devotion. Like there's so many images of Hanuman show him like as if he opens up his chest, and there's always depicted there Sita and Ram. Like in the heart of Hanuman is. his his spiritual master or his his his object of devotion. That feels like a nice place to end. ⁓ okay let's do a fast round. and let's do some inquiry real quick. Sarah Page, what is some inquiry inspired by this discussion? You just inspired it, actually. when we were in Rishikesh there's a huge statue of Hanuman opening up his chest. And I'm just curious, what is in your chest? ⁓ what's in your heart? What's in your heart really? What's in your heart? If we were to open you up, what if it's making me cry? What is in your heart? I feel that emotion. Yeah. Sally, what's some inquiry that's been inspired for you? I have ⁓ do you have practices that build enthusiasm, self-study, and humility humility? Is there an area where one of these pillars is missing? And how do you show up in the heat? Of your practice or the heat of your life? Yeah, I would I think my inquiry for this week is where's the heat you lean into and lean away from? Who is that best so far for you? Like, what does that look like? What does that feel like? where's a moment? Maybe even think you could just challenge yourself to think about a moment where you really felt like you were showing up in that. In that way, and what would it look like to allow that to be of service, truly, of service to something, someone, to some I sense it that's bigger? How is it part of a bigger purpose? ⁓ and it's okay if you don't know. That's actually an amazing answer. It's a really scary answer, and it's a ruthlessly honest answer. And talk about an answer from which you could find so much possibility and like really revel in the and and relish. the uncertainty, because it's probably a lot more true than a lot of people who think they know or want to tell themselves something. When like if you really peeled that back, I don't know if they'd be as certain as they'd like to present themselves to be. I don't know. Just a guess. ⁓ I know for me, when I when I these days when I find myself feeling certain, like certain I'm sorry. Like I got like now, I think before, I think there's a Seth, like, I don't know. several iterations of Seth ago, who stopped there. And now I think Seth now takes that place and actually gets super curious. Like, why do I need to be so right about that? That's a really interesting question. Okay. ⁓ one teaching tip. If for those of us who teach asana and teach, every single one of us are teachers. Whether you give class or you take class, you're the best teacher you know. So what's a teaching tip that you could bring in from these ideas, Sally? So I would suggest that use the practice to practice self-discipline to stay in the heat, ⁓ to allow what needs to be burned off or purified, allow that to happen. And then notice your inner attitude, surrender to what is and choose thoughts and actions that build enthusiasm, self-study, and humility. Gorgeous. Sarah Page. It goes into what you were saying about the rightness. So ⁓ where are you stuck in your rightness? Where are you stuck in the mind, mine, mine, mine, mine? And where does that blow up in your face? So when you're teaching and you're so stuck in, no, you need to do this, or they're not doing what I said, you know, they're not doing what I ask them to do. And if that gives you a charge, take a real deep breath. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Take a breath. I'm guilty sometimes. I'm fully admitted guilty. You know, because that's why aren't you listening to me? That's just ego, my friends. That is just ego. Hundred percent. You know, and it's for me personally, it's it's more fun to see, ⁓ okay. I thought we were gonna do shoulders, but it looks like hips is where we need to go and be able to kind of make, you know, get out of the mind, get out of the rightness and and listen to your students. They know what they need. They know. Drop what you know and listen. And listen. Thank you. Yeah. ⁓ my teaching tip would be to like so the all three of us teach like a power flow. ⁓ method where we tend to move through poses like five breaths is typical, ⁓ not much longer. And I think it might be like something I want to play with and invite students into ⁓ is to slow down. Like really slow down and like hold something for 10 breaths and really commit to it. Also it fee it's gonna feel like an eon, like an like an like an, you know, like a ⁓ like a excuse me, like a ⁓ like an era. But it's just 10 breaths. And to like trust the heat, take it a little easy in the face, get really curious about what comes up for you and commit to stay and get curious about like what's going on inside when you stay in the eighth breath of warrior two, which PS is like a super hard pose if you're really fully integrated to do it. Ten breaths and warrior two, you could break a sweat. If you are activated from the from the feet and to the tips of your fingers to the crown of your head to the base of your spine, you can easily break a sweat and warrior two. You're working every muscle. Every muscle muscle, full whole body integration. ⁓ so there's no such thing as an easy pose. So like, what if there was no such thing as an easy pose and you just stay and you get really curious about what comes up, you listen without reacting, you watch and observe your own mind without reacting, and then you just give it up. You just let it go. Right? It's over and done. And don't Dwell on it, drop the significance of it, and then do it again. ⁓ just do it again. Okay. Well, next week we're gonna be here doing this again. And wow, I mean, like this was I feel like we scratched the surface of these big ideas, which is also why we're gonna do like a whole week. When we get to the Niyamas and the the Yamas Niyamas, we're gonna literally we're gonna do a whole week on tapas and a whole week on Svatiaya and a whole week on Ishvara Panidanaha. ⁓ because that's like it all, you know, these are lifelong fat practices. We could st study each one of these ideas for life and barely begin to understand them. So, ⁓ but I always feel somehow transformed when we come through these ⁓ sessions, when we come through these recordings and these conversations, because something inspires a new way of seeing and engaging with us, like. ⁓ I'm gonna really chew on that that super simple but beautiful framework of intel of enthusiasm, intelligence, and humility. Like where, like, how do I trust my enthusiasm to cultivate embodied intelligence and then be ⁓ super humble about it? ⁓ like as in like let that be of service so that it can truly deepen and enrich my sadhana ⁓ and and the dharma of my and the the the serv the my ser my the dharma of ⁓ of of my highest self and service. This sadma I have so much enthusiasm for because it deepens my intelligence so, so, so, so profoundly. And we really offer this as a as a as a humble, ⁓ hopeful point of ⁓ some goodness in the world. So if you hear the sound of our voice and you get any benefit, please subscribe, leave a review, leave a comment. ⁓ anything like that helps organic discovery and If you think this is valuable and you know someone who would be interested, please set feel free to send it and share. But I think that's all the things I'm supposed to say at the end now. Except goodbye. And thank you. Thank you, Sally. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah Page. Thank you so much. ⁓ and thank you, every single one of you who hears the sound of our voices. We're so grateful, deeply, deeply, deeply grateful. ⁓ thank you for joining our sadna. And we hope to see you again very soon. Take good care. Bye bye, y'all.