Latest / Sutra Squad / Ep.11 - Sutra 4.33-34 On the Nature of our Final Liberation

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Ep.11 - Sutra 4.33-34 On the Nature of our Final Liberation · Sutra Squad

• Seth Barron: The yogic process is a continual journey consisting of removing inefficiencies, restrictions, and restraints, impeding the optimal flow of awareness through all life processes. Hello and welcome to the Sutra Squad podcast brought to you by One Deep Breath. My name is Seth Barron. I'm here with the superstar Sutra Squad, Sally Moore. Hello. And Sarah Page Hall. Hello. Ladies and gentlemen, she made it. ⁓ It was a process. It was a journey. There were many sequent changes and we'll talk about them all. Friendships are tried. Okay, we just did about almost 30 minutes of technology troubleshooting over here. you know, it's a privilege to be with you today. To all of you listening and watching. Sarah Page, what's one word that describes how you feel right now? Really? I'm relieved. Good. Sally, how about you? Well, I just spilled coffee everywhere, but I am blooming. Sweet, precious elixir of life. Elixir of the mornin'. But I feel like I'm blooming, I'm growing. Amazing. that. ⁓ I feel... ⁓ I feel like... fall. Like as in, like not over, like I just feel like, ⁓ yeah full like, the end of the year is falling into place in a very unexpectedly full way. Okay, so this week we've been doing the sort of like greatest hits for these first, these will be technically like 10 episodes of sutra content. And we've spent a little bit of time in each of the four chapters of the Yoga Sutra. The first chapter, the Samadhi Pada, that sort of describes the beginning and the end. Samadhi is transcendence, bliss, full absorption. It's the eighth and final limb on the path, the Ashtanga eight-limbed path of yoga. And then the second chapter in the sadhana pada where we learned about practice and the nature of practice. And then the third chapter, the viputti pada, in which the siddhis, the powers of yoga that arise through long, dedicated, sustained, ⁓ devoted practice. And then the kaivalya pada in the fourth chapter, which is the chapter on freedom. And then we get to these last two verses and we thought we would look at them together. So we're looking at Yoga Sutra 4.33 and 4.44. Yoga Sutra 4.33 is the one that I will chant. I'm going to read them both in Sanskrit and then I'll chant through 33 just because it's a little bit shorter. verse 33. Ksana Pratyayogi Parinama Paranta Nigrahyakrama. And then the fourth, or excuse me, 34th, of course on the opposite side of this page in the workbook I'm referencing. So this is a long one. gonna try to get, I'm gonna try to stumble through it. Here we go. Purusarta Shunyanaayam Gunanam Pratiprasava I the of practice and the four senses. Say that five times fast. But we'll go through and we'll start with 433. And if you want to join me for a moment of presence, you can sit up nice and tall. and I'm gonna chant one vibration of om. Take a deep breath in. Breathe it out. Inhale for Aum. Sanapradyogi Parinam. Ksaana pratyogi Parinama paranta Nirgrahya krama So the first of these two, I'm going to reference Master Iyengar's translations from Light on the Yoga Sutra of B.K.S. Iyengar, because I like the way he gives a very straightforward translation of a very big idea. Sutra 33, he translates as, as the mutations of the gunas cease to function, time, the uninterrupted movement of moments, stops. This deconstruction of the flow of time, is comprehensible only at this final stage of emancipation. And I also really like the Jiva Mukti translation of this. The succession of changes, the uninterrupted sequence of moments is only recognized as distinct moments when one has transcended these moments and is at the other end. So there's something here about how our lives, this sutra contains one of my favorite nerdy words in Sanskrit, which is the word ksana. And that's usually translated as moment. I've heard, and I like this one, it's the smallest perceivable instant of time. And then I was reading in ⁓ Master Draganov-Kareya's book, Inside Patanjali's Words, he references something that's actually quite fascinating because it's a physics reference, that according to the sage Vyasa, the time it takes for an atom to move its own measure of space is called a moment, a ksana. So that's like how small. And that even the ancients had this sense of like these tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny things and they could move just one tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny little bit. And that that's a moment. And then at the end of this verse is another word that if you've been around yoga spaces, you might have heard before and that's krama. And it's usually referred to, ⁓ and it's useful actually, as vinyasa krama. And like for example, in the Jiva Mukti tradition and in many others, the term vinyasa krama is usually, it means like strict vinyasa. And by like strict vinyasa, I mean that like once you start the cue of breath from the first Surya Namaskar A at the beginning of class, every movement is cued with a breath and it does not stop until Shavasana. without interruption. It's very difficult to teach. It requires a tremendous amount of expertise to deliver a full actual integrity, like start to finish vinyasa karma. For those, it's very similar to, for the three of us share a background in the, the Baptiste yoga lineage, and it's very similar to like a strict journey into power, you could say, right? Like, so journey into power is the set sequence of the Baptiste yoga method. And when it's taught exactly to the letter, And I mean like with no variation, I've had this debate with several yogis recently and one I'm gonna just, a hot take I'll put out there, which is that like every, like technically speaking, Surya Namaskar A and Surya Namaskar B have five breaths in downward facing dog every time. If you're not doing five breaths, you're doing a variation, but you are not teaching Surya Namaskar A and Surya Namaskar B. And that's not like right or wrong or good or bad. It is or it is not. You're. A variation on it might be to have one breath or to have three breaths and that's entirely valid to be clear. But if you're gonna teach Journey Into Power in its full integrity, in its full vinyasa krama, it's five sun A's, five breaths every time, five sun B's, five breaths in down dog every time. And so there's this sense then like, krama means like sequence. And there's this sense that like, and we know it from our lived experience, our lives are this. uninterrupted series of moments. ⁓ And the teaching here is that we are only capable of perceiving that sequence at the end of the sequence. really think that that needs a little more explanation if you don't mind, Seth. What you said there, you just said something that I would love for you to go a little deeper in. The sequence, like the journey of that sequence, is only, we are only capable of perceiving it at the end of the sequence. So it's sort of like how Like when you're watching a movie, you can't really gauge whether it's a good movie or a bad movie or liked it or you didn't like it. You're having a momentary experience of the movie. When the movie's over, you can then make an assessment of the full narrative of the film and say, ⁓ I loved that, I didn't love that, it was really interesting, it didn't move me. We can't make that assessment until it's complete. Just like life. I don't know how many times I say that about this sequence. It is just like life. mean, it is indeed the life cycle. go from technically from child's to corpse, right? So when you say that it's like the year, the end of the year, we're in December 31st right now, 2025. At the end of the year, was looking, I was teaching this morning and I thought, isn't it easy to look back at all the things that didn't go right? How, how, you know, look at the things that went right. as opposed to looking at the negative. So I'm sure you didn't do this by mistake. So, Seth, good job. Good job. ⁓ I also think it's worth, because the gunas are highly mentioned here. let's talk about the gunas. Will you remind us what are the gunas? I will, because I looked them up. Qualities of nature, they are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. So they're the qualities of nature. All prakriti contains all three. All three are present in all prakriti. And then tell us, it's Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and what is Sattva? I think Sattva is, is Sattva easier. I mean, I'm trying to, I know Tamastic, because you're always telling me I'm very Tamastic, which is Tamas. Well, when you listen to Murder Cat, I tell you that you, that that is Tamasic content. What is Tamasic? Let's start there. And these are my words. And if you want to say, you know, I'm not looking at a book around that Tamasic, Tamas is like edgy or hot or, ⁓ I want to say it's a rougher feel. Now you can, you know, it's a rougher feel to it. You know, I no longer listen to my Dateline Murder Podcast on the way to yoga because that would bring me into a domestic, you know, frame of mind. that's true. Thomas is sometimes referred to as like the mode of ignorance or darkness. Yes. And Satvik is, ⁓ then let's go to the middle one. Rajas. Somebody else pick it up for me because I think I have it but I don't. Seth, go ahead. It's the mode of passion, the mode of action. I always think red when I think of Rajas, think red, which is passionate. That's... Yeah, like the doing. And sattva gets easier. Isn't sattva easy? Like if you have something that is sattvic, food... I don't know, maybe I wouldn't say ease. I think of sattva as being equanimity. Equanimity, sure. Equanimity is sattvic. Yes, if you have food that is sattvic. Yes. What makes it sattvic? It is balanced. It is balanced. It's often blessed. Yes, exactly. It's prepared with intention. I know in Ayurveda, you eat sattvic food for your different doshas. When you even out. I don't want to get too far deep down this rabbit hole. So sattva is the mode of goodness, let's not say goodness, let's say lightness, spiritual, realization, clarity. Rajas, the mode of action. Tamas, the mode of darkness or ignorance. So all three in presence all the time in constant mutation, meaning like the levels of the three are shifting all the time. Yogic practice helps us ⁓ try to... maximize the quality of sattva and minimize the quality of tamas. ⁓ But then, there's this sense though that, again, we assess that at the end. And then where we get to in verse 34 is the transcendence of that movement or mutation. And Master Iyengar translates that as, Aims and gunas return to their source and consciousness is established in its own natural purity. And from Sharon Gannon and David, in the Jiva Mukti translation, when self-realization comes, what seems like a great achievement from an individual's perspective is a non-event from the perspective of the self. All the ups and downs, struggles and joys of countless lifetimes exist on a finite level. to the eternal ever-present self, the one who is forever free. Enlightenment is a non-event, as there was never any unenlightenment. It is all light. And so before I keep going, are there other translations of verse 34 that you saw or that really illuminated something for you, speaking of light? I have one from Unravel the Thread by Ruben Vazquez. Having fulfilled their purpose, the tendencies of nature's, the gunas, return to their original state, and awareness, no longer being veiled by the activity of the gunas, abides in its own essential nature, the power of consciousness. This is such a meaty, meaty sutra. There's so much to it. So much. I have one. I can't move. The yoga sutras of Patanjali by Dr. By Edwin F Bryant not doctor but master Edwin F Bryant now look he is a brand though He's a doctor I think but anyway, okay. Give him a doctor Ultimate liberation is when the gunas which we just went through devoid of any purpose for the prusa or the seer Return to their original state in other words when the power of consciousness is situated in one's own Essential nature and I was looking along even deeper I do love this translation. I like him a lot. He is heady and wordy, but he's really wonderful. Kvalya literally means the state of Kvalya, of Kavala. Kavala or aloneness, oneliness, one's own-ness, not connected with anything else-ness. In other words, Parusa, the seer awareness is now absorbed exclusively in its own nature as Parusa. and completely uncoupled from even the highest and finest states of pure chitta or booty. And I think what I love about that is I live alone. I think we all kind of do. Sally, you have grandchildren and children that come traipsing in and out, but he makes this seem and feel like aloneness is such a blessing, that it is a state of being that is, I don't mind being alone. I love it. was even saying to Seth sometime this week, said, there is nothing I love more than taking myself out for a nice sushi meal by myself. And I think some people look at it and they're like, there's no way I could go by myself. There's no way I could go to dinner by myself. There's no way could take myself out by myself. I don't have a problem with it. And I kind of feel. Validated, I guess, is not the right word, but in a way, it's like it's not a bad thing. It's a state of being that is really lovely, that is in equanimity. Now, it's not for everybody, obviously. I lived 30 years with a lot of chaos. And in that moment, now that I'm not, it's like, yeah, I really love this. Go ahead. But this right there, that's verse 433. Yeah. Right? That you recognize there was a series of moments. Yes, exactly. Thank you. And then at the end of that series, you look back and can say, ⁓ that was this. That was like this era. That was this time. This season of my life. Sure. And you can then see it with like when you're in it. It's too close. you are only capable of abiding in that aloneness at its completion. And again, aloneness here isn't a disconnected aloneness. It's actually a deeply interconnected aloneness. And this is where there's a really fascinating paradox in this to really sit with and chew on. in that, because the interconnectedness is that there's a resting and abiding in the truth of that without needing it to be validated or proven. It's known. And so it does not require an external point of validation. I have a story about being alone. I've never been to a movie or a meal by myself. in my life. And my family and I are making these bingo cards this year, like for 2026, what do you want to do? And I'm going to put down, go out for a meal from your own, because when I was listening to you talk, I think when in my head I make a story about aloneness and I haven't taken the time to turn inward, we're all connected. We're never alone. And so it's like, how do I get comfortable? and not create the story. Because I don't think twice when I see people at a restaurant by themselves, physically. Not twice, but I have this story on top of me that it means that I got divorced, that I wasn't wanted. And so I think that's where this liberation comes when we take that inward journey and remember that we are connected to everything. Yes. And that you don't need anyone else to prove it to you. You don't need any reason, explanation, validation, or ⁓ that it is like self-realized. It is like whole and complete. Exactly, because how often have I sat at a meal that I didn't really want to be at, at a big ass table, feeling so separate and so alone. So this is the little tweaks, right? And this is when the gunas can... subside a little bit so they're not overactive in one direction or the other. we can get… They're all that sattva rajasthama swirling around. Then we can figure out that I can feel very alone in a… I actually regularly feel very alone in a big party. It's not my preference to be in a big party. And I probably at times also feel very connected when I am alone. So it's like that to me is the gunas. ⁓ showing up in the moment to veil up what's really here. love how this is so interconnected. That's 33 and 34. like, it's, it's really, it's, you know, I'm sitting here listening to you, Sally. And for me personally, I'm a very introverted extrovert. Anytime I go to a party, I have my escape hatch planned. I'm probably going to be there about an hour. Unless it's one to one, if it's one to one, like here you and, you know, the two of us could, three of us could all talk for hours. It's very different. And though I'm going to press click and say, see you next week and be really comfortable. I have an escape hatch planned. I'm always going to go out at about an hour. That's my social. And it used to be, I didn't feel like I could do that. And now, now, or I felt like I had to be the life of the party. I felt like I had to be the loudest, the funniest, the this, the most, the that. And when I really came to the point of, hate that, and I don't like to use the word hate, but that was the way it was, I'm much more comfortable saying, thank you so much, this was lovely, see you next year, you know, and I'm good with that. I was thinking about it a lot. I was at an event with a friend that I've had for a long time, but there was lots of people there and there's all kinds of stories in the background of my head. These people used to go to studio where I teach and they could don't go there anymore. Like there's all this stuff But I was actually watching myself at this event saying I know how to do the party I know how to show up and chat I know how to do the party from the outside people might think it's all super easy and doesn't require a ton of energy But I kept saying to myself, can you be in the party? Can you just be in the party? And that's what to me I'm going to share one more thing I shared just before we started recording that I thought was amazing from the summary from chapter four from Unravel the Thread. It's so good. And to me, that's this continuous cycle. So he was summarizing chapter four, Ruben Vazquez, and this was just the first line. And it says, the yogic process is a continual journey consisting of removing inefficiencies, restrictions, and restraints. impeding the optimal flow of awareness through all life processes. Yeah, I mean, like, it's that's, you we talked about, we sometimes use terms of phrases in practice, like burn away what gets in the way, right? Like the heat of tapas is a process of ⁓ turning in to remove those obstacles, right? Like, and if you think about even how beautifully bookmarked the Yoga Sutra, like our book ended, the texts are. Because we start... With atayoga nushasanam, now is yoga. Yoga is the restraint of the swirl of our mind or when we cease to identify with our thoughts. And tadadrastu svarupay vastanam. So that the seer dwells in their truest nature and true splendor. And then we end that we are only capable of perceiving change or we are only capable of perceiving a shift at the end of a sequence. that is when the movement of the gunas, the modes of material nature, that the material world in and of itself is transcended. It is no longer needed to validate or to give a ⁓ context for because there is a sense of abiding in that true self, the seer in its own true nature. You know, another thing I'm thinking about that I've definitely heard in my trainings, Baptist trainings, was about being more childlike and less childish. That's really my, you know, can I be, like I watch my grandkids, like curious and, know, touching the water, what's hot water? What's cold water? What's ice? What happens if you put ice on the hot thing versus like, you know, and that, like, that's been really helpful to me. It's like bright now is all this mind chatter. childlike or childless? it curious or is it punitive? I have to tell you, that was my experience. Nobody knows that we spent 30 minutes with my computer from all over the world. Yeah, you all know. I know too. I know. you know, this is Seth's second language, you know, working with the computer is the second language. It's about my seventh and I still don't have it like really good. Here's the thing. I, for the first time that this happened, because this is not the first time. Dear listener that this has happened. And I'm like, what is it about, you know, I'm doing all the things, but this was the first time he said, Childish or Childlike, at the beginning of this journey that we've been taking on, it would have freaked me out. And I would have probably been like, just, I'm, no, I can't, and today I was like, no, no, I'm not sweating. I'm fine. It's not my fault. I know that I did what I was supposed to do. I maybe it is my fault, but if it is, that's okay too, because we're going to work it out and it's going to be fine. And I was really at the end of it. I remember Seth says, do you need to take some breath? I'm like, no, I'm really, I'm good. You're covered really well. did. You know, it's like, I, we're going to get it worked out one way or the other. So there's that growth that I did not have a tantrum, but I just sort of looked at it and said, okay, I'm going to click the button. says to click. Okay, I'll do that. Let's try it on again. Not getting freaked out. That is something that I've learned a lot through these studies is not getting freaked out. Something that Master Bryant talks about a lot is liberation. And I'm sure, I mean, I'm sure that he goes that all of the, haven't like, I have all the books, but I haven't looked at all of them as deeply as his for this week. I love the idea of aloneness being liberation and liberating. And I think how often do we use the word liberation or liberated? What do we need to be liberated from or do we? Well, it's that like freedom to and freedom from. Well, and liberation for me might be really being vulnerable and participating in a conversation when I'm with others and liberation could be remembered that I'm connected to the earth, the breath, the trees. if I'm experiencing alone, like neither is good or bad once again, but can there be a liberation from the gunas? I guess it is over and over again. Yeah, it is. right? It's freedom from the inevitable suffering of the material world, right? That the inevitable, And that it's freedom to be whoever the... Whoever the F you think you are or wanna be. ⁓ in this moment, right now, and that it can change. And that, and we can't see the change while we're in the change. We see it on the other side and that every cycle of that change maybe ⁓ lets us let go a little bit, lets us start to loosen the grip on the material world. so we can start to see with more clarity toward the spiritual, toward the from prakriti, toward purusa. Well, and I love how nature can be such a teacher, because I was thinking once again about the, like, marking of endings and beginnings. Yeah. And I was, like, there's the sunset or the date, you know, New Year's. For me, my birthday is coming, a birthday. Like, there's these outward obvious endings and then there's beginnings. But I was thinking about, it goes back to my divorce a lot and I thought that I was thinking about this this week in preparation for this discussion and I was like, wow, I've really accepted that my kid's dad and I got together to create them and I love them. I wouldn't change anything about them. I'm glad I didn't know how this was going to end. And there's another side though, because I have been like, except like there was a huge relief when I finally was like, look, we came together to create these human beings that I love dearly. And I'm so blessed to now have a next generation that still required us to be together to start this path. But one discovery I had about endings is there's so that to me was an acceptance that created liberation and freedom from the pain of the divorce. but it's not all gone. I'm still triggered by it. But you know what I realized? What I didn't work through was for me personally, the dream of what I thought this marriage was going to be. So there was a part that got stuck in me, stuck on my heart. I still think there's fragments stuck. They're not far enough away that it just came to me. And the minute it came to me, I felt a lightness starting to come in. And I was like, ⁓ I had little kids and I moved forward with taking care of them, but I don't think I took the pause to say, ⁓ this dream that doesn't exist, but it was a dream on the day I got married about what my future would look like. I didn't take the time to turn inward and probably take care of my little 21 year old self who got married. I just realized like, ⁓ I think this is why this is still so sticky. When it gets triggered, it's sticky because there's remnants that haven't been like, oh, did best you could and that was a dream. it didn't really... You're literally describing some scar. Yeah, that's I going to say. That's some scar. It's literally past... Like, right old... The echo. The past impression. And that's where you can't bypass... Like, it's more... Like, I thought, oh, yes, okay, these kids had to be here for this reason and everything's fine. Well, it wasn't all of it. There was more of it that's still haunting 30 years later. And so this interesting thing is when these endings come, like this inward journey to get back to flow, and it might happen over 30 years, and it might happen over 100 years, and it might happen over five minutes. I was going to say 30 seconds. All of it, yeah. Three seconds. But it really is like, I think if if the scars keep showing up or something keeps triggering this reoccurring event. Because the minute I have some distance about it, I can still say, pain, but I don't need to keep reliving the pain. I can just see the pain. I literally was having this moment yesterday, and I won't share the details because I don't know if the person involved is ever going to listen to this, but ⁓ I had a moment of being really like, Like something that a year ago I would have been really upset about. I would have felt really, been like all kinds of turnt up about it. And instead, like, when I first heard, I actually started laughing. That was my first reaction, I just laughed. And then I, and I had a pang of sadness about it. And then I remembered that it's not about me, it's not for me, it's not my choice, it's not about anything I did or didn't do. And I thought instead, okay, well, what do I want that I'm not getting here? Right, what I want is attunement. What I want is consideration, care, and compassion. And where do I need to turn? How do I both turn inward? and say, ⁓ Seth. Yeah, you get to feel that, like that, you get to feel that pain of pain, right? And outward, because I'm not getting those feelings here, so where can I turn to reconnect into those feelings? And it just so happened that like I had plans to go to a, I went to a concert last night ⁓ with one of my best friends and like music that PS like is not my music at all. But it's like a big deal of a show. This I can say in name. So I went to see Fish at Madison Square Garden last night. And like, I'm not a jam band queen. Like, it's just not my jam. This is not my jam. You know, we could talk electronic music, we could talk other genres. Jam band is just not like, and let me be clear too, like I want because... ⁓ I know he loves it. And I just wanted to go and like bask in his joy. And I wanted to go with him because he's been going to fish shows for 30 years. And I realized that I had said yes. was like, what I was saying yes to was Murito. By the way, if you remember the locks and the keys, 133, sympathetic joy, the joy we experience with. And I was like, oh, I can like, literally, I literally was like, oh, I put that into practice. And so, and I knew in the moment, was like, okay, yesterday afternoon, I'm like, I'm having this moment and it hurts. But I also had this moment of thinking like, wow, like this year has been a hell of a ride, ups and downs, nothing expected is what occurred. A lot, a lot, a lot of growth and growth is inherently uncomfortable. So there's been a lot of discomfort. And I thought about how like, I can see those shifts now where I stand. I can see that like a year ago, I would have really internalized that experience of the pain and what feels like rejection and felt like it was mine to be responsible for as opposed to where I stand now and say, huh, like that does hurt. It's okay that it hurts. And so I can both nurture myself and seek nurturing. Right? was so nurturing, even though, again, I literally didn't know a single song. But if you're ever at a stadium show with fans, Like, Phish has a fan base that is so passionate and devoted. There were people singing every word of every song. Madison Square Garden was lit the eff up. Even though it's not my thing, there's something so amazing about being in it and feeling the flow of that and then turning to my left and seeing my best friend who's just in a moment of full transcendent joy and being able to just bask in that. And I thought to myself, yeah, this, this, like this. Because it both felt a little bit alone, because I'm like, nobody knows, I don't know what the hell's going on here. ⁓ I felt like I was sort of in drag at the show. was like, know... Okay, hippies. Cool, cool, cool. ⁓ And deeply connected. But you know what's so funny? One of the things I was discovering, I was thinking about this, and I think your example is perfect, is for me sometimes, when I travel, I mean, when I study the Yoga Sutras, I feel open to flow and new. points of view not so stuck in mind, but I also thought when I'm traveling or somewhere, I don't know where I am and the road is different. It really helps me kind of what you were explaining, like get into the present moment, watching all these people noticing like, to be honest, for all, know, the three people next to you were doing having your same experience, but you you probably looked like you really belong there and you're a regular and it's your 40 times. But you know what I mean? So it's like I love stepping out of the routine to recognize all this. But isn't that what we do in yoga, in the asana practice of yoga? You're stepping out of that comfort zone, you're doing something ⁓ different maybe. You're putting your body in a weird shape and seeing how you respond to it. even if it's the 800th or the first time you've ever done chair, it's different in that moment. The body is just totally responding to it in a different way. And that's the beautiful thing of the asana practice. I want to reference this because I love the granddaddy. I love the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sachit Ananda. He just, I think we would have been friends, but he goes into this. says, now if we go all the way back to the very beginning of the Yoga Sutras, the second sutra in the first book says, Yogacchittivarithi Nirodhaha, restraining the modifications of the mind stuff is yoga, which is what we're talking about right now, the mind stuff, right? Chitta Vritti and the Sita and blah blah blah he goes on and then the entire four books are the explanation of these two sutras. The second one was Tara ⁓ Dhrishtha Svarupa. Yeah, thank you. That's one thing I'll do better. And the Sita rests in its own state. The entire four books are the explanation of these two sutras. Chitta Vritti Narodaha is the practice. Okay, you say it for me? Am I right? Thank you. Is the experience. That's why he talks about the experience at the end, in the completion. He goes, you just rest in your own true nature. You have played your games, you have gotten all your experiences, and now you're resting. Right. And to be clear, I'm not claiming some grand evolution. I'm just saying I had a moment of recognizing some of my own growth and saying that I can just stand in what I'm in right now. And it doesn't have to be so much effort. It actually feels like less effort. You know what's effortful? It's swimming upstream. What's effortful is trying to convince yourself of something is the way that it should be. F, like that, that's like the, like in the eight limb, excuse me, the eightfold noble path of Buddhism, it's like right effort is one of the principles, right? Right? Like right effort, right livelihood, right speech, right thought, but like right effort or action is the discernment of like there's effort of, that's effort in flow and we know what that feels like and there's effort upstream against the flow and we know what that feels like. Effort against the flow feels like expectations, feels like should, feels like want, need, hope, bypassing totally. Well, and it also feels like to me bypassing. think Bethany said something a lot about the hard road is the easy road. I can't remember exactly what she says, but it is funny because working to bypass what... ⁓ my God, it's so much effort. Right? Well, like think about how much time and energy have each of them, we could each tell stories about something along these lines for what I'm going to say here. How much effort it takes to reject what you know, to try and deny what you know to be true. So... Say it again for the people in the back. Okay, how much effort have you spent denying what you know to be true and trying to make it so? And it never works. you're, right? Like all three of us, like physically tense up if you're just listening, as opposed to like the effort of surrender to what you know to be true. And surrender and like not surrender the way we code it in like Western culture as like defeat. surrender as like abiding in acceptance. Surrender is that moment and like, this is where like alcoholics talk about having to get to rock bottom or where it's like you get to a point where you're so, and I think this is part of my journey this year. And again, on the other side, at this side of it, I can stand and see it. That like, I had to do all that. I had to like, cause like sometimes, and it's also why sometimes like your best or your best like handstand in class, is the last series of the drills. Because you have no more resistance to the fear. have no more, like you've exerted all of the effort. I want this person to be like that. I want their hair to be like this. I want them to act this way. I I want, I want. I deserve, they should, they should. I'm my fists on a table. Sometimes we just have to like, I wish it was different. If you know how to do it different, like please come and be a guest on our podcast in 2026, call me. If you know how to do this different, please, Seth at OneDeepBreath.com. Call me. I want to learn from you. But really, of us, most of us jerks out here in the real world, you have to get, like there's a point at which, and it's cyclical, but like we have to like get exhausted of our own bullshit. True. In order to say, ⁓ you know what, maybe I just need to let go of that bullshit. And when you finally look at it you go, this is not... And it's that moment on the other side of those moments where we can transcend the movement of the material modes of nature and just say like, I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to deny what I know to be true. And there's that moment of transcendence, of surrender, of deep flow that's like, it's a turning in and it's a connected with. I have to reference something here. I have to. ⁓ I am not a Swiftie, except now I think I am ⁓ because I know it's going to be okay. But I watched her like the heiress tour thing and she was talking about, you know, now we all know that she's engaged to Travis Kelsey and it was the engagement. I did not know this country needed. There was a time when we all got very happy for this person that we do not know and chances are we never will. May they live well and be together. Anyway, literally I'm just, it just sort of, ⁓ You know, my number one Spotify hit was yoga music, was Kirtan. So I don't listen to popular music very often. So I did watch this, you know, I had time. So I was watching the six episodes. There was an episode where she said that she had broken up with her six year relationship. She had broken up with another relationship and her mother said, this is not working. Here's this guy that's clearly wanting to meet you. And she goes, but I don't go out with athletes. I don't know anything about sports. So she met him, they're engaged. She went against, it wasn't working. Whatever she was doing, the tons of people she was dating, I know it's a very simplistic, but it's true. And I remember listening to her mother say, this isn't working. What you have been doing isn't working. And I don't know if Taylor, last time I talked to Taylor, she said, you know, that it was a revolutionary to her. ⁓ I don't know that Taylor in our deep conversations had ever noticed that that was not working for her. And so it's one of those things. know, Seth, you have done this for me, Sarah Page, this let's look at it a different way. You know, and if you keep, what is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It's not, it's not working, Yogi. Yeah. Try something different. Step into that unknown. into. Nothing changes if nothing changes. And that's tapas. That discipline. That discipline that creates fear and heat. And then all of sudden you get to the end of the year and you go like, ⁓ that was okay. Yeah. That was a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. I lived. It's like when you're in a really hard pose and you just take one more breath and you stay and you realize like, ⁓ I didn't die. ⁓ cool. My arm didn't fall off. Wasn't sure for a moment there, but it's still attached. And it's at the end and then you rest, right? Then you have a moment of abiding in your splendor. Another thing I was thinking about real quick was like there's the new year and the birth, like whatever these big outward, ⁓ beginning and ends. But then I feel like the practice for me is daily reintroducing myself to me, if that means anything, because I feel like so many things, so many ways I live are exactly that. Like there are unchecked rules I have about, I don't know how to pick the right guy for me. I don't know how to, but what if I just was in the practice of meeting myself every day. And that meant that I don't have to have outdated rules. I just keep moving toward my heart's deepest yearning. All right, Sally, that's a perfect, perfect place to take us to start to bring us home. So every week we offer an inquiry and we offer a teaching tip. So we'll start with an inquiry for the week. Sarah Page, what's a what's an inquiry? And for those of you listening, know, take these however you want. You could journal on them, could just think about them, you could write them down or not. My inquiries are usually spur of the moment because I like to base them on what we've spoken about. And so my inquiry would be, where do you need to give yourself some rest and grace? Where are you still trying so hard to make it be a certain way and look a certain way when you know, you know, that maybe where do you need to put the ease? Where you need to rest? And by rest, I don't necessarily mean lay down or whatever, or maybe that is it. But where do you need, maybe, where do you need to rest? Well, and kind of in line with that, I like to put compassionate in front of inquiry. Like if I'm in the state of willing to be compassionate, like that's a good time for me to practice inquiry. But I was like, can you make time to get curious about the life you're living? Not necessarily labeling as good or bad, but just checking in. And maybe notice how your priorities shifted through your practice, through your life, through the year. And how might you access more presence if you became aware of and then liberated from the mind chatter? Yeah, I'll just offer an invitation to pay attention to ⁓ the beginning and end. Like the end and the beginning. One of my favorite meditations for this week. Bring your attention to breath and in particular notice the edges of the breath. how you come into a moment of fullness at the top of the inhale, and how you come into a moment of emptiness in the bottom of the exhale, to intentionally just soften the edges. So sometimes you're in a class and you hear students like... You can hear like there's almost a glottal sound, like it's like a very sharp edge to the breath. And especially once you get people moving with music or without. ⁓ And I think there's something just really beautiful about intentionally putting attention on the space between and how we come into and out of that space. And when can we come into and out of it easily? And then I think that just sort of expands out sort of like a fractal, right? Can we come to the end of the year and can we come in easily and acknowledge what was is what was, and it is not what is and it is not what will be. that there's, let go of the resistance to that, and what was will never be again. So we're not going back to the way things were because that's not how time works. Whenever I hear somebody say, like it's actually one of the saddest things to me now, when I hear somebody say, just wish it was like the way it was. Well, you're gonna, mean talk about setting yourself up for suffering. Cause nothing is. Now like you can notice that's very different from saying like, ⁓ like that felt like these, this is what I felt or this is what I took from that moment and what I. ⁓ and it felt nourishing and so I'm gonna seek that nourishment, that's very different than I wish it could just be the way that it was. And again, think when you start with the breath, I think when you start with feeling into, because breath is a moment. Every breath has this complete cycle until it doesn't and then we're out of here. And I just love that. I just think that like, just, I know. just, I just love that practice. So, and it's a teaching tip. What do we want to, what's something you could offer for this Sarah Page? Well, I've been working with Tapas all week, ⁓ which I've really loved as not a point of heat, but as a point of ⁓ discipline. And how can you find it? Listen, we all three teach hot classes. So that's a moot point, you know, but not external but internal heat, we could turn off the heat and do a full JIP and still sweat like buckets. So ⁓ but look at tapas in your own, you know, in class, and offer it up to kids, you know, what happens on your mat happens in life. You can always offer it up and how do you bring that discipline that you bring so, you know, with so much force from your mat, that tapas into your life? Where are you not transferring that? Where is it that you need to bring more power and more, you know, concentration, more discipline into your life? Where is that difficult and why? The why is very important. So that's what I would do. I've had a good time with it. I was inviting like really experiencing, like experience the posture, experience the moment in the moment through maybe pressing or leaning into your foundation different than gripping, grasping or hanging on. Experience the moment by standing in the moment. Yeah, another one that I offered. just think it's really interesting, like invite students to just like in a moment of stillness, doesn't have to be a super formal meditation. Just like, just check in with yourself on how do you feel right now, the beginning of class. Like just how do you feel right now? Without fixing it, changing it, managing it, handling it. Just how you feel right now. And at the end of class, how do you feel right now? Maybe it's the same, maybe it's different. ⁓ But the changes are only perceivable at the end of the sequence. Right. And, and inevitably that turning in is how we begin to let those mutations start to settle and so that we can turn toward something bigger. Yay. Yeah. We did it. What a blessing, right? What a blessing. Yeah. So we'll begin again. ⁓ When we reconvene for our next episode on the beginning of the beginning. Until then, I'm so grateful for you, Sally, and for you, Sarah Page. I truly love you both with my whole heart. Same. ⁓ And we're so grateful to all of you for watching and or listening. Please like, subscribe, ⁓ leave us a review. And if you found any value and think somebody else in your life might find value, consider sharing this with someone you love. We love you and thank you so much. We'll be with you again very soon.