Yoga’s Niyamas: Tapas as Discipline Serving Delight
My very first yoga teacher, Patrick Creelman, using The Force.
Tapas could be thought of as the fire of alchemy of the niyamas. Yoga gives us so many ways to tap in to the powers of transformation, and tapas is a powerful force that can propel you to the next level… Whatever that is for you.
Tapas asks you to transform your practice, and by doing so, yourself, with the purifying heat of will power and intent.
In one sense, tapas is a very physical action of cleansing the body through the heat of practice and skillful choices about how you eat, how you breathe, how you’re sitting right now as you read this…
And yet the concept of tapas goes far beyond the physical into the entire being as the liberating idea of “Discipline serving Delight”.
I was first turned on to this totally new and radically different way of considering discipline in an intensive with John Friend back in 2008.
Recently, this quote has been floating around Facebook, inspiring many to revisit this line of thinking:
“How much do you want it? That’s how much effort you give to the desire. That’s the offering. It has to be equal.” -John Friend, founder of Anusara® yoga
How much do you want whatever it is you want?
How much do you want to be happy and content in your heart? How much do you want to be free from pain in your body?
How completely do you desire to live with the highest integrity and joy?
When you meet that deep yearning with an equal amount of effort and dedication, the results are tremendous!
Discipline Serving Delight
Ah, discipline. The word conjures up many images and emotions. For the longest time, the idea of discipline equated to punishment and repression for me.
What is your initial reaction to the word discipline?
One of the great things about yoga is how often it gives us a chance to change our perspective on things. When I was fortunate to study the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with my teacher, John Friend, he rocked my world by revealing how discipline can serve delight.
Not only can discipline serve delight, but to be balanced discipline must serve delight. If discipline is forced, dry, or joyless, then it is a form of violence, which goes against the very first principle of yoga; ahimsa (non-harming).
How can discipline serve delight?
By making possible that which we desire. Take this in the context of your deepest desire, or the highest wish of your soul.
Disciplining the body to hold a posture longer increases your endurance and capacity to focus. Choosing to refrain from certain foods or overeating can be a discipline that helps you be more healthy. Introducing discipline to your speech can make your words more precise and powerful.
Any of these examples can be done in ways that are helpful or harmful, depending on your intention.
If you stay in a posture longer than is safe for your body, you risk injury. However, if you push your boundaries with awareness and self-honoring, your practice becomes stronger and deeper, bringing more bliss.
It’s all in the motivation. If your intention is from the heart, discipline humbly serves delight.
“Tapas is a fire that offers light and heat. It is a fervent aspiration to awaken. Be intense in your discipline from fire to awaken.” – From my notes at a training with John Friend
Tapas in Asana: Practicing Alchemy on the Mat
When you bring intensity to your asana practice it creates heat. You sweat. You invoke the fire of tapas by literally raising the temperature.
How is heat created? “Friction,” says John in my notes. “Face the challenge which creates tapas, the heat that purifies, then you can see more clearly.”
Can you increase the intensity of your practice without losing the big picture? Can you bring more fire and friction to your mat so that, by moving through the challenge, you create a purifying action that is both physical and also goes beyond?
Of course, you can. You just do it in the way that is best for you.
How do you know if you’ve gone too far?
If your breath is forced or held, if the integrity of your alignment dissolves, or if you lose sight of the highest meaning, then the discipline is to back off, to pause; to begin again.
Alchemy is the transformation of one thing into another, using heat and purification.
It describes the physical act of purification and transformation, and also the philosophical process of rising above, of expanding into oneness; of crossing the threshold of the gateway of the heart.
This from Wikipedia:
“Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity… In general alchemists believe in a natural and symbolic unity of humanity with the cosmos.”
Interestingly, the practice of yoga, like Alchemy, leads to legendary powers.
The yamas and niyamas are in place so that those who actually achieve the superhuman abilities of the great yogis don’t blow it by abusing their power.
The unity of humanity with the cosmos that defined the philosophy of Alchemists sounds very similar to the aim of yoga, which is a conscious and integral union of individual and universal.
So, as you practice with heightened discipline, calling on the transformational heat of tapas, you can remind yourself that this is a practice that calls back to the roots of many traditions.
And it is up to you to direct your will, your disciplined efforts, toward the glorification of life, in service of divine delight!
From the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:
2.43: kaya indriya siddhih asuddhiksayat tapash
“Self discipline (tapas) burns away impurities and kindles the sparks of divinity… Self discipline destroys all impurities, perfecting the body, mind and senses, so that consciousness functions freely and attains divinity.” – B.K.S. Iyengar from Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
