Commitment & Sādhana

I'm writing today from the upstairs "office" space of my cabin, next to the river, about a mile up in elevation in the Chirripó mountains of Costa Rica. I say "office" space as I am sitting on an old, home-made wooden bar stool with my computer propped on top of a platform of books on a windowsill. I'm using a "platform of books" because my windowsill is not big enough to hold my laptop. The books? Hatha Yoga Prapidika and Laya Yoga, of course. My sparse library is hangin' out on the rest of the windowsill next to me -- books I lugged down to Costa Rica and up to my little nest over my years of living here. It's not so easy to accumulate stuff when there is no ease of access.

I think about sādhana , and commitment.

I had to make a "commitment" to come down here and create my life in Costa Rica; it is a commitment also to stay. There are challenges with life down here, but the trade off (in my opinion) is worth it.

The same goes for anything, really. Nowadays we want everything and we want it now. Gone are the traditional days of slow, steady progress -- the movement of Nature. Gradual cultivation to lay the roots of a long-term vision is now being replaced by audiobooks on 2x speed and podcasts whilst commuting to work.

Not that there is anything wrong with the situation, but the situation must be looked at for what it is. We are lucky that we can pack so much in so little space & time; it used to take 6 months to cross the continental United States (if you even survived), now you can take a crap, watch a movie and you just flew border-to-border.

This high-paced, high-information lifestyle comes with its pitfalls. Health -- true, robust health -- is now a luxury and not something to take for granted. People spend hours a week in the gym and a fortune on supplements to establish a modicum of balance, only to have to micro-manage every detail of their life. People don't even bat an eye at the expense of a $120/ hour personal trainer, but take an hour to do your own research and motivate yourself? Not a chance.

What am I saying?

Well, I started out by talking about commitment and now I want to talk about sādhana. You hear me use this word a lot. I'm speaking about something ancient and yet also critically practical; it is the time we spend in our day dedicated to the cultivation of Spirit. But what do I mean by "Spirit"?

This word is thrown around a lot nowadays -- Instagram influencers selling $10,000 coaching packages to "activate ancient DNA & light codes" speak of this... "Spirit". Yuck.

I have a hard time even associating with the "spirituality" seen in the marketplace today, and as much as I might harbor egoic desires of making some kind of name for myself in the Yoga scene, I just don't really care. I'm not over here trying to prove anything, I'm just doing my thing... slowly, gradually, steadily...

Anyways. "Spirit". What is it? What do I mean?

How 'bout the force that makes your eyes shine, your hair grow, your digestion function? That force that causes you to experience happiness for no reason, for your body to fight off an infection, for you to notice the fluttering in the chest when your nervous. That infinite, indivisible, incomrehensible force that exists as the heartbeat of the cosmos; a Principle of Life and Nature embedded at every level of existence. From the swirling of galaxies to the exploding of stars to the proliferation of the zygote to become a fully-fledged baby in the womb of the Mother...

In the womb of the Mother...

We are all like children in Her womb. The yogis call this material realm the womb of the Prakriti, the Divine Feminine principle. Eveything we see, taste, touch, hear, smell, and come to know -- it all comes from Her. Somehow and someway Spirit -- this indivisible & omnipresent Light -- has descended into "form" -- forms through which that you and I can experience the joy of love. We experience this love precisely because we are Her Children, and we are all destined to Return to Her... after our time here on this earthly plane...

But we can awaken to the miracle of this, Now. Opening our eyes to see the Spirit behind all things and the infinite All-Powerful Force is the path of spirituality. We can call it many things and place labels on it. The fact remains -- we are here under mysterious circumstances and most of us are simply trying to survive. Our drive towards survival and perpetuating our genes has obscured our spiritual vision and caused us to give into the next marketing gimmick. Our fear of "what do I do?!" motivates us to purchase that $10,000 "DNA activation" course. It's insanity. The fear is killing us and pulling the proverbial wool over our eyes.

Sādhana is the remedy. The cliche phrase "everything you seek is within you" comes to mind. Unfortunately, people haven't been taught (or desired to learn) how to look within. Oftentimes what happens is, someone starts out on their healing journey, in search of the mystical spiritual elixir, and suddenly they are confronted with a long-list of dues. Every misaligned action and betrayal of one's soul, spanning across lifetimes of karma, is now right in our face. Years of standing on our feet, literally, in a way that causes our pelvis to sag and our spine to become contorted is now experienced as the pain in our back when we sit to do our guided Joe Dispenza meditation. "Everything you seek is within you..."

This phrase should come with a caveat -- "and everything you've been avoiding is guarding the door."

Passing through the gates to the inner sanctum of our heart -- the place where our true essence can actually be experienced for what it is -- this requires tremendous courage and perseverance. The yogis understood that success -- true success, spiritual success; success which brings satisfaction -- requires a set of core qualities. These keys to success do not just help us with "spiritual" things. They related to every area of our life. This is why sādhana is so essential.

However, there is no accolade in this "spiritual success"; no certification or accreditation or trophy or medal. That's because what is gained is actually something that is lost. Do you get it? In order to "gain access" to this so-called "inner sanctum", one must let go of all the bullshit that has been carried all this time. To reach that place of pure mind, where clarity of purpose and eternal peace reside, free of distraction and temptation... to reach this place all the nonsense keeping us bound to our identity must be released. This is no easy process.

Most people would rather not hear this. Even though truth lands and resonates at a certain frequency and there is simply a "knowing" of It, many defense mechanisms are in place at the level of the ego to make it not so. This is precisely why sādhana is essential.

So, what IS sādhana?

More so than a "practice", its a non-negotiable pact one makes with oneself to really, actually, once and for all deal with their shit.

If someone discovers the true path of Yoga and decides it is important to awaken, they will be very determined. A person dedicated to their sādhana -- actually dedicated, not just 3x sweaty vinyasa classes a week in a studio -- will know what I mean. To be determined means that they don't allow the incessant chatter of the mind to distract them from their goal. This means all the temptations -- real, valid temptations! -- have to cling to the luggage rack on the outside of a car that has begun to accelerate. Eventually, they fall away. Those temptations are persistent little buggers, though! They will cling and cling, and even though we put our Soul in the driver's seat and stamp down on the accelerator through the windy treacherous roads of spiritual life, by the time we make a stop to get gas they will crawl out from somewhere and surprise us once again. This is why determination is essential.

We gotta deal with our shit. We're carrying it around through our days and projecting it on our loved ones and thinking its the world's fault for XYZ. This is insanity; total nonsense. We can see it so clearly and yet when someone says "get up and do 30 minutes of practice before you start your day" we tell them XYZ reason why that is impossible. Also insanity; total nonsense. Then, years down the road when something stops working because the pressure of misalignment became so great that there was a break, we dish out ten grand to get our DNA activated. Our power is being drained by the minute.

I can beat a dead horse on this for hours, days even. But I'm ready to get on with my day and create something that I'm proud of. I hope you are, too.

The last thing I'll say is that I am very excited to share about a platform I'm creating to help people with this -- sādhana. My lifelong dream is to be surrounded by a powerful sangha of practitioners who are crushing it in their daily lives. I really believe this is possible and I really believe we have the tools and resources to make it so. All it requires is ... determination. And sādhana of course ;)

-GI