- Tapas
October 28th, 2008
October 2006
One of the words you might hear in a yoga class is tapas. Spelled the same way as the delightful Spanish appetizers — oh! How I love me some garlic mushrooms — except with a different meaning. Translated from sanskrit, tapas means “burning zeal.”
One of my students described experiencing a particular blissful yoga class and observed, “Yoga is so wonderful and important. Why isn’t everyone doing it? They should just do it!”
I couldn’t agree more, however, Nike’s trademark slogan can only go so far. ( A more apropos expression for yoga might be: Just undo it!)
We know we should go to yoga class. But let’s be honest, if most of us had to pick between going to yoga class and eating some chocolate cake, the majority of us might choose the latter. I know I would. And yet. I also know my body would prefer asana.
What drives us to be disciplined about a yoga practice?
Ancient yogis believed part of the answer is tapas. In Pantanjali’s Yoga Sutras a passage states, “Through self-discipline or tapas (training of the senses), there comes a destruction of mental impurities, and an ensuing mastery or perfection over the body and the mental organs of senses and actions (indriyas.)” Tapas is both translated as a discipline of our energy but also a “burning zeal.” Within that definition comes the idea that by practicing tapas we “burn” up the desires that stand in the way of more fully realizing ourselves.
We all have obstacles to a spiritual practice. Recognizing these obstacles and overcoming them — that’s where we draw from our tapas practice.
Just undo it.
