Sadhana is one of the first Sanskrit words that I ever learned. Practice.
“Tantra Yoga is 1% theory and 99% practice.” – Sri Anandamurti
“Practice and all is coming.” – Sri Patthabi Jois
Last Friday night I completed teaching a six week special course on Meditation for Stress Relief. One thing I tried to impress is that practice is really the key — set an intention to practice at least 10 minutes a day for the duration of our six week time together. They say it takes three weeks of repeated practice to create a new habit, and we had six. Did any students make that goal? I am not completely sure, but at least the intention was there, the intention to practice was holding the space to actually make it happen. If not now, some day.
So last week I was all prepared to offer a great meditation on working with difficult emotions, which we did, but not without interruption. The entire time we sat in the studio at Willow Street Yoga Center in Takoma Park, there was construction going on directly upstairs from us. This was at 6:15pm on a Friday night, mind you. It was just little noises at first, but once we were settled in to the actual meditation itself, twice — not once, but twice — some heavy object like a drill or something was dropped. In the midst of (relative) silence, an abrupt, harsh, jarring noise.
When you are so in tune with your breath, you can really feel all the ways in which a loud jarring noise affects you. Tendrils of sensation immediately fanned out from my ears to my belly to my skin. My adrenaline kicked up a notch. I can only imagine what it was like for my students. So, a gentle reminder, we are in a safe place, the ceiling is not going to come crashing down around us, please return to the flow of your breath. And then the BANG happened again.
It reminded me of a Spiritual Warrior Camp I once attended. Near Scranton, Pennsylvania, about ten years ago, my suite-mate at the time and I decided to take a week and practice meditation with fellow yogis who wanted to kick up their sadhana experience. And kick it up we did. We would wake early, 5am, and meditate. We practiced meditation five times each day – early morning, before each meal, and before bed. And in between we hiked and played paint ball (?!? how is this yogic?!?) and hiked more.
This was the one and only time I’ve ever played paintball, and it was not fun. There were about 20 of us in this course and we divided into two teams. Our team had strategy, and we even won, if you can call it that, but big purple bruises on my legs were evidence that I did not enjoy it. Sometimes you’ve gotta do things you just don’t like I guess.
During one particular meditation, the three yogis leading the retreat had us sit out in a field near the ashram and while we were supposed to keep our eyes closed and focus on our mantras, they were running around us with drums and tambourines and little fireworks that you throw on the ground and make a big loud crack when they hit. Yep, just like trying to meditate while construction is going on directly above you at a yoga studio.
That part of camp was great fun really. I learned to focus deeper and not be attached to the stuff that doesn’t matter. I learned to let the stuff that may be jarring just exist without having to react to it. I learned let the stuff that does not pertain to me, even though it might affect me on some level, take its course without derailing my plans. It is possible, it just takes practice.
On this path no effort is wasted, no gain is ever reversed; even a little of this practice will shelter you from great sorrow.
Bhagavad Gita 2.40 (Stephen Mitchell translation)
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