This month at BYS, we're talking about the Niyama "Tapas" which some might translate to mean "Self discipline".
I love this post about Tapas on YogaJournal.com:
"Tapas is one of the most powerful concepts in the Yoga Sutra.
The word "tapas" comes from the Sanskrit verb "tap" which means "to
burn." The traditional interpretation of tapas is "fiery discipline,"
the fiercely focused, constant, intense commitment necessary to burn off
the impediments that keep us from being in the true state of yoga
(union with the universe).
Unfortunately, many people mistakenly equate discipline in yoga practice
with difficulty. They see another student striving to perfect the most
difficult poses and assume she must be more disciplined and therefore
more spiritually advanced.
But difficulty does not in itself make a practice transformational.
It's true that good things are sometimes difficult, but not all
difficult things are automatically good. In fact, difficulty can create
its own impediments. The ego is drawn to battle with difficulty:
Mastering a challenging yoga pose, for example, can bring pride and an
egoistic attachment to being an "advanced" yoga student.
A better way to understand tapas is to think of it as consistency in
striving toward your goals: getting on the yoga mat every day, sitting
on the meditation cushion every day—or forgiving your mate or your child
for the 10,000th time. If you think of tapas in this vein, it becomes a
more subtle but more constant practice, a practice concerned with the
quality of life and relationships rather than focused on whether you can
grit your teeth through another few seconds in a difficult asana."
Many of us at BYS are reading Deborah Adele's book on the Yamas and Niyamas. See the video below for Deborah's take on this niyama.
