Sutra 1.14: The Ingredients of Abhyasa

Sutra 1.14: sa tu dīrghakāla nairantarya satkārāsevito dṛḍhabhūmiḥ

Abhyasa is established when your practice is consistent over a long period of time and done with sincerity.

Sutra 1.14 gifts of the specific ingredients required for our practice to bear fruit. Sutra 1.13 invited us to become clear about our goals or intentions so that we can aim our practice in that direction and when practice is done over a long period of time, without interruption, and with sincerity, we will have established firm roots from which we can grow and evolve our consciousness from. 

Sutra 1.14, on the intricacies of "practice," is like discovering your great grandma's secret recipe stash in the attic, but instead of baking delectable chocolate chip cookies, we are baking our very own ability to experience the bliss of our pure unchanging nature. And while some may compare the taste of grammy's fresh baked cookies to bliss, this bliss will not make you fat, leave you on the couch with a tummy ache, or filled with regret because two cookies has multiplied into twelve in the blink of an eye.

Let us imagine an old index card with Great Granny G's perfect cursive script:

Practice Ingredient #1: Duration. How long you practice matters, and while hours certainly make a difference, what we are really talking about here: is years. We often have the convenient excuse of, "it's just the way I am," sound the buzzer, nope, it's just the way you have practiced to be. It's all practice, wether it's impatience or patience, whether it's viewing the glass half full or half empty, or whether it's telling lies or telling truths. The way you practice being over your lifetime, is who you end up becoming.  

Practice Ingredient #2: Consistency. If you work out one day per month, do you expect to see bulging pecks or drop ten pounds? It's the same deal with yoga, we cannot be mindful once a week and believe that our full minds will be emptied of endless opinions, comparisons, judgments, worries, and fears. Your day to day literally determines your destiny.

Practice Ingredient #3: Sincerity. You can wish the wish, dream the dream, and intend the intention, and that is what they will remain until you employ your heart and act with integrity. Sincerity is when thoughts, words, and actions unite to nurture whatever is dear to you. 

Combine duration, consistency, and sincerity together in a crockpot on medium heat for infinite hours and you will nourish yourself with the most sweet and savory soul stew you could ever imagine.  

Muchas Muchas Gracias Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am delighted that you found this and chose to take a moment to engage with yoga and with my humble interpretation of the sutras. Wether you agree or disagree does not really matter, but that we are collectively contemplating on how to show up to our lives as the pure light beings that we really are. Let us rally together and move beyond the drama and into the dream.

Blessings,

Andrea Dawn