Thoughts on Practice

Hi all,

Grant here. Today I'm writing from my porch, watching soft rain blanket the mountainous terrain of central Costa Rica.

We returned yesterday morning, April 6th, from our annual retreat, the Five Element Immersion. 12 souls plus myself deepening into our practice together for 11 days. As usual, I find myself in the reflective and contemplative mood which often follows a deep retreat experience. I'm hoping to capture some of those ideas in writing, hence the inspiration behind this blog post.

These are some of my "thoughts on practice".

In Yoga, we refer to practice by the word sadhana, which I feel is a far more accurate description of the process that we, as yogis, are interested in.

Sadhana, for those who may be new to this term, means "the way of attainment". Rather than being a set of prescriptive methods or techniques, sadhana is the "way" in which one might "attain". Attain what?

This is where the conversation on practice deepens from merely a technical standpoint into something far more vast.

Let me explain.

Many people approaching the path of Yoga often do so from the standpoint of acquiring tools, techniques, and information. In some sense, any one who comes to Yoga is entering at this point. We are inspired to learn what to do, and how to do it. This is an essential step and it cannot be missed.

As one progresses through the various levels and layers of subtlety that the path of Yoga presents, one may find themselves at an interesting place on the journey. That is, they get to a point where more information does not necessarily lead to more transformation.

This idea is not exclusive to Yoga, but for the intentions of this article, we will focus within the context of Yoga. Specifically, I want to talk about spiritual development. I think that, through understanding what we mean by "spiritual development", we can begin to understand what we mean by "the way of attainment" [sadhana].

ASSUMPTION: Yoga as a Path for Spiritual Development

I must assume that a person who is interested in Yoga -- real Yoga, not just "spiritualized stretching" -- is interested in spiritual development. So I am operating based on this assumption.

I must also say: one's understanding that Yoga is a path for one's spiritual development must not be merely intellectualized. To not intellectualize Yoga as a spiritual process is something that, I believe, takes time and practice. Of course, we can read the Yoga Sutras and conceptualize... but it is not until that spiritual transformation begins to take place, for real, that the teachings become apparent.

Approaching this topic of practice is one in which is informed by my own experimentation over the past 12 years. In the grand scheme of things, this amount of time is minimal, and yet some things have been clarified for me in my own process of learning and adaptation. One of those things is what was asserted above: that practice leads to the integration of the 'knowledge' related to the spiritual system known as Yoga.

So, if one is interested in the spiritual aspects of this path, we can assume that they are interested in something.... more interesting ... than merely becoming more flexible, no?

From here we can begin to dive a little deeper. Some people end up remaining stuck on this level, and for those out there pursuing Yoga as a tool to gain mobility, I think there might be better methods out there for you. However, if one is pursuing an authentic connection to one's spiritual nature, Yoga has proven itself across thousands of years as an effective technology for this end.

I find myself lacking words to explain this, as I think that oftentimes we might end up narrowing or confining a concept as vast as Yoga by (ineffectually) using our limited language to talk about it. In many cases, the more I think about it, study it, and write about it, the more vast and expansive it becomes, where "it" is the spiritual process of Yoga.

I will make my best effort to take these ideas a little further, but I must say that if you are looking for hard-and-fast answers here, you better look elsewhere. Rather, a set of guidelines might be more suitable to the yogi.

This is, after all, what we see in the texts.

When we study the manuals -- ancient compilations of data, written by adept-practitioners -- we see this theme is present. The Hatha Yoga manuals of old offer techniques and practices, yes, but precise instructions around them are lacking. This implies that the details must be sought after; they were not freely handed out. Which brings me back to my thoughts on practice.

As I began with my discourse here, I shared how certain information is needed at the beginning stages of one's journey. This information represents the theoretical framework necessary to begin walking on the path. To some degree, the assumption I had made above -- about Yoga begin a path for spiritual development -- is part of this theoretical information. However, it doesn't mean anything until we make it mean something to us, specifically. Furthermore, the degree in which we understand, integrate, and embody the theoretical information is the degree in which it creates a particular effect. The EFFECT in question is the purpose of practice, and circling all the way back to the idea of sadhana as the "way of attainment".

So again, I propose the inquiry: what are we trying to attain?

This may not be something that comes with a clear answer. As I understand it, one's spiritual attainment and development progresses to the degree in which one clarifies their comprehension of what we call "spirituality". Sure, we can offer textbook definitions here, but again -- what do these definitions mean, actually? This is where the rubber meets the proverbial road, so to speak.

To transform one's "spiritual" ideas into embodied activity, one must seek to first understand the ideals in the first place, and only then begin to observe them in action. This may be the theoretical framework we were talking about above.

Theory informs practice; it offers a framework. To use an analogy here, it would be like reading a manual on how to drive a car and studying a map to transport yourself in said car to a city 2000 miles away. You DO need the knowledge related to the mechanics of the car and also the route you need to travel along. However, by itself, this information is absolutely useless.

The pursuit of more knowledge is an experience that I believe many practitioners may fall into the trap of.

However, to take the car analogy further -- sometimes what happens is this: we possess the curiosity to travel to that distant city, so we want to learn about the car that will take us there and also the map to understand the route. Therefore, we study these things. We may even end up getting in the car and driving off. Suddenly we find an attractive turn-off along the way, and find ourselves in an altogether different place. Before we realize it, we end up creating a different end-goal, and proceeding down a different route entirely.

We never reach the destination we set out towards, and therefore never verify for ourselves the truth behind our desire. Think about the variety of ways that this same theme might manifest in our lives.

This is what can happen when we receive spiritual teachings of some kind, but never fully enact them. There is no way to accurately verify a concept until there is enough lived experience behind it, so to speak. If the 2000-mile distant city is Miami, Florida, no amount of reading tourists manuals ABOUT Miami are going to give us the lived experience of arriving to Miami. Do you see what I mean?

The arrival to the destination has less to do with the destination and more to do with the follow through. As I was saying, we must verify for ourselves the truth of our desire. This doesn't always mean that our desire is "right", but to live out our desire to it's fullest, this is what is meant by verifying the desire.

We must accept that practice -- i.e. driving in the car, following the map -- may bring about an entirely new set of tools that were unknown to us, before. Unknowable, in fact, unless one proceeds along the route. This is where we must distinguish between what is merely intellectualized and what is lived experience.

As one continues in this fashion, concepts become actualized through the lived experience of the concept.

Spirituality cannot and should not be diminished to a set of certifications and accolades. Teacher Training programs, weekend workshops, even retreats. All of these events sell the promise of some sort of "thing" that we can acquire and take home with us.

If you make it to Miami, and you drove all the way from Arizona, what do you actually take home with you? The ability to take others with you, if they so desire. You don't get a shiny star "drove 2000 miles to Miami!" , and even if you did, what are you going to do with it? Does showing off this shiny star to your friends give them the experience of that roadtrip?

My hope is that this essay has left you with further questions. If so, I think that I have done my job. Being a "teacher" of Yoga is something that I've wrestled with for a long time, for the mere fact that I, myself, am constantly engaged in my own analysis of what it's all about. I believe asking good questions can bring us places. Being satisfied with answers without ever checking them out for ourselves is like hearing someone's review of a pizza place in Miami and pretending that we know how good the pizza was (if we've never been there).

If there are any concluding thoughts related to practice (and by extension, sadhana), they are these:

Learn what you need to learn -- no more, no less. Then apply that in your life - long enough for understanding to dawn. Draw no hasty conclusions and try not to get distracted along the way. Once you reach your destination, you will have attained something. That attainment is experiential. Do this enough times and you may arrive at the conclusion that Yoga, as a tool for spiritual development, is more than a philosophical path; it is a path that requires philosophy, just as we might need a map to get to our destination, but without experiencing, we can stay stuck in fantasy and never know the Reality sought after by the yogis.

For whatever reason, many folks seem content with watching a Netflix documentary on Miami, Florida, even if at one point they were inspired to make the drive. It's a shame that very few people want to make the drive nowadays. Oh, the glory of the Information Age.

Grant & BYA