Transcript
Speaker: Hi, I'm Alan Finger. Welcome to the Genius of Nothing podcast. Nothing is no particular thing.
Speaker: It's all things at once. Genius.
Speaker: Welcome everyone to the Genius of Nothing podcast. I'm Katrina Repka and I'm here with Alan Finger. Namaste.
Speaker: Good to be here with you all. And Sebastian. Hello. Namaste and good evening from Stockholm. Hi, guys. um So today we were going to do tapas, which is an interesting niyama, the third of five.
Speaker: And it's all about purification and discipline. um And I thought it was interesting. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the neti pot and And I thought, oh, I'm going to get one of those ones you suggested, Al. And um so I've been doing it. I like it. It's good. One of those automatic ones. And it's kind of back in my life again, along with the tongue scraping. What's the automatic one?
Speaker: What's that? What's that? Well, Al said it's more, it's not so much a neti pod. It's something that you can use that you buy on Amazon that like flushes things out. And actually...
Speaker: it's you it comes with the the salt to put in to make a saline solution it's just a lot easier it's kind of salt is in yeah in that way the salt is already kind of sterilized you know it's clean exactly so it makes it it's not such a hassle to have to do it and anyway so i've been enjoying that i can change my mind about things here and there yeah that's great um so tapas though is discipline it's the discipline to get on the mat every day it's the discipline in your life do you want to talk a little about it al some heat heat yeah purification well you know tapas from a tantric point of view
Speaker: um is it maybe a little different because tapas, you can look at it from many different angles. It means building heat. It means discipline. It means focusing. and But often, the you know, the building heat thing gets a little bit, well, I've got to do a hot yoga class.
Speaker: And it's really about ultimately you need heat to concentrate. And as soon as you concentrate, you create heat. So they go hand in hand, but the ultimate tapas is the ability to hold your focus, to to keep focusing and keep your intention on one thing.
Speaker: And so... Yeah, asana helps. Balancing, when you're doing a balancing pose, when you're doing any pose and you're holding it, or even when you're moving, there's a focus on on all those things that develop this tapas, which isn't just heat,
Speaker: But it's almost like, you know, the best example I have for it is when you try and if you use a magnifying glass in the sun on a piece of paper and you've got to get all of those things correct with a magnifying glass, it's just at the right point to to focus the sun's ray onto the paper, then it'll burn the paper.
Speaker: Exactly. think that's very good. That's a good analogy. Of course, I always thought of it like cra creating, you know, mental and physical strength for, you know, meditation, really, for being able to sit in meditation and do parts yoga too. But a lot of, for me, it's a lot about meditation. And to do it also when I don't want to do it when I get up in the morning, you know, when when my body just says it wants a cup of coffee and just read the news and do something else to have that tapas, to have that heat to just go on the mat. Because I know if I don't do that, it's not going to get done in the proper way.
Speaker: And my bladder just says like, no, we don't want to do it. Like, we'll shut off bladder control if you do this. And you just have to kind of create that tapas to You know, just do it. That, for me, is is a lot of what it's about. Well, that's why, Sebastian, I try to change the terminology of a bit because it's either letting discipline win or discipline lose.
Speaker: what you were saying, either the bladder will win or you will win. You know, they used to do that in the Malayas, sit with their arm in the air for a period period of time to almost with you know, just to show that they had the tapas to develop, not to look at it. Yeah, then you kind of missing in the point.
Speaker: You can do in Tantra, how do you do it? With love. You learn how to focus. Yeah. you you Just that analogy I gave with a sunglass the the magnifying glass in the sun, it's up to you to focus it, to create that right harmony.
Speaker: So if you say to your bladder, okay, bladder, I need to just not be distracted here. Let's focus all our attention in a loving way.
Speaker: Get yourself to do it because it's much more successful when you do it from a loving point of view. yeah for And from that hard, disciplined way.
Speaker: But can't you just go pee and then do your practice? Yes, that's a good one. You should probably do that. That's the most loving way, usually. But the distraction that Sebastian was talking about was that your mind comes in, and it's not really the bladder itself.
Speaker: It's your mind. no I was just using it as an example. But yeah, you should always go pee first. And so because if you if you need to pee, yes, of course, first pee, get it done, yeah and then meditate, and then do your practice.
Speaker: But it's all about your ability to get everything into the correct alignment so that you can move your tension into stillness. Okay.
Speaker: And starts with the body, but breathing, all of it helps. And a lot of times it's they're talking about impurities when you read about it. And I don't like the word impurities really, but if you correlate to neuroscience really and parallels to tapas, it's really...
Speaker: that that kind of sustained that tapas creates that sustained effort and discipline even when it's not always the most comfortable that kind of it's amazing because it does train the prefrontal cortex called short for the pfc to activation and strengthening it and the pfc is actually governs long-term planning impulse control and goal-directed behavior. and and consistent effort of doing that really trains those circuits like muscle.
Speaker: So it becomes easier and easier. And that's why I'll, because you did this from what, you were 15 or 14 or something. it's so easy for you to do it because you've been't been doing it for so long that that muscle, you're like the Hulk. Your brain is like the Hulk in that part.
Speaker: Yeah. And that's called neuroplasticity where you, you know, where you train your brain when you cut, you know, and for, for, for simple people, that's called cutting a rut in your brain, but a healthy one, one to meditate, but you cut a pattern to do it. Once the pattern's it's easy. You do it.
Speaker: I really like the image of yoga, like the word itself being of the root yuj to yulk, and that cart and horse, like the fact that you have, you create those grooves if you go over the same path again and again, but if you divert off to a new path, you can start to create those grooves in the new direction and change the the change the pattern and so we have this like ability to if we take the same path in our brain all the time that groove becomes deeper and it's just what you're saying if you kind of turn off that path and start taking that path more often that one will become deeper and the other one will you know grass over so that it's not as prominent
Speaker: yeah But the hard thing is that that the brain will fight that because from from evolution, we're prone to the brain always want to take the most energetically efficient way. And that is those grooves that are already made up. That's why it's so hard to redo patterns because it's actually almost painful. their brain Our brain doesn't really want to do that because it wants to go that most, you know, easiest way to move through, to make new patterns and to make to use tapas takes a lot of energy and the brain wants to kind of not, doesn't really want to do that. So that's the hard thing with that. But just like i said before, it's it's like a muscle you need to train and it gets easier and easier.
Speaker: So in yoga, it's called a parinama. where through the tools, and in yoga we're lucky because we've got tools, not just to sit there and feel your breath. one that Even that is a tool, Apajapa.
Speaker: But, yeah I mean, there's so many tools of asana, pranayama, kriyas, that bring you there and allow you to cut that new pattern, that new parinama,
Speaker: And there are three major parinamas. The one is nirodaha parinama, where you learn to stop the flux in your brain.
Speaker: You learn to stop all the buzz and you just quiet it down. Then the next one is samadhi parinama, where you learn to let go and go into nothing.
Speaker: But these are patterns you have to cut. by And how? By regular practice. And then the third one is ekagrata parinama, which means where you um can focus this inspirational intelligence into your living.
Speaker: where there's no distractions of your mind, and you can bring light into your life. Namaha. Bring light into the darkness.
Speaker: And can I, I mean, when we were talking about Sebastian getting up and doing his practice and everything, um it occurred to me that the physical practice leading towards meditation has never in history been the emphasis in the yoga practice. So In the ancient texts, it's not about the asana.
Speaker: There are a few of them, but it's not like it is today where you're doing five Surya Namaskare and then, you know, warrior two and all of that. And it's just interesting, I think, Al, to comment on how the asana is more of a modern invention. And it ah derives, as I understand it, from calisthenics, really.
Speaker: Well, it was easier four the Westerner because their life wasn't, you know, in India and the East, you know, there's certain, these practices have gone into your lifestyle.
Speaker: And here it wasn't like that. So, but it was easy to say, okay, let me do these physical things because they kind of make may make me sweat and they make me supple and I can feel it and it make me feel good.
Speaker: when I do these particular asanas. So the asana was easier to relate to for a Westerner. yeah But as soon as they started, then they got more and more keen to know because they started to feel still what the asana does to you.
Speaker: And ultimately, it will bring one into the desire to meditate. So it's that's why in the West it went that way. The joke is, the the Katrina, is that now you get yoga in in Mumbai and India and it's done Western style in the cities. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: We sort of said we are selling it back to them, aren't we? I think the Americans like take something and then kind of do their own version and then sell it back to the country of origin. Exactly. So I really found it. I found it very interesting.
Speaker: when i started teaching, because I started teaching ashtanga and I had this really high intense class and people love to like sweat and work out like crazy. And afterwards they were like so still for a second before they went out in the world again and into their minds. But it took about a year for a couple of those people in that class to really start working their nervous system to a point where they actually could sit in meditation or in pranayama. So about eight months to a year. With physical practice, it kind of took for them to kind of be able to move in and train their nervous system to hack themselves into the mind, really. Because most people can't just go into a meditation or pranayama class. Their nervous system will just, you know, not allow it. They will be stressed. in The only problem that occurs is that people then become attached to doing the vigorous asana practice,
Speaker: Like it's the path, but it's only one of the tools during the path. Most of the time, it's as you get older, you can't even do that vigorous practice anymore.
Speaker: Because your joints are drying up a little bit. Your your body changes. it has to change. That's genetically going to happen. Yeah. I mean, I used to feel and think of, you know, the more acrobatic kind of yoga forms as missing half of the point with the practice. But since then, I really ah do really understand now that that those kind of practices are are really great because they kind of make you come into, first of all, they do help to train your nervous system, like we talked about before.
Speaker: They do so help you to come in to really understand the nuances of your practice, where you need to be to, you know, to practice the day that you're practicing where you are.
Speaker: Because as we said before, if you don't understand what your nervous system needs, you're not going to go anywhere. Yeah, but then as I've aged, I found like you're right, Sebastian, like you go in and I guess I've been doing yoga for such a long time now. But the physical practice is really the the Hatha yoga, the ha representing like the energy of the sun and the tha representing the energy of the moon and trying Did the balance in my physical body in that way, the strength with the flexibility. And so I think that focusing on your body and your breath and learning the nuances, then as I've aged, I've kind of thought about it differently. Okay, like where do I need to stretch today and where do I need to strengthen within the boundaries of what my body can do today? And that's, that for me is the physical practice. So today it was just a little bit of like seated cat cow and a side lean and a few other things that made me feel ready to sit. And you start maybe with the Ashtanga practice, it's more extreme, but that teaches you how to listen to your body, to focus on your body, to focus on your movement, create space in your joints and
Speaker: And then as you get older, you kind of, I don't know, refine that to a degree. Yeah, I think you do. Your ability to internally sense becomes enhanced by the years of yoga.
Speaker: But, you know, it's also interesting because your body cells have memory too. Mm-hmm. even the memory of doing it for many years or more of a physical practice kind of carries over.
Speaker: And even when you're not doing it, like gymnasts and yeah Sarah, who did gymnastics, and that that's in her body now and the way she sits and moves, you know that gymnastics is there in the – it's well – um programmed into the cells. yeah so So it all does help. Also in the way she can just stand on her hands. It all does help an individual. But, you know, that's where then it comes in. Basically, you need someone to guide you because, you know, if you're trying by yourself, you form your own opinions, which at that time could be right but very likely could be another person
Speaker: kind of belief pattern that you just developed at that time. So having a teacher, a guru, somebody who can guide you to what the balance is for you is very productive. And I think that's also, sorry, with the physical body, because we tend to, our body wants to take the easiest route. So we might think that we're in balance, and then somebody looks ah looks at us and is like, actually, not at all. You're feeling in balance, but that's because your body
Speaker: wants to continue to strengthen the muscles that are already strong. and um so having someone else's eye on you.
Speaker: So we were talking a little bit bit before about how, you know, if you have too much tapas, but I think that's an important point to kind of revisit and really understand, you know, if you're unbalanced in your tapas, if you have too much heat, too much tapas, like what happens and how do you kind of help yourself in that situation? What do you do? if you yeah If you have too much tapas would mean you're becoming rajasic in your practice. Right.
Speaker: Too little practice is tamasic, inertia. And the sattvic is that right balance. And that balance that you achieve perfect.
Speaker: The same balance I was mentioning with the magnifying glass, right? And if you think of it, it's that subtle moving it a little bit this way, a little that way, getting that hot spot onto the thing, and that's it.
Speaker: And so you get some magnifying glasses that are stronger and some that are less. So you find the point, the distance, but it's it's unique to the individual.
Speaker: And unfortunately in our society, in the West, it's like, okay, well, I do Ashtanga, I do Iyengar, I do ah power, I do whatever, right? And then you sort of want to stick by what you learned and do now.
Speaker: And really, it's a process just to free you from being weighted down.
Speaker: into the darkness, avidya, the false identity that we develop.
Speaker: So I think to complement what you're saying before, Al, you know, about the but the magnifying glasses and how much heat you can, you know, choose to use. and It's actually kind of helpful to to have a kind of a toolbox. and And in yoga, there is a couple of tools that are really great to to help you to gauge where you are and what you need. And for me, every morning when I get up, before I do my practice or do anything really, i i breathe. I kind of feel with my breath where I'm at. And then after that, I take my pulse. I do pulse reading of myself. And it's funny because usually what I think I need and what my pulse says is usually two to very different things. and And the pulse doesn't really lie. So it's it's a great way to gauge, you know, what where do I need to be and what do I need to do?
Speaker: If you're not able to take full... even breaths to breathe fully and deeply, then you're over, you're overdoing the trying.
Speaker: And if your breath is short, shallow, and distracted, you're also not there.
Speaker: So, Your breath should always be able to be that full, deep breath. And of course, in Ishta, we teach you this sat saham kriya of how to feel the energy moving in your body, which is brings you to a whole other level of asana.
Speaker: And don't forget the pulse reading because I love the pulse reading because it's such a great way to really feel where you're at. You can do it any time of day, really. And it measures something called Vata Pitta Kaffa. If you don't know what that is, Al, you can perhaps explain that a little bit more. And because those changes during the day and when you do different things, you can take your pulse any time of day and you can kind of feel where you're at and what you what you need to do to be able to balance to get to Satwaguna. So the pulse reading is really, I feel i feel it's an important part to to really be able to balance yourself.
Speaker: and And basically your vata is too much movement, your kapha too earthy bound, you're a bit sluggish. and you And your pitta is when your fire is strong. If it's it's too strong, all of these things affect you. Then you're you're into trying to perfect the poses.
Speaker: And really there's no perfection because different people and different bodies, as I've said before, What the post correct pose for an individual is, is dependent. Some people have got long femur bones. Some are shorter in the in in their arms. you know So all of this thing kind of makes up of where the perfect pose is for each individual.
Speaker: So you're not always going to look like it. Yeah. I have a very Kapha loving body, happy and cuddles them.
Speaker: And again, don't be jealous everyone. But when I do certain, I do Udayana, And nauli.
Speaker: Nauli is where you draw your belly in like a skeleton and make your belly just the central abdominal muscle. But I could never do that because I got too much cuddlesomeness, too much kapha there.
Speaker: So you don't see anything happening, but the energy is moving and it's doing it underneath the muscles. So looking at what the end product and the physical should look like is never really correct for every human being. And what about to just the other aspect of tapas, which is the heat, the psychic heat, for example, that you're developing in something like where you direct the awareness to move energy or the physical heat of some of the practices that we do as well?
Speaker: So they are connected, and that's another issue where people make a mistake because in order to get agni, The samana, the quality of prana that makes the fire element strong in us is what's going to develop that internally. But it doesn't only do it. it It's physical and it's spiritual.
Speaker: And you actually can achieve it from either end. Because if you get the mental focus and you get the that spiritual, the kriyas moving, your body temperature will change as well.
Speaker: Your body will warm up. They've done tests where I saw once where they did, I think it was called biofeedback, and they had something on a person's finger and they made them think different thoughts to the finger And the temperature would go up and down in the finger if they hit the right kind of healing thoughts.
Speaker: Yeah, that's true. And if you activate, like your your pulse will go up and and the blood will calculate more in that area. So yeah, that that happens. If you concentrate the areas, they will become more active to a certain degree.
Speaker: But heat actually develops and heat because we're talking now tapas. So... so when you actually create the physical heat, you don't want to just waste it on sweating only. you want to channel it because then you want to know, okay, now I must try and feel where my subtle body.
Speaker: You're only doing that really ultimately is so that you can you can have the body purified from the heat that there are no obstacles that are locking you from feeling your subtle body and hence returning back to Karana Shriya, to your causal, to your spirit, knowing who you really are, not the false identity that we developed during life through living.
Speaker: And that heat is necessary. But it works. It's focus. It's discipline. It's hot. It's heat.
Speaker: And and i love the analogy i that suddenly came to me at the beginning when we mentioned this. Do you need the magnifying glass? Where do you need it? How far from the paper to bring the sun in to burn?
Speaker: It's that balance inside you of where you're going to find that balance of physical heat, of mental discipline and focus that can lead you to actually transcending the mind and merging to soul.
Speaker: So we should also mention that tapas comes from a Sanskrit word called tap. And it means to create heat or to be hot, which seems fairly logical.
Speaker: And if you look at it from ancient writings, it said that it's about achieving the knowledge of the self, the atman, the true self. And that's really the goal of tapas.
Speaker: There you have it. Well, that seems like a good place to Very good. Really? Yeah. I think so. Have a super wonderful week. Thank Have a great week and namaste. Have a super wonderful life. Namaste. Bye.
Speaker: Namaste.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us today and have a super wonderful week. Namaste.
