Learning Again and Again

I've been studying yoga 2004. There are concepts and ideas I once felt I fully grasped which  now seem to reveal themselves at a much greater depth. Back then I was not yet ready to understand these concepts in their entirety. I still do not feel I really get all of it completely. I know now that there is always more to understand and this keeps me eagerly coming back to learn it, again.

For the purpose of this short and sweet entry I will refer to the term Tapas which I had come to understand as meaning discipline or heat  from within. I recently took a refresher course of yoga philosophy, the Sutras and Pranayama. In the course I was surrounded with novice yogis and teachers in training who had never learned of much of any of the concepts we were discussing before. It felt as if everything the course offered I already understood. I listened intently hoping there would be a touch of something new to learn. When Suraya, the teacher, brought up Tapas he presented it in a way I had never heard before. Tapas, he said, should be a daily task which takes effort and dedication to complete. Then, once complete, the task should be "checked off."

I was inspired and decided my daily Tapas was going to be reading from Yoga and Ayurveda by David Frawley. This will be my third attempt to read the book and the terms in it were so overwhelming before it was impossible for me to read it with any comprehension. Having studied the vocabulary and ideas in the book over the past 12 months, it was time to finally give it another go.

I recently turned a new leaf of organization have been using technology to aid in my new Tapas goals. My calendar has an alarm set for 7 am to "read at least 2 pages today." The alarm sounds every morning and the I sit down in silence and read. Then, I grab my phone and  "dismiss" the tapas alarm as soon as I'm done. Checking it off leaves me feeling accomplished. Later I explain out loud to my friends, teachers or students what I have read. Teaching it aloud takes the information from the short term memory to the long term (this is a memorization technique that works!!)

I am glad to have attended class and re-learned a term I thought I got before to find it has other applications. I hope to teach and re-teach this and other concepts that will inspire my students to get up and make a positive change for themselves. It all starts with the drive to want to learn and a willingness to show up and listen, even if you've heard it all before. There is always a nuance or different angle to see.

What will your daily tapas be? Create one, I challenge you!