Exploring Abhyasa

“Trust in God with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to God, and God will make your paths straight.”  Proverbs 3: 5-6 NIV

Ahead of the bi-annual retreat in August 2024, the team asked me to ponder our scriptural inspiration.  This 3-part essay is designed to dive deeper in and explore how it might be applied to real life -- in digestible tidbits.   Sit down, have a favorite beverage and take in a few minutes of anticipation for our gathering.

Now, Pause and breathe in. 

Breathe out longer……ahhhhh that’s better.

Read from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You will be changed from the inside out.  Readily recognize what God wants from you and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you and develops well-formed maturity in you.  (1) 

Pause and breathe in. 

Breathe out longer……

Next, read Yoga Sutras 1:2 and 1:12

Yoga is the mastery of the modifications of the mind.  Yogah chitta-vritti- nirodhah

The modifications of the mind are controlled by means of practice & non-attachment.  Abhyasa-vairagyabhyam tan-nirodhah

Pause and breathe in. 

Breathe out longer……

About these two scriptures, one commentator writes:  

We are not trying to check the thought-waves by smashing the organs which record them.  We have to do something much more difficult - to unlearn the false identification of the thought-waves with the ego-sese.  This process of unlearning involves a complete transformation of character, a ‘renewal’ of the mind’ as Saint Paul puts it. (2)

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When we study from both sets of scriptures, we have the unique opportunity to explore what happens in our lives at the crossroads (of Christ’s teachings and yoga teachings). This exploration is not merely an academic endeavor.  It can be a matter of the heart, body, and mind as well.   Both traditions emphasize that consistent practice and letting go of attachments are essential to deepening our trust in our Source.

Let’s look at the first part Abhyasa - Practice 

Abhyasa is Effort to acquire a steady mind, devoid of modifications or ardent effort to maintain a peaceful inward flow - free of roaming tendencies (of the mind).  The practice is firmly grounded when it is performed for a long time, without interruption, and with zeal (devotion). (3)

Spiritual practices help cultivate strength and healing.  They also cultivate awareness of what is NOT working well. We can notice what sort of situations create mental agitation.  As we determine areas of resistance, we can then practice asking the Holy Spirit to help redirect our efforts.  That is mostly inner work.  What does it look like during a CPY gathering?  

Embodied Abhyasa on retreat

There are obvious ways like ….

• Grand Silence (a time to listen more and be distracted less; spacious time for inner reflection including opportunities to note uncomfortableness -- where do you avoid yourself and fill with noise?)

• Twice daily posture, breath, prayer & meditation together.  God’s first and most accurate language is Silence.  Learning how to listen is critical to a deepening into Spirit.  

• Workshops to explore both the joy and tension at the crossroads of yoga philosophy and Christ’s teachings.

• Each assembly is an effort to flow with Grace and to explore what gets in the way… Where is the body holding? What emotion comes up?  What can be released as an act of trustful surrender?

• Gathering Graces in small group discussions we ask: what was stirred in us?  What is God calling us to be now? 

Less obvious is the work that can only be done with others who are ‘not your people’ - ‘them’ - ‘ those people’ -- the ones we might not agree with.  Jesus’ commandment to love your enemies feels almost counterintuitive -- our first reaction is defense.  This is an excellent opportunity to practice (abhyasa) - to maintain a steady peaceful mental flow.

When we choose to come in contact for 5 days with other Christians, we might assume we will be in alignment.  Yet there have been times on these retreats where one or many of us have experienced confusion and tension, especially around interpreting and understanding Christian theology and/or around how Yoga cosmology & philosophy are different from the mainline interpretations of Christ’s teachings.  I remember one year, a long-time active participant came up against a conflict that nearly sent her home early.  We all sat in silence, not knowing what to say among her deeply painful challenge.  Father Tom Ryan entered with kind words, reminding her, and all of us, to lean into Grace.  That God knows where we are going  and will lead each of us as we discern our relationship at the crossroads.

Another experience of tension: read Jennifer and Doreen’s story.

Until we meet in August… may God bring the best out of you and develop well-formed maturity in you, as Paul wrote.  In the next post, we shall explore vairagya - letting go and in the final post, Radical Trust and how these concepts fit together.

Sources (1) The Message  (2) Sutras  1.13 -14 Sources:  P & I and Stiles (3) How to know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali by Prabhavananda & Isherwood