Become Sovereign
It's not enough to practice. You have to have a sadhana.
Our Summer of Sovereignty Retreat is a half day long short cut between where you are and a full, light and shiny spirit, unshrinkable, unbreakable by all external and internal challenges. It is an amazing start to a new phase of your life journey. Need a fresh start, a break, a snooze on life's daily grind? Come to Southampton, practice and start or fortify your sadhana.
You can have an abhyasa without a sadhana, but you can't have a sadhana without an abhyasa. Nuance emerges from the roots of Sanskrit words. Both of these words mean practice, and they are not mutually exclusive. For many dedicating to Patanjali’s path, you are doing abhyasa and sadhana. For others dabbling in a modern and unidimensional version of “Yoga,” likely not.
Abhyasa, as a word, means practice. The efforts we do to refine the mind, such as asana, pranayama and dhyanam. These efforts are distinct and internal, guided and repeated daily for life, with a positive mindset and faith. "Abhi is a prefix meaning internal, As, a root, mean sit. We are doing efforts which bring us nearer to our own, authentic self, the one living under the accumulated pile of life and its directives and experiences. Here, we begin to develop sovereignty, a sense that there is an untouchable spirit, a force within that will nourish our entire existence, in good times and bad.
Sadhana, also meaning practice, has a more all inclusive meaning. It’s a lifestyle, a way of being in the teachings, with them, pursuing the knowledge and implementing tools into everyday life. With abhyasa, sadhana is possible. It’s the path we travel when our abhyasa is sincere. The gradual and steady efforts mobilize to inform and punctuate our days and nights. Our ups and downs. Our thoughts, words, deeds. Our decision making becomes informed by a guiding voice that lives deeper within us than our ignorance, fears, aversions, desires, and ego. A sacred purpose begins to guide personal, familial and professional life. It’s a shelter from the oft overwhelming realities we face, chaos we never asked for, lessons we are here to learn.
What’s often missing, a link that connects abhyasa to sadhana is a more complete knowledge of the system, teachings and texts of Yoga. Our classes are based on these, my own meetings with my teacher always circle back to Yogic teachings. Yoga is a way to find our way, and its teachings matter as much as its practices, which are often misguided without, well, its guidance.
Intentional actions you can begin today to make the shift from abhyasin to sadhaka, where we need to be for Sovereignty include:
Learn the Yoga Sutra-s, inside and out, many times over. The messages are deep and encrypted, in the text, in the psyche, in life, and take lifetimes to embody.
Choose uplifting company/connect with sanga. Those that support you as you journey to yourself feel safe, can reflect our unhealed parts and inspire us to work through our karmic kinks.
Meet with your teacher for Yoga-based guidance for removing the multi-dimensional impurities weighing down your potentials.
Check in with your own self. Regularly reflect on what needs to modulate up, modulate down in this particular phase.
Take time to retreat, alone or in communion with other sadhaka-s, to coerce your inner being out of your heart and into your life.
When we live in the spirit of sadhana, all of life becomes Yoga practice. We can begin to live independently from all we carry, nourished from within, more equanimous toward the incessant fluctuations on account of matter’s changing forms.