Who’s Got the Reins?
Faith doesn't make it easy, but it makes it happen
We can internalize being the victim of our unanticipated and unwanted circumstances.
Via Yoga interventions, we can mobilize varying degrees of faith and agency to perservere and flourish despite the obstacles that present.
The opposite of faith is doubt, which Krishnamacharya calls a fire that consumes us. Doubt in ourselves is considered one of the nine obstacles that can obliterate our forward movement, our progress, our capable-ness. When the mind is not steady, calm and present, we lose sight of who we are, how far we have come, successes and strengths. We cave into the abyss of I can’t-s and I’m not-s, and our mental obstacles prevent us from taking action. Or, we take action that is tainted with defeat before it even begins.
Yoga is replete with tenets and practices that bolster unshakable inner conviction as we are confronted with unwanted trajectory reroutes. We know śraddhā triumphs over both function and form because Patanjali mentions it first, prior to any of Yoga’s well-known technologies. As the astibharam, or foundation, all tools work well when applied properly. And without it, you can have the most appropriate practice in the world, and you will sabotage it’s potency.
With faith, we are challenged, but we find what we need and we do not succumb to challenges. We may still feel nervous. Afraid. Unsure. Tired. Not ready. Stuck. But we do the thing anyway. With even a spark of faith, the candle begins to burn, and lights the way. Krishnamacharya is known to have said that everyone has faith. Even the person who doesn’t think they have faith has faith in the fact that they don’t have faith.
How to find it, build it, renew it? The sutra-s do not tell us directly. They tell us it activates a deep remembering of who we are and empowers us to remember our personal aspirations meanwhile life shakes us up. But how? The eternal flame of parampara. The means to support our own path evolves from proximity to yoga acarya-s, to yogic teachings. My śraddhā in Yoga is attributable to my teachers, who have shared with me all that I know about Yoga and all I teach you. Like I may be with some of you to a degree in your lives, they are with me, fueling my professional and personal journey, from both the earthly and heavenly realms. Their faith in these teachings was/is rock solid. They expertly use the tools to heal. It’s contagious conviction. My faith in these teachings is unshakeable. That vantage point ensures they work for me, and for you.
All of their faith in me fuels my faith in myself, when I am faltering. Over the years, always present when I need them, knowing me, seeing me, having conviction in how my discipline and long-term practice would dismantle barriers to my authentic self. That the necessary diminishing of my klesa-s would help me solve my karmic quandaries in due time. No rushing. Just witnessing and guiding, with śraddhā. When faith has the reins, everything works out with less worry, as it subdues doubt.