Tapas: The Fire that Shapes Us
When we open,
even for a second,
to a power and intelligence
greater than ourselves...
When we humble ourselves,
and make an opening in our mind,
when we stop thinking
in our usual programmed ways,
and drop into a moment of stillness —
an energy begins to move inside us.
More Life can get in.
Our entire practice
is an invocation to Life.
We’re not just breathing independently..
Not like —
“Steve’s doing his breathing.”
We breathe in connectivity
with the greater energy.
We call it
the cycle of reciprocation.
There’s a massive difference
between that
and self-development.
You’re inviting in something big.
In fact —
you’re inviting in
that which is everything.
And when that comes into you —
it rubs up against
your boundaries,
your limitations.
Because you’ve invited it in.
For whatever reason —
maybe because you’re hungry now.
Hungry for this.
And yeah —
it hurts a bit sometimes.
It’s uncomfortable, this growth thing.
But you start to feel —
“This might actually be
a better way forward
than stagnancy
or just holding on
to what I’ve already got.”
So when this energy comes in —
and it rubs up
against our boundaries…
That rub creates friction
between the limited idea of ourselves
and the unlimited potential
of what we’ve invited in.
And what is created from the friction,
of this rub?
Heat.
This heat, the yogis called Tapas.
They said:
The heat from that rub —
between the energy of Life
and your limited form —
That heat is Tapas.
And if you allow this heat
to generate inside you,
it produces transformation.
It changes you
in unusual, brilliant and inconceivable ways.
It rearranges your architecture for itself
so it can express itself in the way
it always wanted to express itself through you.
So the eighth initiation
is an invitation
into a new relationship
with the fire —
With the hardship, friction, difficulties,
and challenges in your life.
What if those things
aren’t actually the problem?
What if they are actually the transformation process
that is taking me into a new life that I currently
cannot even dream of.
What if that fire is actually
what’s forging me
into a new possibility?
Rather than trying to avoid
the discomfort of Life…
Maybe I could begin to see
the transformation process itself.
That’s easy to take if you’re feeling easy.
Not too much fire in your system.
You’re feeling joy.
But when it’s tough —
it’s not so easy
to remember Tapas, is it?
So quickly,
your psychology tries to lock in
to any uncomfortable situation.
It starts to formulate stories
around why you shouldn’t
be suffering such hardship.
That psychology —
is simply a self-defensive mechanism
that resists change.
Not because the psychology is bad…
but because it’s scared.
It was formed out of fear.
So to take an initiation into Tapas
means to fortify yourself in advance.
It means we embrace the idea:
“My character is being forged
with a certain inner resilience.
My architecture is being made more ready.
Not through ease.
Not through chocolate-coated moments.
But through those times
when the going gets tough.
That’s when I’m being forged
into something more usable.”
So if you’re having an easy day…
you won’t be for long.
Because Life’s not like that.
This —
this is one of the greatest
human delusions there is.
That somehow,
we’re still hoping
and expecting
that Life is going to go easy.
Like… forever.
As if we’re just going through
some hard stuff —
and then finally,
“Ahhh… now it’s all sorted.”
Now it’ll just be calm.
Nope.
Not going to happen.
There you go.
Delusion over.
It’s the next thing
all the time.
It’s tough,
And then it’s easy.
It pulses.
Sometimes it’s tough
for a long time.
Tapas.
Sometimes it’s easier
for a period.
Good.
Prepare yourself.
Not in an uptight way
but if you enrich yourself during the easy times
you’ll be more fortified and ready
for when Life challenges you again.
So being initiated into Tapas
is not a small thing.
I really want to give it its credence.
You’re stood
in front of the master.
You’ve taken the seven
previous initiations...
And then you climb up the mountain again —
Day Eight.
And it’s like:
“Eighth initiation
Alright —
Embrace the fire.
Embrace the heat in your life.
Cease to complain.
Simply accept it
as a totally natural occurrence
of Life.
At the very least,
meet it constructively.”
Like,
“This is trying to engineer me
in a new way.
It is preparing me to be more in service of Life”
It’s called self-sacrifice.
The willingness
to sacrifice oneself for something greater.
For love —
which is hard.
For truth—
which is hard.
So we can sit there
bemoaning it —
“Oh, poor me.”
Or we can walk around
knowing:
I’m being forged
in the fiery furnace of Tapas.
My blade is being tempered in the heat.
So it’s more resilient —
able to stand strong in love
when the going gets tough.
Able to stand strong in authenticity,
in truth —
and not be easily swept away
into all kinds of stuff.
I can be a rock
because I’ve been through the shit.
I’ve been through the fire.
You can only ask others
to walk through their fire
if you’ve walked through your own.
You become an invitation
for others to meet their challenges
(which are inevitable)
and find something inside of themselves
to move through it.
Because every time
we’ve gone through anything —
we’ve come out better off for it,
in a weird kind of way.
You’ve been steeled.
You’ve been sharpened.
You’ve been deepened.
You’ve been made into
more of a human being.
Not because it was easy
Because you went through tough things.
We have been given
gift of gifts.
And if I could give everybody one gift —
It would be this:
A connection
to an underlying presence,
A current
through which you know —
you can move through anything.
But how convinced are you of that?
How convinced are you
that when you drop into this place
inside of you,
into the deep core and heart of you —
You are untouchable.
You cannot be overcome
You cannot fall short.
You cannot be lacking.
You have absolutely everything you need in that place
to meet any hardship at all.
And I know because some of us here have been through a lot.
And look at you all.
Don’t be so fast
to pity other people’s hardships.
Instead —
Be a support on the other side.
Someone who says:
“I know what it is to walk through the fire
and I know you can.”
Not —
“Oh, poor you.
What unfortunate karma you have...”
No…
You are going to be an incredible
human being at the end of this.
I wouldn’t wish it upon you
but it is here.
Life has brought it.
Maybe it knows what it’s doing.
Is it possible
that Life knows what it’s doing?
That Life knows what’s best for you —
better than you know?
If that one lands in you
it will go down in history.
It will go generationally.
That Life,
the intelligence that created you,
knows exactly what you need
to become
what it needs
your architecture to be
in order to serve the light.
Way better than you know.
So next time you’re complaining about Life —
just check in.
It’s not like we’re not allowed to complain about it —
we can still have a moan.
But we will catch ourselves
and in the light of tapas
acknowledge that
the fire is not what it seems.
Rather than burn us,
it will burnish us.
It will make us stronger
Remember,
tapas is everywhere.
Any moment you feel
the rising of the spectre of resistance
in your system
welcome to your tapas.
It is a challenge.
Can I soften into this
and relax into it?
If the answer is “no” —
Then do something else.
There’s still a choice
But maybe it’s like:
“No I can use this
to train myself to open more to love.”
All the initiations that are possible…
Because the place we’re pointing to —
the one that gives you what you need
in order to do them —
you’ve made contact with.
You have found it.
A place inside of you
that is very, very strong —
in fact, beyond strength.
A place where you can land,
even in the most diabolical situations.
The most challenging ones.
It’s there.
You’ve made it known…
and it has made itself known to you.
And more and more —
during hard times —
it will let you know it’s there.
Sometimes you have to dig for it,
don’t you?
You have to go —
"Maybe I just need to relax,
trust a little,
have a bit of faith…
and drop back in.”
“Ahh — there you are.”
You’re my anchor.
You’re my ground.
You are my support.
You are my strength.
My healer.
My solution.
My light.
I rest in you —
and meet the situation
from here.
And then we start
to find this place
again and again.
Through experience we learn:
“Wow —
I can move through fire with this.”
I can move through my own shyness
with this.
Through embarrassment.
Through self-loathing.
Through self-doubt.
Through all kinds
of psychological and mental conditions —
through this.
And then Life throws things at me.
Yeah —
that's the hand I’m being dealt.
Maybe because Life knows.
Weirdly.
And maybe I’ll find out later why.
But it's allowing me
to move through it.
And from this place —
I can do this.
Patanjali says:
the outcome of this whole understanding,
this great experiment…
Is that such a person
starts to burn bright
with a confidence
that is beyond self-confidence.
Like a reassurance
Beyond any assurance.
An insurance
beyond insurance.
Such a being becomes
less scared of Life.
Because they know they can be with it
when it is not easy.
They can walk into things
that otherwise trepidation might stop them walking in to.
And trepidation is okay
it’s just more fire to move into.
With more experience of moving through it’s like:
I can
I will
Because I know what I have inside of me.
So a tapasvin
becomes more and more fearless.
Less scared of outcomes,
or situations,
or projections of the mind
that want to create
a scenario of doom —
“If this happens…”
“If that happens…”
We stop buying in
to the psychological projection
of possibilities.
A. Because we know
they’re not true.
Because It cannot know anything at all.
B. Because you know
that Life is what it is anyway.
And what is coming to you
is coming to you —
no matter what.
Regardless.
It’s always been on the way.
It’s going to arrive.
It’s how you meet it
that will be the variable.
Not it.
It’s not a variable at all.
It’s just… coming.
What’s due to come to you karmically is coming
because it’s coming.
But how you meet it —
as a tapasvin —
that’s the shift.
I just feel like
even putting our psychologies there —
to imagine living in such a way —
is incredibly powerful.
And you know —
when you're strong in yourself —
how that positively influences
the people around you.
It's also a fact.
You know that.
Undoubtedly — I know I have.
I’ve been around people
more strongly rooted
in this place inside them
than I was at the time.
And I know the feeling
of leaning into them.
You know that feeling?
Going,
“Wow… bloody hell.”
They’re not budging.
They’re not buying into
what I’m buying into
within myself.
And I feel the strength there.
They’re not needing
to be the big guy, hopefully.
They’re just simply
not scared of the situation.
And that bolsters me.
I feel like —
yeah, I can walk.
Ahh, that’s great, isn’t it?
To be that for others is such a blessing
Choose faith over fear.
Namaste.
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