Patience and Practice

"Effort toward steadiness of mind is practice. Practice become firmly grounded when well attended to for a long time, without break and in all earnestness."

                                                                

                    -Yoga Sutras of Patanjali I.13-14

Often we look at practice as somewhat of a necessary evil, as an act that we don't want to do but know we must. Unfortunately, when starting a new activity that one is extremely passionate, eager and excited to begin, it is hard continue practicing without knowing the end. It's hard to keep going without having definitive measures and points that we must reach to know that we are progressing. Being the A-type personality that I  can be at times, this is the most difficult thing for me in developing a yoga practice. 

I'm so eager, so ready to start practicing that that's all I want to do. I don't want to write my thesis or go to work or go anywhere that isn't a yoga studio or outside to do my asana practice or meditate or read about yoga or people practicing yoga. I want to live and breath it and because its consuming, my desire to work through the poses quickly is high. And this is so not the right mentality for Ashtanga as it takes years and years to "master" poses and progress. This is extremely hard for me and discouraging at times. 

I've just completed one week's worth or 5 days of a consistent daily practice for a duration of one hour per day. And at this moment, at the end of the week, those 5 days feel like nothing. I want to ask experienced ashtangi practitioners, "how long did it take them?" "how long will it take me?" "about how long before I can do padmasana (full lotus pose) or sirsasana (forearm headstand)?" "how long?" and I know these are naive questions to ask and pointless because I already know the answers. But I can't help it. 

Then I read a parable in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali written by Shree Swami Satchidananda in book one, the portion on contemplation or Samadhi Pada. 

I won't retell the entire story word for word. But the storyline is this. A great sage named Narada is on a journey to Heaven. During his travels he passes through a forest and meets two men. The first is a yoga student who has been meditating for so long that ant hills have been built around his crossed legs. When Narada passes him he asks him to asks Shiva in heaven how much longer he must sit here. The second is a man who had been singing and dancing with joy various mantras in praise of God. When he sees Narada, he asks him to ask the same question as the first man. After going to Heaven and returning back, Narada is travelling again and happens to meet the 2 men on his second journey. Upon seeing the first man who was meditating, he informs him that he still has 4 births to go before he is liberated. And the first man is disappointed and expresses his disapproval by responding, "Haven't I waited long enough?" and continues shouting and lamenting as Narada walks away. When Narada comes upon the singing and dancing man, he informs him that the number of births he has left is equal to the number of leaves on a nearby tree. Instead of responding with disapproval like the first man did he responds that he has the patience to count the leaves and know exactly how many lives he has. He also states that "at least its a limited number then." and as soon as he says this a chariot of sorts from Heaven arrives to take him to Shiva. 

Hopefully you can see the point of the story...When you're not focused on the end, the destination and take the time to enjoy the journey and be patient with yourself your wishes will be fulfilled quicker than you think. I needed to hear this today, to keep my spirits from falling, to be patient with myself and this journey and know that with patience and practice, I will not only arrive at my destination, I will have so much fun just walking on the path that the destination will be of no consequence, a mere enhancement to the journey itself...so I hope ;-)