Shraddha Literally means to hold or rest in a pure heart. The state of being that results from a heart filled with light or wisdom
I have to write what I ‘feel’, it’s the only way for me to express or share authentically, but it is hard to put a ‘feeling’ into words. What I’ve had moments of feeling the last couple of weeks is; intuition, lightness, freedom, trust, potential, hope and sweetness. Yet none of these quite do the ‘feeling’ or ‘experience’ justice, how can we describe something we can’t see or touch? I realised these words/feelings evoked in me a sense of faith; something we can’t see or touch.
Nevertheless I'm hesitant to write about 'faith’. So to allay my hesitancy, a little additional note before I begin. These blogs are a personal journey, sometimes they will resonate with you and sometimes they may not. Faith is complex as there is a connection to religious beliefs. It is not my intention to offend anyone, so please as you wander through my words, remember this is my personal journey, nothing more.
Different isn’t another word for broken
Different is beautiful
When tempted to try and ‘fix’ someone
Who does not live their life as you do
Let them be
Please let them be
We aren’t here to domesticate wildflowers
We are here to learn to become one ourselves
Different isn’t another word for broken
Different is beautiful
John Roedel
This wandering of words begins with the sense of smell, you may be wondering how does smell bring me to the subject of Shraddha (faith)? Well you will have to have a little faith in me and read until the end!
It's amazing how a smell can stop you in your tracks and take you right back to a memory, a special person, a strong feeling or a moment of bliss and absorption. Smell to me recently has been a reminder, a reminder of something much deeper than I expected. This is the beauty of slowing down; mindfully noticing without labelling and with a sense of curiosity to see what arises from a deep remembering or knowing. Walking by the river today, the water was really clear and I could see how the nearby roots of a tree wove deeply into the riverbank below the water, reminding me how deep and far they travel. Smells evoke deep memories much like the root of the tree, tapping into memories deeply rooted in the mind, so much so it feels real again for a moment. Recent smells for me have been Elder, a smell of my childhood collecting branches for our goats. The goats loved Elder and we had such fun giggling as they greedily gobbled it, weaving that unique smell into a glorious, happy memory.
What inspired this month’s blog and practice however is an old rose in our back garden. It was planted many, many decades ago by the previous owner of our house. Despite inexperienced attempts at pruning it back, it blooms without fail and halts me in my tracks, every year, by its DIVINE smell. Not every rose smells, certainly not as beautifully as this one. How do we know which smell and which don't....we have to stop and bury our noses in their soft, velvety blooms.
Stop, pause and breathe it in.
What a wonderful way to halt a busy mind and much needed for me recently. I’ve been lost in the ‘air’ element, ungrounded. Losing my anchors and rituals as I had become more engrossed in thoughts, plans, worries and ‘solution-finding’.
Smell however is associated with the ‘earth’ element, literally grabbing my feet and anchoring me back to the present moment and back to myself. Tethering my mind and essentially letting some of the thoughts go. Stopping to breathe in this divine scent made me reflect that this beautiful rose has bloomed ,and given its scent, every year that my husband and I have lived here (26 years!!!) It bloomed the year we moved in, the years we hardly spent in the garden as we were busy working too hard, the year we were married, the year we extended the house right next to it, the year that cancer rocked our world, the years covid rocked the whole world and it’s seen our babies grow from an impossible dream into young adults. A constant source of beauty and a reminder that some things never change. It's stems, buds and blooms are different every year, however its essence, its scent, remains the same throughout its life. Our lives continue to move and change, bobbing between happy and sad, hard and easy, yet some 'thing' remains constant within us, our essence.
Life force (essence, Self, prana, brahman, God, universal energy, divine love - whatever word resonates with you) is that which is in all of us, in all of life and 'is all of it'. ‘That’ doesn’t change, ‘that’ remains constant.
This has reminded me to have faith, faith in something bigger and faith in myself.
As we wander to this point I can share that the word ‘faith’ doesn't always sit comfortably with me, associating it with blind faith and religion. We all have a personal beliefs, so I mean only to share my personal feelings.
How can anyone tell another what 'truth’ is when it is something we can’t touch or see? We can only tell what is ‘true’ for us, our interpretation. Religious Education was my favourite subject when I was in middle school, I loved the colours, symbols and language that religions use. However whilst religion brings comfort and joins people together, it also starts wars and separates groups from one another.
My belief is that all religions are ultimately leading to the same ‘truth’ just through different stories or paths, so I draw upon many religions and philosophies, finding they help to explain what I am feeling or what I experience. I believe one can only experience 'truth' or our ‘essence’ through direct experience, however we are guided there.
“A philosophical concept, shraddha differs from the Western idea of faith, in that it refers to a direct understanding of the Divine truth, rather than belief through blind faith.” Yogapedia.
Wisdom is a life lived many times. Depending on your beliefs, how many of us have acquired the wisdom of many lives lived? The trees however and certainly the planet, have lived many lives, if not them all. So Nature is my church and yoga is my practice. I trust that if I spend time in nature and dedicate time to my yoga practice (whether that be asana, pranayama, meditation or Savasana) with the addition of a curiosity for all philosophical/religious writings as a guide, then I have faith that what I need to ‘know’ will be revealed to me when I need it.
Thinking about the divine beauty, smell and faith I found in nature, in the rose, I wondered how we can embody that ourselves, in our practice and in our daily lives.
When it comes to our senses we're obsessed with sight and taste, we often forget smell and are generally overwhelmed by sounds, finding it hard to explore stillness or just one sound out of the many. So we’ll be exploring the sense of smell and sound in classes this month through essential oils, plants and mantra.
We’ll be predominantly working with the base chakra (Mooladhara) associated with the earth element and the sense of smell. Physically this means we’ll be focusing on our contact to the mat/earth, working on stability at our centre (core) and asanas that focus on the legs and hips. Energetically it will be grounding us into our bodies and to our bodily sensations, taking us out of our ‘heads’ so that we feel, rather than think our way through each practice. We’ll also be working with the heart chakra (Anahata) as we explore the concept of Shraddha. Sound and mantra are another way to take us out of our heads and into our energetic bodies as we explore finding our 'essence'.
As we share a practice this month I can tell you what I think you should feel in each asana but to experience it fully you need to ‘find’ it yourself. I can guide you, but ultimately if you are to discover the essence of yoga, the essence of you, it has to be ‘you’ that finds and feels it.
Be curious, aware, attentive and open minded so you discover how it feels for you. Explore it all, how does the feeling change when you move differently, breathe differently, think differently and what remains constant.
This 'work' often doesn't come easily as our minds have become conditioned into being overly active in the external world. Diving deep into our internal world and ultimately to that which is bigger than us individually, faith, is uncomfortable for the mind and ego.
To support and inspire us in our practice this month I'll be referring to the ancient wisdom of Patanjali's Sutras and sharing a Buddhist mantra:
Om ma ni pad me hum
'The jewel in the lotus'
Om Mani Padme Hum mantra has its origin in ancient Buddhist culture. The mantra is said to induce compassion in a person’s heart which eventually can lead to liberation (moksha).
Mani translates as ‘jewel’ and symbolises wisdom, padme is the Sacred Lotus.
You could interpret the lotus in this context as the growth and flowering of wisdom through enlightenment and the purity of that wisdom. Consider the way the lotus grows from the muddy depths to rise to the surface, opening its petals, unblemished by the mud.
"No mud, no lotus" Thich Nhat Hanh
The mud represents our challenges and difficulties, the lotus gives us faith that we too can grow, rise and discover the jewel within ourselves- our Self.
I look forward to sharing this month's practice with you.
Om shanti
🙏
Sophia
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