The Journey of Yoga, Tantra, and Resilience
Two days ago, I submitted my final manuscript of The Yoga of Resilience (final title TBD) to my publisher. A book that I began in the wake of a global pandemic, that followed me through my father’s terminal illness, passing, and the grief that followed, as well as in my process of strengthening and deepening my own practice with the tools of Yoga and Tantra. To honor all of these endings, and to mark the next phase, I am embarking upon a two month pilgrimage across the North of Spain to hike the Camino de Santiago. This is a walk of celebration and grief, a walk of introspection and connection, completion and new beginnings, a walk with my heart through the vessel of my body. A perfectly paradoxical next step in the never ending journey of the Yoga of Resilience.
Resilience is a Hero’s Journey
In Yoga and Tantra, resilience is a hero’s journey, fraught with challenge and peril, full of emotional upheaval and deep questions. It is not easily accomplished, and there is no end. Each destination brings you back again and again to the beginning, though the infinite starting places are rarely the same. To be a hero (Vira Bhava), isn’t to declare victory over a thing or to develop mastery or perfection, but instead, it is an agreement to never end the journey. A hero’s path is the commitment to show up for what is, to being present in and with whatever life throws at you, and to engage with whatever you dare excavate from the depths of your heart. Sometimes the most courageous and heroic journeys happen inside, when we are called to face the terror of our inner struggles, and look our shadows in the eye, and bring the unknown and forgotten to our conscious mind. As heroes, we dare to integrate the aspects of ourselves that often wreck havoc on our lives, and source our power from the very wound that we strive to avoid. This inner work is also a journey that rivals the most epic adventures of travel and discovery, and when undertaken in tandem, it’s known as a pilgrimage.
In Tantric mythology, the great heroes and heroines of the stories are often setting off on a journey or engaging in epic battles (or both). These stories are rich with metaphors for our inner work, helping us to understand the complexities of living a human life and seeking the divine center. The gods and goddesses make the complications a game, always aware of their own infinite nature, and choosing to play the game of forgetting. The stories are full of struggle– Sita is kidnapped by Rama, Sati’s father rejects her new husband (Shiva) and she throws herself on the fire in despair. The Hindu myths rival the most epic dramas, and they help us to understand that our humanness is also divine. They teach us that our struggles are also the source of our power, and that to reclaim all of our parts is what it means to be whole. In Indian culture, there is a season for pilgrimage, a time of year to marry the inner work with the outer journey, and it is common for entire families to do a walk not unlike the one I am beginning in only a few days.
As students of this path and practice of Yoga (and maybe Tantra too), it’s important to remember the truth of the journey: the challenge, the forgetting, the repetition, the struggle, the joy, the beauty, the doubt, the fear, the loss, the passion, and the purpose. As teachers and practitioners of real Yoga, we must commit to remembering the whole picture. We can, if we choose, make our lives a pilgrimage, showing up to each moment with honor for the lessons that it brings. Praising the simple act of being alive. And making our lives our worship. This is devotion, and though it is an amazing privilege to unite this inner journey with an outer walk, every path is what you make it, even if you never leave home. And it is always, right here, right now.
Tantra, Yoga, & Understanding
Tapping into the mythology of Yoga and Tantra can be a powerful gateway to understanding how this works in your life. The gods and goddesses are maps of our complex human terrain, and learning how to read and orient to the map is the core of the practices of Yoga and Tantra. Each representation of divinity is endowed with specific sets of qualities and characteristics unique to the deity. The important piece to remember is one of reflection: every quality represented in divinity is also a quality that we have.
The complexity of our humanness contains every characteristic of the Tantric pantheon, either in minute portions or huge helpings. Learning how to work with and as these qualities is the essence of the Tantric teachings. One of the most basic tenets of tantric practice is that to worship the Goddess, you must become the Goddess. A riddle for sure, but not an impossible one. The recognition of yourSelf in the qualities of divinity is the ultimate journey, a pilgrimage to your heart, and one that is never too late or too far away to start. In pilgrimage, we walk to remember what we have forgotten, and to realize what is right in front of us. Tantra teaches us how to see the markers, provides the skills to navigate what we discover, and gives us access to the power we hold. With these tools, we can choose how we shape the life we are living, and how we show up to what comes our way. We can remain open to the unknown, take risks to move beyond our comfort zone, and trust that we will always find our way home.
Next week our friend and fellow Vira Bhava Yogi, Swathy Madhukar begins a four week series unpacking the Tantric goddesses in story and practice. In this series, you will learn the stories, the skills, and the practices that help unpack four of the most powerful goddesses of Tantra. There’s still time to join, and if you can’t make it for the LIVE sessions, all classes will be recorded and emailed to all registered participants.