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Shaucha –
Purification
The purification in Buddhist terms refers to a clean clear
mind, free from the 2 obscurations:
The afflictive
obscuration
covers our mental activity with disturbing emotions that cannot perceive reality
without one of the 84.000 afflicted emotions and their attitudes and so prevent us
from the samsaric liberation.
The cognitive
obscuration covers our mental activity with wrong
views of cognizing all phenomena as true existent and therefore prevents us
from the state of full awakening , the Omniscient state.
In the yoga world purification mainly refers to the purity
of the body and of the subtle inner winds ( prana ) and channels ( nadis ) which
results to the awaking of inner sacred energy which leads to a clear state of
mind where you can find a higher level of awareness.
Santosha -
Contentment, satisfaction.
In our lives we suffer from covetousness, we are never
satisfy with our body, our qualities, our education, our wealth and our social
status. Therefore that pattern follows and gives rise to distorted expectations
towards our practices in meditation and/or in our asana practice. The counter
action to this unbalance is the practice of equanimity. Seeing everything as
they are, and seeing that everyone, exactly as we do, try to find happiness and
avoid suffering. So we have nothing to fear, nothing to feel that we need more
or less as we all are in the same cyclic existence and we want to be free.
Tapas - fire, heat.
This for me can be translated to two aspects.
The fire that is cultivated through great enthusiastic
perseverance, to keep cultivating great aspiration for the purpose of our
practices and secondly is the process of transmutation, an inner alchemy that burns
away our ignorance. In Buddhism that secret practice in the higher Tantra
called Tummo and in Sanskrit
called Caṇḍālī
Svadhyaya – A study
conducive to self knowledge.
Refers specifically to the study of ancient scriptures or
sutras. Why? What is the meaning of studying the scriptures ? To contemplate on
the meaning of ancient and transcendental wisdom only enhance virtue into our
mind stream. This positive and elevating influence is the true attitude we need to have, the
root of a successful spiritual practice.
Ishvarapranidhana –
Surrender to a higher power.
The strong concept of devotion to our Spiritual Master, in
Buddhist terms is the foundation of the Path that can bring us to the cessation
of suffering. Faith and devotion doesn’t mean that is a blind faith, but to
respect and to abide to the spiritual master’s instructions as long as they are
wholesome ones and according to the Dharma. As our master is the medium for our
training in ethics, meditation and wisdom we need to overcome the huge obstacle
of seeing faults in our teacher and to let go of that negativity is by
understanding that our impure body-speech-and mind cannot see the Buddha itself
and receive direct teachings from him, even t the quality of all the Buddhas is
everywhere. We are bound in this body and its limitations and with a cloudy
mind by delusions; we cannot see that in fact our master is the Buddha for our
level. Is the one who impart his knowledge and teach us what we need to adopt
and what to abandon in our practice, and with great love and compassion teach
us the path of illumination. The wisdom of course comes from personal
experience and a long effort but how to learn to listen and respect our teacher
is only in our hands.
Check the post about Yamas on an older post : Ethics - Vinaya the basis of every spiritual practice
Check the post about Yamas on an older post : Ethics - Vinaya the basis of every spiritual practice
