Boiling the Blood

In Ashtanga, we sweat a lot. Following the vinyasa system, we jump back and forth between postures and between sides. That creates a lot of heat. And then there’s the internal heat that we create with our breath. By controlling the inhalation and exhalation while we practice, making them long and even, we fan our internal, metabolic fire.

Guruji said that when we create this internal heat with our practice, we “boil the blood.” When the blood boils it becomes thin, allowing it to circulate more freely around the joints and to cleanse our organs.

The heat that we build from our practice will also affect more than our physical bodies. In Sanskrit, this kind of heat is called tapas. Tapas is one of the five Niyamas, or observances, of the aspiring yogi. Besides heat, tapas can also mean austerity, or self-discipline, or even suffering. It is the practice of tapas that ultimately creates the most profound change.

How does heat come from self-discipline? When we try to do something difficult, we create a type of psychological and social friction. By going against the grain, we push against opposing forces and impulses. We struggle against our own entropy. Working into opposition is tapas.

Friction comes from pushing against the tendencies of our small self, working at something that doesn’t come easily. Doing a daily practice, even when we are tired or busy, especially when we are tired or busy, creates the type of heat that burns away transient moods and self-deceptions. When we practice despite and through hardship, we burn through our attachments and identifications with suffering. Tapas happens when we do the work.

Guruji told us there are six poisons that cloud our heart, or true self: kama, krodha, moha, lobha, matsarya, and mada. These are desire, anger, delusion, greed, envy and sloth. They are feelings and thoughts that we mistake to be part of our true self. With steady practice over a long period of time, with tapas, we can burn away these poisons. As the poisons burn away, more and more of our light shines forth, bright and unobstructed.