Samkalpa – January ’22
During every cycle we look at our Samkalpa.
Samkalpa means intention, resolve or commitment. In Samkalpa there is no implication of force or effort. It is not coming from the ego, but from your uncoloured and uninfluenced inteligence that is connected to Universal Inteligence. Therefore, your Samkalpa wil always come from a place of Truth. It is something you know, deep down (or up?) that you need to do. It is not something that you (your ego) want.
Keep this in mind when you formulate your Samkalpa. Go to your inner environment. Find a moment of silence. Then come back and formulate it.
In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali there are two sutras that I turned to in order to formute this cycle’s Samkalpa. You can see it as a proposal if you need some inspiration for yours.
Sutra 2.30
Ahimsa-satyasteya-brahmacaryaparigraha yamah
Vows of self-restraint comprise abstention from violence, falsehood, theft, incontinence and acquisitiveness.
Sutra 2.39
Aparigraha-sthairye janma-kathamta-sambodah
non-posseisiveness being confimed there arises knowledge of the ‘ how’ and ‘ wherefore’ of existence.
The Sutra’s of Patanjali are quite cryptical, and a way to try and understand them, is being curious in your own life experience.
The above sutras have many layers of depth but for this cycle’s samkalpa the word APARIGRAHA came to my mind.
Non-possesiveness. Non-attachment.
I formulated the following:
I let go of that which does not serve me.
Essentially, if you become steady in your practice of non-possesiveness, there is nothing that you need to let go of, because you are not attached to anything.
But sometimes we need to turn in around to start.
Start simple. And of course, in this case, considering your yoga practice, what are your attachments and can you let go of them little by little.
Can you let go of desires?
Can you let go of expectations?
Can you let go of opinions?
But how? Yoga practice is our laboratory where we can do experiments before we try them out in our daily lives.
Essentially all our desires, expectations and ideas are in our minds. We create them in our heads.
Sometimes they materialize, sometimes they don’t. And there is always an effect to this materialization, we are happy or we are sad. There is a constant flux of emotions and a feeling of instability. In our laboratory of Yoga we experiment how to become more balanced. Normalize the constant flux. Search for stability.
An interesteing experiment is to acknoledge your desire, or expectation, or opinion, and then let go.
Go ahead and work, practice, act, do what you need to do, without being attached to the fruit of your action. And especially trust that whatever serves you will also come towards you naturally.
What will your experience be like?
My invitation during this cycle is this:
Let go of that which does not serve you.
Start simple, with your practice. Then if you like, take it further, into your daily life.