It’s Time for a New Story: VBY Tantra Yoga in 2022
We have crossed the precipice into another year and into the time when we renew our commitments, release our previous efforts, and set forth with new intentions and desires for the future. The new year propels us to strive for difference, something apart from where we’ve been, putting forth the promise that the name implies, something new. We seek transformation and maybe even transcendence. We want to change ourselves for the better, and perhaps even to change the world. All of this potential can be understood from a Tantric perspective as Shakti, the power of potential and transformation.
In the modern context, this time of year orients our attunement toward change, betterment, and transformation on an individual level. We point to our own personal resolves and improvements, and narrow our focus to the scope of our individual and personal lives. This year, however, it seems that there is a caution around being too optimistic for change. The transition from 2020 to 2021 had many hanging their hopes on rainbows and believing that all will be well, and for so many, our lived experience of 2021 brought those pipe dreams to a crashing halt. It seems that we may be finally learning that we have no control over what comes our way. Sure, we can chart our course, refine our skills, and tune our attention to our desires, but ultimately, we have no control over the weather. Storms may rock us beyond what we have the capacity to manage, circumstances can push us to the brink of what we can endure. Yet endure we do.
And we are capable of more than enduring. Yes, it is wired into our human nature to focus on the negative and fear what lies ahead, yet, we are also creatures of choice, complexity, and intelligence. We can choose to mitigate our fear (and our hope), and to show up in each and every moment with the clarity of our intention. In the turn of this new year, we have an opportunity not just to commit to our own growth and refinement, but also to reflect and contemplate about how our pursuits impact the whole. When thinking on our desires, we can dare to ask the kinds of questions for which any answer seems insufficient, but the questioning itself seems to open doors to spaces beyond our limited view.
Personally, I’ve been reviewing how I am showing up in the world. How my offerings are of service to those who seek them out, and how they can extend beyond our small circle to have a larger impact. For years, I’ve been teaching and supporting numerous individuals to orient toward their individual purpose (Sva Dharma) and to hone their individual intentions (Sankalpa), and I can’t help but wonder if I’ve missed the point. What good is our individual success if it is not serving the whole? How important are our individual desires when we extricate them from the bigger picture? What is the motivation for our achievement and growth, really?
In the Tantric tradition, there is a teaching about the primary limitations that veil our true limitless Self called the malas (pronounced muh-luh, rather than mālā). Mala means impurity, and it's the universal dust on the lens. Malas manifest as fundamental experiences of disconnection from the bigger picture (i.e. the scope of time, history, future potential, true self), and leave us with a sense of being incomplete no matter the genuineness of our pursuits. The three malas are:
Anava Mala – fundamental sense of lack; Mayiya Mala–the fundamental sense of being separate; and Karma Mala–the fundamental sense that we are alone are the doer. Perhaps the collective hesitation that seems to have overtaken this New Year’s transition is an opportunity to review our motivations. Are we seeking to improve ourselves from a place of true understanding, or are we simply throwing fuel on the fire of our fundamental limitations? Afterall, has our pursuit of self improvement really improved anything so far? Have we been so focused on our conquering our Malas that we have forgotten we are part of something much bigger?
Sure, these questions may not give you the sense of inspiration that we often seek out to soothe our distress or disappointment, but they feel important nonetheless. Maybe 2022 is an opportunity to reorient our work to be of benefit beyond our bank accounts, our fitness and health, and our personal relationships. Perhaps how healthy we eat or how much we meditate or how we parent is about more than just our individual selves. Maybe 2022 is the year that we begin taking the bigger picture into account as we plan our individual pursuits. The ramifications of this may be intense. It means that you might not get what you want. You might not be entitled to better things, or more money, or more time. You might not get to map out your perfect life. Instead, you might turn toward caring for those whom you disregard or dislike. You might make decisions to mitigate your own individual importance as a service to the whole. You might contribute to the passing away of the old in order to make space for the new. This is the shakti of Kali, and for most of us, it’s nothing short of terrifying.
Truth be told, I am exhausted with the old story of self gain and improvement for the sake of the self. It is limited. It is based on the malas. It is propelled by lack, separation, and the idea that the individual alone is responsible for their own failure and successes. I am bored with the idea that we can even categorize the experiences of our lives in these limited ways. I am ready to see the individual stories as part of a collective whole, a mythology of our time, rather than the soapbox on which we stand and shout at each other. My ears are weary of the fight against, and my mind and heart are hungry for the fight for. I am pulsing with the desire for us all to fight for each other. For us all to rally for the common good, for us all to weigh our individual beliefs and “rights” against the reality of the multitudes. It is almost impossible to conceptualize that which you haven’t seen with your own eyes, but only almost. When we drop deeply into the still and silent center of ourselves, what emerges can be a “melting tenderness” (E. Eswaren). If we find that our stance taking requires an opponent, then we can bravely reevaluate our motivations for that stance. We can dare to shift the story in a way that allows care to be the light in the darkness. And when we do, care will expand our endurance, care will be the spark of light in the darkness. Care can only come from within. Care is buoyant but not ignorant. Care is heartfelt, but not enabling. Care is vulnerable, but not weak. Care isn’t based on change, or potential, or perfection. It’s the process of showing up to what is and opening our hearts to it. Unquestioningly, and without hesitation, and this is the most advanced Yoga of all.
This shift of focus will also be manifesting within the programming of Vira Bhava Yoga in both subtle and direct ways. Yes, we will continue to teach you how to dive deeply into yourself, and yes we will continue to support your clarification of your own personal power and intention. But, we won’t be stopping there. We will be asking you how what you discover can impact your world (your family, your community, your country and planet). We will be asking you with greater urgency how your individual intentions support the good of the whole, and we will be propelling you to consider how your study is contributing to the world in which you want to live. We will be holding you as a part of something much bigger, and we will be teaching you how to hold yourself (and everyone else) in that way, too. We will be challenging you to take apart your motivations, values, and beliefs, and put them back together in new ways, in ways that reach beyond your individual desires and extend to those beyond you. We will be encouraging you to hold your feet to the fire of the transformation you desire as a service to that which is bigger than yourself.
If this is the kind of community that you desire to be a part of, and if this is the kind of support you seek, it’s not too late to join our January 200 or 300 Hour Programs. Register NOW. And if you are seeking to work at your own pace and deepen your understanding of the Tantric path of practice and life, enroll in our Tantric Meditation Training Now.
It’s time to take it all apart and put it back together in a new way. Join us.
Those who can endure and carry Kali’s fire can bring a new light to the world.