Hi there,
I'm Laura.
Thank you for joining me in this exploration of your personal relationship with the concept of Saucha.
When we come to study the philosophy of yoga and use this as a space to find guidance and support within our life,
Within our yoga practice,
We come to the Niyamas as a way to guide our inner world,
To show us how to create a stronger relationship with that deep core experience of ourself.
As we start to settle into our practice,
Maybe letting the eyes gently close so the attention moves to that inner space with a kind and gentle inner voice saying to yourself,
Here I am.
Here I am in my practice,
Spending this quality time with myself.
Just like all relationships,
We need that quality time to create connection,
To create strength.
As we start to think about the concept of Saucha,
The first of the Niyamas,
Or the personal observances,
This is first translated as an experience of cleanliness.
That is our external experience of Saucha.
Keeping our physical space clean,
Free of clutter,
Keeping our physical body clean,
Washing,
Brushing teeth,
All of these daily maintenance tasks that we do for cleanliness.
We can take that same experience of cleanliness into our practice.
But instead of clearing away physical residue,
We use this as an opportunity to cleanse away anything that clings to our internal space.
It might be the energetic residue of something that you did earlier,
And you notice that it's still with you.
And you gently ask yourself,
Can I let that go?
Can I let it drop away?
Just the same way that we cleanse our physical body,
We can go through a process of cleansing our internal space.
You might find yourself leaning into your breath as an experience of cleansing.
The exhale is this natural experience of letting go whenever we need to release.
Letting it ride the exhale to let it go.
As we work through this process of creating clarity and cleansing our inner experience,
We can come up to the mind.
You may have an experience of a thought that is clinging to you,
Or a judgment that is sticking with you from something that you did earlier.
And you ask yourself gently,
Can I release that?
Like you're dropping away a layer,
Peeling it away.
The same way that a snake would shed its skin so that it is able to grow.
The same way that we wash our body to drop away the residue of the day.
As we go through that process of cleansing,
We notice the open space that is left behind.
This is the other way that sometimes we translate sautya as clarity,
An experience of clearness.
Perhaps you've had the experience of coming to the end of your yoga practice,
Or the end of a workout,
And feeling like your inner space was very open.
It felt like a natural,
Comfortable place to exist.
That is the internal experience of sautya,
Of clarity.
In that moment of clarity,
We are connected to this deep core within ourselves.
We could think of it as the true self,
Or the soul,
Or the atman.
Whatever term you feel like works for you,
As we create this process of cleansing,
What sticks to us,
That residue of life,
We let it drop away.
We move into that experience of clarity.
We can peer down into that deep layer of who we really are.
This is where we come to one of my favorite ways to think about sautya,
And that is purity.
Purity is not an experience of perfection.
Very often our mind will go there and think,
Someone who is pure is flawless.
They execute everything perfectly in their life.
But it is actually quite the opposite.
When we lean into a pure experience of being ourselves,
We approach it from a place of wholeness.
This is me.
All of my parts,
The messy ones,
The scary ones,
The scared ones,
The happy ones,
The joyful parts,
The light and happy parts,
All of them drawn together to create the whole pure experience of being you.
When we're able to sit with that experience of being purely ourselves,
There is a deep sense of connection and ease.
Like you are coming home to that place where you are meant to be.
This is the pure experience of being me.
We'll spend a bit of time here,
Getting acquainted with this deep layer of yourself.
Working with our breath to drop anything that is not us.
Using the breath as a cleansing process that sheds away the outer layers,
That sheds that cloudiness and lets us connect to clarity.
We'll use our mantra,
Very simple,
Profound statement,
I am.
Using your breath to soak those words in,
Let them sink down to the very core of your being.
I am.
And as you say those words,
Knowing them to be a full,
Complete statement.
I am.
I am.
Every time you exhale,
Feeling as though you are shedding an outer layer,
A layer of protection that you have built,
That layer of the external facade that we show the world.
Being purely ourselves,
Requires an experience of courage and vulnerability.
That is the support that we need to drop those outer layers,
To cleanse whatever is not purely us,
And to stand on that foundation of courage.
I can be me in this world.
I am.
I am.
Every exhale,
We let go of a layer of conditioning,
Of external expectation,
Pressure.
Letting that drop away,
Layer by layer,
Until all that is left is that pure experience of being you.
All of the complexity and depth,
All of the messiness and challenge,
All of the happy,
Vibrant layers of being you.
Peeling away everything that is not you,
Until you have no choice but to let the pure and complete experience of yourself shine through.
I am.
I am.
We start to recognize that the process of living according to the guidance of Sao Cha,
Of working through cleansing processes to drop what clings to us,
To recognize who we are on our deep level,
And drop what is not us.
This is the work of a lifetime.
This is a process that we revisit every day,
Maybe even moment to moment.
Reconnecting to that deep place of support and that deep place of knowing.
That is the gift that Sao Cha brings us.
That is the work that we do for ourselves so that we can exist in the world exactly the way that we were meant to be.
Thank you for joining me in this exploration of our personal relationship with the idea of Sao Cha.
Cleanliness,
Clarity,
And purity as a way to strengthen our inner relationship.
I hope this has helped to create a stronger connection to self.
