Selfhood

The discipline of Tapas molds us into someone of great depth and profoundness. Can we stand the heat of being dismantled and changed forever? Can we prepare ourselves daily through our practice, our staying power, and our choices? Our choices will decide.

As a child, you were pure, wide-eyed and open to the world. Slowly, over time, you internalized both the positive and negative voices around you. As we get older, the negative voices echo the loudest. So your first step is to reconnect with the kid in you who felt confident early on.

Nothing about human life is simple.  Our character styles, or ways of being, are influenced by many factors that are embodied, being shaped by, and in turn shaping the body structure.

Children, being wonderfully creative, are capable of conjuring unlimited ways to maintain the attachment bonds that fend off anxiety. As we grow older theses clever coping strategies become internalized. In other words, they become unconscious blueprints of being.

It is the nature of the human mind to be subdivided into parts. We all have them. Parts exist from birth, either in potential or in actuality.

Asteya, or nonstealing, calls us to live with integrity. The creative ways in which we steal are without limit. We steal from the future every time we compromise the present. We steal from the planet, others, and ourselves. We even steal from our own chance…

Keeping these four agreements can be one of the hardest things you will ever do and one of the most life changing.