Yoga Lessons in the Garden by Gabe Hopp

My main spring and summer hobby is gardening. When we bought our house, our yard was a giant pile of weeds and sticks, uncared for for many years. Not dissimilar to many bodies when they come to yoga. We started tending to it lovingly, a little bit at a time. We pulled (so many) weeds, we tilled and graded the land, we planted grass seed and we put in a raised bed garden area. Each year it gets a little closer to the dream vision. Each year it needs a little less major effort and more like loving tending. Not unlike our bodies after years of yoga practice.

The process of transforming our bodies, hearts and minds in yoga can be distilled down into the practice of kriya yoga. Kriya as outlined in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a 3-part practice designed for real and lasting change. It’s an approach to practice that is fairly straightforward and simple, but to the point. It’s graspable and effective and I apply it in my yoga practice and also in my garden.

Kriya yoga consists of tapas, svadhyaya and ishvara pranidhana. The steps go from gross to more subtle and they collectively address our whole person, body, mind and spirit.

Step one, tapas, focuses on the body. Tapas creates transformation through effort, commitment, challenge and discipline. When we practice tapas in our bodies, we show up consistently to the mat. We practice at a level that is appropriately challenging for us. We stoke the fire of passion that spurs us on to keep going in our practice.

Tapas in the garden is the commitment to the land. It’s the tilling, raking, planting, weeding, weeding, weeding. The more energy you put in, the more excited you get about the process and it makes you want to work on it more.

Step two, svadhyaha, is about study. Side note, in yoga lists, the outline isn’t necessarily linear, so just because it’s number two, doesn’t mean you have to wait to do it until you’ve already done your tapas. In fact, the practices are more successful when we’re doing all of them at once. Svadhyaya is the mind-component of kriya and it’s to study the self. To observe the outcome, to take notes, to collect data. How to study the self may be derived from the texts of yoga, something your teacher taught you, or simply apply to what you think is interesting. Through paying attention to ourselves, we learn all about what makes us tick and how we can apply our practices even more effectively.

Svadhyaya in the garden is to learn lessons from year to year. What worked about the configuration of your plants? What were effective treatments for the weeds? What should you do differently than last year? What do the gardening books and the youtube gardeners have to say about it? Study your garden, it’s successes and failures, and make adjustments accordingly.

Step three, ishvara pranidhana, is to put your faith in the process. In this final practice, both in our person and in the garden, we recognize that as much as we can try to arrange things the way we like them and tend to them lovingly, it’s really all out of our control. There will be illness and accidents, there will be squash bugs and hail storms. But, we keep on because we love the experiences of being alive, of pulling fresh carrots out of the land, of watching fern fronds unfurl. The miracle of being alive and the miracles that happen in the garden are beyond comprehension and greater than we can explain. Ishvara pranidhana helps us to put language to the mystical, magical experience of life.