{"id":6569,"date":"2026-05-06T13:37:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/?p=6569"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:37:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:37:54","slug":"sraddha-faith-and-the-path-of-ashtanga-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/practice\/sraddha-faith-and-the-path-of-ashtanga-yoga\/","title":{"rendered":"\u015araddh\u0101: Faith and the Path of Ashtanga Yoga"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kino MacGregor<\/a><\/p>\n

When I first stepped into the demanding terrain of advanced postures under the guidance of my teachers in India, I did not arrive with confidence. I arrived with doubt. The shapes felt impossibly distant. I did not feel worthy of them, or ready. And yet I tried, not because I believed in myself, but because they believed in me.<\/p>\n

There is a subtle transmission that happens in the presence of a teacher who sees something in you before you can see it in yourself. It moves through steady encouragement, through the simple expectation that you will continue. Over time, that borrowed belief becomes an inner resource. What begins as something external takes root within, and the teacher\u2019s vision becomes a mirror through which the student begins to recognize their own capacity.<\/p>\n

This is not separate from what the tradition points to as \u015braddh\u0101, the deep, sustaining faith described in Yoga Sutras of Patanjali I.20, where faith gives rise to energy, steadiness, and insight. In the beginning, that faith is often carried for us. Gradually, it becomes something we learn to hold on our own.<\/p>\n

After nearly three decades of daily Ashtanga yoga practice, I can say that who I am has been shaped not only by effort, but by the ground my teachers held for me. I showed up, I practiced, I stayed through repetition and failure, but it was their belief that sustained the path when my own certainty wavered.<\/p>\n

Practice, as described in Yoga Sutras of Patanjali I.14, becomes firmly grounded when done for a long time, without interruption, and with devotion. That continuity is rarely born from willpower alone. It is supported by relationship, by guidance, and by the invisible threads of trust that bind student to teacher.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the postures that once felt impossible have become familiar, but the deeper lesson remains. Progress in an advanced yoga practice is not measured by complexity, but by awareness. The body may grow stronger and more capable, but the mind must learn to soften, to listen, to trust.<\/p>\n

This teaching becomes essential in advanced practice, where force will eventually fail, and sensitivity becomes the only sustainable path forward.<\/p>\n

Advanced practice is not about pushing harder, but about knowing how to respond, how to adjust, how to remain attuned in each moment. There are days when discipline asks you to stay and breathe through resistance, and days when wisdom asks you to step back. Both are part of the practice. Both require discernment.<\/p>\n

Beneath it all, there is gratitude. For the teachers who held the vision, for the moments of doubt that did not end the journey, and for the practice itself, which continues to reveal that strength and softness are not opposites, but partners. Effort and surrender move together along the same path, each shaping and refining the other.<\/p>\n

In the end, what we sustain over decades is not just a sequence of postures, but a relationship. A relationship to practice, to lineage, to those who guided us, and to the part of ourselves that is still learning how to believe.<\/p>\n

Still practicing.<\/p>\n

For the practitioner who keeps showing up.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kino MacGregor When I first stepped into the demanding terrain of advanced postures under the guidance of my teachers in India, I did not arrive with confidence. I arrived with doubt. The shapes felt impossibly distant. I did not feel worthy of them, or ready. And yet I tried, not because I believed in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[38,210,160,54,51,46,68,78,8,178,201,183,252],"class_list":["post-6569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practice","tag-ashtanga","tag-ashtanga-yoga","tag-kino-macgregor","tag-kinomacgregor","tag-learning","tag-meditation","tag-omstars","tag-omstarsblog","tag-yoga","tag-yoga-philosophy","tag-yoga-poses","tag-yoga-practice","tag-yoga-teacher"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC0571231-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6572,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6569\/revisions\/6572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}