My Favorite Verse in the Gita

Bhagavad Gita 2.40: “On this path, effort never goes to waste and there is no failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear.”

This reminds me of “tapas” which means heat, discipline, or austerity. Tapas is about showing up consistently for spiritual practice whether we like it or not, yet without any self-judgment.

Our practice doesn’t need to last hours, but it does need to happen. One of my old meditation teachers would tell us “Meditate for 2 minutes every hour. This will bring you more peace than meditating for hours every morning.”

It makes sense. Meditation shouldn’t only exist in the vacuum of meditation. It becomes more meaningful when it folds into life itself. If we meditate for 2 minutes, it sets us up to live mindfully for the other 58 minutes.

On this path, no effort goes to waste and there is no failure. Do the best you can, release the results, then wake up tomorrow and do the best you can.

Be gentle with yourself, yet don’t buy your own b.s. 😉