How long should we practice yoga per day?

“You have to try relentlessly to climb very high if you want to be able to see very far away.”
Brâncuși

“You have to climb relentlessly very high if you want to be able to see very far away.” (Brâncuși)
“There is no stagnation, there is only evolution and involution. That’s why you have to grow incessantly.”

People could have been flying as early as many thousands of years ago, but they were making their glider wings too small; in fact, they didn’t believe in their dream enough to invest more…. or they were naïve and thought it was going anyway…
In yoga, the difference between almost nothing and astounding is made by the level of daily practice.
First it should be noted that the efficiency of spiritual practice is not always the same; it matters, for example, our concentration and inner attitude.

On the Way of the Heart – Abheda Yoga it is known that the spiritual efficiency of any action is proportional to the degree of centering in the Heart.

It is important to figure out whether we are practicing wholeheartedly or formally. In the latter case, obviously, the effectiveness of the practice decreases, while if we practice with all our soul, with the main attention in the Self, the efficiency can be instantaneous.
The effectiveness of the practice also depends on our integration in the middle of life.
If we are in retreat or long-term isolation, the effectiveness of the practice decreases (usually, but there are exceptions).
If we practice yoga but we are also spiritually integrated in the middle of life, having assumed responsibilities and actively contributing to the fulfillment of our own spiritual purpose and we apply the methods of amplifying spirituality in the middle of life – well, the efficiency increases a lot.
If we also integrate methods specific to the Way of Grace, in order to benefit from the help of beneficial beings from the subtle, spiritual masters, divine avatars, angels or even God himself – then the efficiency increases again a lot (sometimes even very much).
When more people practice yoga in unison, the efficiency increases amazingly and that is why it is advantageous to participate in regular meditations in unison, in the yoga course or in camps and symposiums at which it is seriously practiced.
Practicing under the direct guidance of a good enough yoga master or yoga teacher gives us an efficiency and a spiritual impulse that we easily recognize.
Different people will have different spiritual efficiency in practice, depending on their skills and according to their karma.
However, even if a man has, due to his own accumulated spiritual merits, a special efficiency in practice, for him the requirements are greater – proportionally – and the spiritual trials are commensurate.

Despite so many variables, a few truths can be detected that can help us if applied.
1. It is good to practice as much as possible, but it is not good to practice… a lot at once.
This does not have to be a justification to keep ourselves “in an eternal beginning” but it tells us to practice gradually more and more intensely and correctly.
Yes, it’s true, if only if we want to practice yoga, but without ever having been able to do it, it means that we have a very good karma.
Even if we just come to class once a week it can help us a lot.
Even 10 minutes daily of yoga can be extremely valuable for the practitioner.
However, if we are talking about serious practice, we can start with 30 minutes daily constantly.
2. It is best to be active beings, spiritually integrated in the middle of life, since in general, this is how the best results are obtained. It does not help us to justify our insufficiency of practice by the fact that we do not have time or that life is hectic. If we do this, “we steal our own hat”, because it is only a form of self-indulgency. In addition, whoever does yoga, then has more time, not less.
3. It is very good to integrate processes specific to the Path of Grace.
4. It is good to practice regularly, since a good habit is created, what we do consistently and repeatedly becomes pleasant and desired, and over time we gain mastery in that practice.
Efficiency increases due to a phenomenon of accumulation of results, in a similar way to the increase in the balance at a bank that offers us a significant interest rate on a deposit. We will observe with quantitative accumulations lead to qualitative leaps and we will enjoy the fruits of our consistent spiritual work.
5. It is much more effective to practice every day without exception. For this it is good to assume a quantity of daily practice that we can achieve regardless of whether or not we are rested, inspired or supported. At will we will be able to supplement this occasional program, but what we have assumed to be practiced regularly is good to be practiced regularly and thus the growth will be uninterrupted and obvious.
6. The length of days for an assumed amount of practice is good to be limited and precise, NOT undefined in time. After the end of such a period, we can “draw our soul” and then assume a larger program, depending on the results obtained.
7. It is good to practice with all our soul, centered in the spiritual Heart, but even if we do not manage to be in a harmonious and enthusiastic inner state, the practice is worth carrying out regardless of the inner or outer conditions.
8. DO NOT underestimate the need for Hatha Yoga training. There are so-called yogis who consider that they are advanced enough to need to perform asanas and pranayama, summing up meditations and spiritual study.
It’s a very big mistake.
Anyone who needs hatha yoga, so don’t delve into error by wasting precious time in your life by not practicing Hatha yoga.
9. Participating in the yoga course at the gym wholeheartedly and with a frantic enthusiasm gives us a strong spiritual impulse and, even, can save us from inner difficulties, inertias, depressions. So come to the yoga class regularly.
10. Reading authentic spiritual courses and books gives us theoretical knowledge, stimulates us inwardly and purifies our mind from unnecessary and sterile thought forms. However, they should not be achieved instead of actual practice, because one gram of practice makes as many as tons of theory, even though, obviously, we need the theoretical minimum for that gram of practice.
11. The practical application of the “Scrolls of the Soul” is a fundamental method that can often make the difference between a bright success and stagnation.
12. Two hours of asanas and pranayama and one hour of meditation per day is an intense practice scheme that can usually give us the results that others get after 8-9 hours of practice in isolation, monasteries or ashrams.
These durations, obviously, can be overcome, but they are a correct goal for an Authentic and Determined Seeker.
And yet, although this is a very good level, it is still not a sufficient level.
There are spiritual paths of denial type, in which people refuse life in the world, which seems to them to be holding them back, brutalizing and moving away from the spiritual ideal and retreating into solitude or into the monastery. They dedicate their entire time to inner transformation and spiritual evolution. These are good ways, ways of denying the appearance of the world and transcendence, which offer the fulfillment of the inner spiritual purpose, but not that of the outer spiritual purpose.
There are spiritual paths, let’s say, of the integration type of the world and of the spiritual effort, in which the authentic Seeker withdraws into himself and first makes spiritual efforts to transform and evolve and then “throws” himself again in the middle of life, understanding it in a new way.
Then, when he feels the need, he returns to solitude to make another spiritual leap, which he can then relish in the middle of life, until this impulse fades and returns to the meditation room, like a woodcutter who, from time to time, stops “sharpening his axe again”.
These are very good spiritual paths that integrate life and use spiritual training to better promote the trials of life, thus fulfilling both its inner spiritual purpose and its external spiritual purpose.
But there is also a spiritual path in which
life itself produces transformation and evolution,
the path on which (symbolically and making a parallel with the life of a lumberjack) “THE MORE TREES YOU CUT, THE SHARPER THE AX HARDENS BY ITSELF” .
I mean, in this situation, “the axe gets sharper precisely because of its use.”
THIS IS THE WAY OF THE HEART – ABHEDA YOGA, THE PATH OF SPIRITUALITY IN THE MIDDLE OF LIFE.
Both purposes of existence are fulfilled at the same time.
However, it is extremely rare that there is no need for hatha yoga practice (asanas, pranayama, meditation), but they integrate harmoniously into life, not representing a discontinuity in the inner relation to the Spiritual Light.
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In order to reach this level, it is necessary, however, to go for a period of time, through all types of approaches: first the one of denial, then the one of integrating life and spiritual effort, gaining, then, in time, the ability to live life as a spiritual path.
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If we practice enough, any dream can come true.
However, we remind you that although through yoga everything is possible, not everything is allowed.

Successful!
Leo Radutz