Santosha is a Niyama that is part of the 8 limbs. The 8 limbs is a spiritual guide written by Pantaj. How do we cultivate contentment? Even amidst our current events? Coming from a white supremacist culture where it’s ingrained to claim your land, get your piece of the pie, peek over our neighbors fence and see if they have it better than you—maybe now it’s comparison on social media of who is #livingtheirbestlifeever, who has more followers than you? We were set up to strive and compete. Capitalism is designed to make us not feel worthy so we keep buying the thing to fill the empty void. Santosha means grateful for what we have and not going into craving for what we don’t have. In Tantra, this is the realm of hungry ghost—where we are never satisfied or satiated. We keep striving for the next thing.
The Buddhists call this calm abiding. How can we cultivate a calmness whatever high or low we are riding? It is through these practices that we learn how to sit with whatever arises, how we dance with our shadows, (when greed, envy, jealousy, pride, shame come up) and we learn to feel settled in our life for whatever joy arises and whatever storm passes through.