When I last wrote I was talking about now and auspicious beginnings. Go back and read it if you haven't or you forgot. I'll wait.
It has been a few weeks and a few more lines and discussions since then. Let's catch up. Since then we have talked about what the yoga sutras call the three parts that kinda make up who we are. Citta or the heart mind is our state of consciousness, it is the ego or personality that interacts with the outside world. It is our thoughts and stream of consciousness that runs through our heads all the time. It is our memories and the things that have shaped us into who we are. It is the stories we tell ourselves, the roles we play, it provides the structure and system to understand the world around us and allows us to interact with it. It is the instrument with which we see the world.
Phew, that's a lot for one little word to encompass. When you start out on your path to awareness, enlightenment, whatever you want to call it, that stream of thoughts and the dialog in your head is likely constant. You believe that the stories you tell yourself are true:
They are doing that just to annoy me
My neighbour just likes to piss me off
She is so pretty I wish I could look like her
She is so strong, I would never be able to do that
He thinks he's better than me, what a conceded jerk.
They only think of themselves.
I am fat and ugly.
My parents liked my sister best.
Anything on that list look a little familiar? We all do it. It is how we survive and keep ourselves safe. It is how we predict what is going to happen to us. But it isn't always true. Yoga provides a structure through which we learn to see these patterns in ourselves.
The second part that makes up who we are is the Purusa or the atman. This is that spark in each of us that is connected to the divine. When you hear "the light in me honours and sees the light in you" this is what they are talking about. It is there from the time you are born, it is the what I talk about when I refer to seeing people, especially strangers as souls. It is unchanging. It is unconditional. It is what makes you, yes YOU worthy of unconditional love just for existing. It has nothing to do with what you do, how you look or dress. You are loved just for you. This is your light. This is the seer.
The last part of what makes us who we are is the world around us that interacts with us. Drsya or ever changing mother nature. We think we can control and predict the world around us. We hold onto ideas about how we think the world should be, how it is, and over and over again the world shows us that we have no control (hello global pandemic, brain hemorrhage, death...) and it is conflict with the citta and the world around us that causes us suffering. No attachments, no suffering.
There. That's all you have to do to live a life filled with contentment. My work here is done.
Because it is that easy right? So this is the work. The rest of the yoga sutra gives us tools with which to quiet out heart mind. Tools with which we can see the world for how it really is, so that we can live as close as possible to that spark inside us. I know that I can think of times when I have felt that I am living life like that and I can think of many more where I am living out the stories I tell myself. Meditation is a tool. Journalling is a tool. Asana practice is a tool. We learn to observe our thoughts without judgment or attachment. We learn to let those same thoughts pass. We learn to tap into what thoughts are the Truth (yes that's that capital T kinda of truth), and what are us filling in the blanks with self serving nonsense. Our work in this lifetime is to spend more time in this moment, more time in the capital T kind of Truth, and less time in the constant chatter in our minds. We leash train that chatter. Eventually it will walk beside you at your heals without even needing the leash. It is said that "the mind is a great servant, but a terrible master".
So where are you on this journey? Do you have your "people" that you can talk to about this? Reach out to me if you want to talk more about this. This is what I love to talk about. Questions, let me hear them.
Comentarios