GS: Samskaras are deeply entrenched, and we have to exhaust them, but we are unconscious of them. Awareness is not affected by samskaras. Is it that we can be conscious of them without indulging in them or do we have to exhaust them? While writing this only I was wondering about my own contradiction! Please can you explain to me in detail the teaching on samskaras and how to exhaust them?
Sundari: Samskaras are not a problem if they are completely exhausted. In which case they are no longer unconscious samskaras, they are known, and they are burned ropes. Even if they appear, they no longer have the power to make the mind condition to them. But if they are not exhausted, they still cause suffering. As you know, a vasana is a guna-generated tendency or program that we keep repeating and which binds us to an incorrect idea about ourselves, our karma, and life in general. Vasanas create karma and karma creates vasanas in an endless cycle of suffering.
A samskara is a conglomeration of vasanas, all inter-connected, like mycorrhizal fungi ‘underground’, both personal and Universal. The mushrooms, like vasanas, will pop up here and there and will seem like they are discrete and independent programs, but they are connected to a vast network of vasanas in the underground of the Causal body or unconscious. All vasanas/samskaras arise from the three gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas which are what make up the dharmafield. The gunas give rise to the jiva, the vasanas and their results (karma).
Vasanas are pre-cognitive commitments, literally, a commitment before thought. Some of these commitments we are born with and into depending on our life karma. Some we develop as we grow up and respond to what life presents to us. When the mind is run by binding vasanas, it resembles fleas kept in a jar with a lid on for some time. With the removal of the lid, the fleas are unable to jump out because they have unconsciously made a cognitive commitment to the belief that there is a lid on the jar. Another good metaphor is a baby elephant tied to a tree with a heavy chain of ever diminishing thickness, as it grows older. By the time the elephant is fully grown, it has made a commitment to the belief that the chain is unbreakable, even though what binds it to the tree is simply a small string that it could easily snap with one good tug.
The power to delude is Maya and it causes us to only focus on present evidence and ignore absent evidence altogether. So yes, when we are unconscious of samskaras, they affect our lives in pervasive and persuasive ways. Isvara gives us plenty of opportunities to observe the root of these deeply seated unconscious patterns that often ruin our lives and cause so much agitation and suffering. But until the mind is sufficiently objective and purified, it remains blind to them and their effects.
Some inquirers say that as samskaras are mithya, why should they bother with them? After all, as the Self, there are no samskaras for you because they are not real. This is true. But the problem here is that in most cases like this, the doer is still alive and well and the ego is the one claiming to be free of ignorance, i.e., of the samskaras. If that is the case, freedom is not freedom. If you truly are free of the jiva and all samskaras truly are non-binding, the conceptual egoic jiva will be noticeable by its absence. And you, the Self, Jivatman, are the knower of the conceptual jiva with its life story. And that jiva will experience the bliss of Self-knowledge because it has cleaned up its karma and is perfectly satisfied with its life. But this is rarely the case for most inquirers once Self-realization obtains because there is still a residual jiva causing dissatisfaction.
As you know, the stage after karma yoga and Self-realization is called nididyasana or Self-actualization. It is so important because it addresses the remaining ignorance (identification with the conceptual jiva) which is very subtle and tenacious. If the inquirer completes this stage, its life is synchronized with its identity as the limitless ever-present Existence/Awareness, which in short means taking a stand in the Self as the Self. How else is the Jiva going to reclaim its true limitless nature? The Jiva…the eternal individual…is non-separate from the Self; that is the non-dual teaching.
Obviously, the story Jiva can’t claim anything because it is just a conceptual person. But the sentient person, the eternal person who is telling the story, can own up its true identity and gain the fruit – perfect satisfaction – if he/she does their svadharma i.e., applies Self-knowledge. If an inquirer does not follow through with nididhysana, it creates a depressing sense of malaise, which will not be ameliorated by any object. At this stage of self-inquiry, you cannot ‘unknow’ yourself as the Self, so if there is still a jiva present causing distress with its ‘issues’, dissatisfaction will be intense. There is no way back, but the way forward is difficult because it requires ruthless honesty and total surrender to the scripture, to Isvara. The ego simply must give in or remain stuck in suffering.
There are 9 primary universal samskaras and they play out in any number of guna permutations:
Ragas – Likes
Dveshas – Dislikes
Kama – Lust/Desire/Passion
Krodha – Anger
Lobha – Greed
Moha – illusion
Mada- Delusion
Matsarya- Envy
Bhayam – Fear
Samskaras are never about what they purport to be about, an unnamed gnawing fear lurks behind them all. No matter what you do or don’t do, it is there attaching itself to an action. One needs to be sick and tired of the mind it creates. Yes, one can walk away from various situations relatively easily; but walking away from the belief that worldly results are necessary for peace of mind is the real renunciation because it amounts to renunciation of the doer itself.
How the samskaras play out will be different for everyone, yet the same too. There is nothing new under the sun, and as there is really only one jiva appearing as many, all jivas share the same problems more or less. Prarabdha karma plays out the way it plays out and Isvara gives us the karma we need to see what we need to resolve when it is time to heal. The psyche has a drive for wholeness because it knows it is the Self and suffering is not natural.
But the effects of ignorance have been there for a long “time” and mostly do not dissolve overnight. Karma yoga and jnana yoga are the only solution. Therefore the final stage of self-inquiry, nididhysana, often takes the longest. The essence of nididhysana is resolving all our conditioning through contemplation, assimilation of the knowledge, and transformation of its habitual patterns (vasanas/samskaras/pratibandikas) through Self-knowledge. There is no fine print to this if you want to be happy.
I recently made a discovery that a binding samskara was still hiding out in the Causal Body. It was not unknown to me; I knew it was there as I have seen it play out many times in the past. I know where it comes from both in the personal jiva narrative and as a universal samskara. I believed it was non-binding, but it was not. Isvara sent an experience my way where I had a deeply emotional reaction and I realized I had to re-qualify for moksa and continue nididhysana.
Since I surrendered to Isvara on this and allowed Self-knowledge to crack the final shell of the ego, I saw with the x-ray vision of non-duality how that samskara had tentacles in every area of my life. Even though I know who I am, it was costing me big time in experiencing the true bliss of the Self. I saw how it appeared, like a shadow, in every moment of my existence, stealing some of my freedom and joy, like a thief in the night. I posted a satsang about this called ‘The Durodhyana Factor”.
This leela highlights the fact that until we dissolve all our jiva issues, we are not fully free. Many people with very refined intellects have a strong doubting function, which is not a bad thing. I have that too. But what I discovered is the downside of doubting can result in two binding issues: the suspicion samskara and a subtle kind of arrogance—a lack of humility. It was quite a revelation to see how widely spread out this samskara was, like undetected cancer.
When I realized that there was still a binding issue, I saw that I was not able to take a stand in Awareness as Awareness when it came up, even though I know who I am. At that moment, karma yoga did not work either. It needed a wrecking ball to crack it so that I could surrender, and Isvara delivered it. We all need a wrecking ball as jivas and if we are lucky, Isvara will send us one. It will not be a pleasant experience for the ego, but it is definitely grace.
Since I dissolved this last issue, I am the same as a person—and I am not. I am no longer a person and the Self. I am the Self. Period. The person is known, understood, unconditionally accepted—and, dismissed. It still requires some vigilance to ensure that the samskara does not re-emerge, but there is, at last, a fundamental shift in the jiva make-up, which is quite unmistakable, and new. It is lighter, relaxed. Worry is gone. It is hard to describe freedom, except to say that true freedom is all or nothing. No fine print.
Samskaras and Mind Control
It is important to understand that vasanas are not inherently good or bad. They are the seeds—the knowledge—that drive Creation. Isvara invented them. Nothing stirs in the creation or apparent reality without a vasana driving it, whether it is a once-off thing or an often-repeated pattern of behaviour. A vasana becomes a good one when it drives you into pleasant circumstances and it becomes a bad one when it drives you into an unpleasant situation.
I make this point to counteract the idea that vasanas are only negative. The belief that they are all negative has given rise to a tenacious and frustrating enlightenment idea: that only with the removal of all vasanas does enlightenment result. It is a false and dangerous fallacy, capable of keeping you stuck trying to perfect the person until Kingdom come. Enlightened people have vasanas. If you are alive, you have vasanas. Vasanas come with the territory of being a jiva. When the vasanas are all gone, you die. It is a matter of what kind of vasanas they are. A vasana for self-inquiry and non-injury are ones you want to have, for instance.
There is nothing inherently right or wrong about repeating a particular behaviour. Certain habits are good and certain habits are not, depending on what you are trying to achieve. As discriminating inquirers, we are interested in the psychology behind our behaviour, not the behaviors themselves, although certain behaviors are completely off limits, such as those that violate universal norms, such as injury, deceit, theft, etc. The basic psychology operating behind most of our unhelpful behaviors is a sense of lack.
A vasana for food is natural. It is Isvara maintaining the body. I eat to live. But when I feel emotionally upset for any reason and use food to calm me, the vasana becomes a problem because it masks my real motivation. I am now living to eat. If my mind is clear, I can understand that I am using food to solve a problem not solvable by food (or anything else) and I can look for the solution elsewhere. However, if my mind is not clear and food works, which it does, always only temporarily, I will repeatedly use food to manage my emotions.
When we repeatedly repeat a vasana, the behaviour associated with it becomes binding. When I keep responding habitually to life boredom sets in. It is not pleasant to behave like a robot. At this stage, the vasana driven habit can become an obsession or a compulsion, which in the worst-case scenario finally morphs into an addiction. We call these states of desire and attachment ‘binding’ vasanas. At this point, you are not eating food; the food is eating you; you are not having sex, sex is having you. Food and sex represent any vasana-driven behaviour meant to make you feel good. On and on it goes with all objects we chase in a vain attempt to feel complete.
This is a good analogy for how our conditioning (vasanas) works. It determines our beliefs, opinions, and tendencies. Yet, conditioning is as insubstantial as the thoughts from which the cognitive commitments are made. Even though Consciousness (the Self) is always present, we steadfastly ignore it because the power of ignorance exerts a vice-like grip on the mind, and we are trapped in samsara, like the fleas and the elephant. Lucky for us, Maya is powerful and intelligent, but if the mind is qualified and dedicated to self-inquiry, Self-knowledge removes it.
Three Types of Vasanas
There are basically three types or categories of vasanas—smoke or fire, grime on a mirror and fetus in the womb.
1. Smoke or Fire: These vasanas disturb the mind but are negated without too much effort. Like smokes dissipates on its own and fire is extinguished by water, we can dissolve this type of tendency quite easily. Examples of this are things that we can easily forgo relatively easily—like wanting an ice cream for instance (unless we have a pathological addiction to it!), anything patently gratuitous.
2. Grime on a Mirror: Grime on a mirror, which has been there for a while, needs elbow grease to remove it. These tendencies are not so easy to negate and require diligent practice of self-knowledge. Examples of this are habitually talking too much, eating too much, indulging any of the senses too much, frantic activity, manipulating to get our own way—any habit that is binding but we are aware of it.
3. Fetus in the Womb: Just like a fetus in the womb takes 9 months to gestate to develop fully, so these tendencies cannot be removed before they come to fruition. This kind of vasana usually creates samskaras (conglomeration of vasanas) or pratibandikas—deeply entrenched, and most often, unconscious habits.
As stated, a vasana is the momentum from a past action, the tendency to repeat it. It is purely a technical term. But vasanas can also sprout without any previously known tendency or desire because the seeds for all vasanas are Isvara (Macrocosmic Causal Body) and therefore exist as potential in everyone. Hence all samskaras are rooted in Universal ignorance which plays out in our individual jiva narrative.
It may seem like ‘our’ vasanas are personal and original, but they are not. All vasanas are eternal because they originate in the Causal body. Isvara churns them out over and over because there is really only one eternal Jiva or Subtle body, appearing as many seemingly unique individuals with seemingly unique ‘issues’. They are not unique (although the ego likes to think they are) but generic and timeless. It is impossible to put a timeline to this logic because as principles the Gunas, the Jiva and the Vasanas cannot be separated as they exist ‘out of time’, in infinite potential within the Causal Body, which is infinite because it exists in Consciousness.
Observing the mind and how the vasanas play out in the light of Self-knowledge is the main step towards rendering the vasanas non-binding. What this entails is to track the mind and see what the trigger was for the disturbance whatever it is, what guna was in play, and what value underpinned the guna. Ignorance works the same way every time, so it should not be difficult to track, but it requires eternal vigilance. Sometimes though, when it comes to deeply entrenched samskaras, it can take repeated observation and determination to render them non-binding because they are so hidden. There is not a single thing in our lives that deep samskaras do not affect—like bacteria, they creep in everywhere, causing inflammation and dis-ease in the psyche—and, in the body, which is an extension of the mind.
Thus, samskaras will take time to go away. They will fade more quickly when they are fully understood. Applying the opposite thought works because it objectifies the anxiety—if one can remember to think the opposite thought when you are stressed. Karma yoga works when worry is there; it is perfectly designed to destroy samskaras. However, the nature of rajas is such that the tamas (denial, blindness) that accompanies it causes one to feel that one does not have ‘time’ to deconstruct the desire/fear on the spot! The doer forgets that it is now an inquirer and that it is supposed to free the mind of worry through Self-knowledge, not to get the object in the world. It thinks that the results of the action will free the mind, which they will temporarily, leaving the samskara carefully concealed and intact, however. The doer acts to correct the situation instead of turning around and correcting the thinking behind it.
To ameliorate the effect of a samskara it is very effective to dismiss the present thought by taking the line of reasoning it represents to its logical conclusion, thus defusing the power of the samskara in the moment. The key to most samskaras is the word ‘time.’ Time represents the pressure of the samskara. When it is operating, the thought/word ‘time’ is meant to refer to something real, something substantial. But all it refers to is “I want.” We know what is behind that: ‘I am insecure, I am afraid, I am incomplete’, etc.’
But then the doer/ego will immediately try to prevent this alternative because doing is the key to the maintenance of its identity as someone in control of his or her destiny. See the fear—again rajas. But renunciation of karma causes another problem for the doer. It presents the scenario it was trying to avoid in the first place: no control, which is fear-based too. If the doer actually analyzed the root cause the whole problem would go away instantly.
But, if the samskara is doing the thinking, that is the worst alternative. “What if” and off it goes worrying. Fear is meant to be very smart. At some point in the life of the doer, worry is self-validating. It equals love for the doer. It means I care about myself. But as you probably know, it is a purely samsaric value. If one encounters a terrible fear of any kind, dismiss it immediately. Reaffirm the opposite thought: “No bad result, I am Awareness.” Fear is hard to love and makes love hard when love is actually your true nature.
The best mantra is “Nothing can go wrong.” Nothing ever went ‘wrong’ because life is not about me getting what I think I want. It is about the me that does not want. The only cure for a bad attitude is a good attitude. There are so many good thoughts available to remove the stress in any situation but attachment to the doer makes them all unpalatable. The renunciation thought is particularly difficult for the doer because it indicates a failure to get what it wants the way it wants it when it wants it. It can’t stand that thought because the ‘I am the Self’ thought does not actually sustain it when it is faced with various everyday situations that involve loss or the fear of loss. Hence, the ego resists and digs in its heels, and suffering continues.
A happy life for the jiva is all about thought and emotion management. The mind is our primary instrument for knowing anything. It is so powerful it has the unique capacity to convert heaven into hell and hell into heaven. A person with every convenience can feel miserable and tortured and a person weighed down with so many problems can feel totally happy and peaceful. Even a Self-realized person can still suffer great distress if samskaras are still binding. The quality of our life is dependent on the powerful organ, the mind. Isvara has given us an exquisite instrument with which to experience life, but it has a serious drawback inherent in its nature which prevents most of us from experiencing the joy of our true nature as Awareness.
The serious drawback of the mind is that without our permission, the mind generates continuous involuntary thoughts we have no control over. These thoughts come from the gunas, from the Causal body. They will play out according to our guna make-up and karma. With or without our involvement, the mind, which is supposed to be our instrument – we are the owner— acts on its own, of its own volition. The mind is supposed to, and can, produce deliberate thoughts of our own choosing, but unless we understand what governs it and know how to manage the gunas, its nature is to produce and churn out thoughts continuously. It is simply a machine, and this is how it is made. There is no off button. But we are one the lucky ones who have, by good grace that is not our doing, stumbled upon the manual. Vedanta. This manual contains not only all the operating instructions, but it also explains the nature of the mind, what it is, and the forces that run it, the gunas.
The mind run by the gunas is a very serious problem for the jiva, with many adverse consequences. When involuntary thoughts kidnap the mind, it means the mind is not available for our use in self-inquiry, or for much else. We do actions without thinking, as an absent-minded or mindless person, “living in absentia.” Managing the mind means managing the gunas—and vice versa. There’s no magic to Vedanta. Vedanta shows us that the mind is our primary instrument for experiencing, realizing, and actualizing ourselves in this world.
It all boils down to owning your mind as your primary instrument and repeatedly and consistently reconditioning it with thoughts that are true—in other words, that produce peace of mind. Any seeming failure to have a peaceful life is only due to lack of knowledge and incorrect thoughts that dominate the mind/emotions/intellect. The simple solution is re-conditioning the mind with chosen thoughts that are aligned with the truth and based in Self-knowledge. This is called volitional, deliberate, thinking.
When skillfully managed, the mind will produce peace of mind and allow us to express and enjoy the beauty that we are in our day-to-day life, no matter what life dishes out to us. When you feel bad, for any reason, you can convert your emotional distress/fear and mental agitation into gratitude and peace through managing the gunas with volitional thinking. This entails watching out with hawk’s eyes for the habitual emotional thought patterns dominating your mind and creating your negative state of mind and suffering—and transforming those thought patterns into new thoughts of your own choosing.
7 Step Formula to Mind Effective Mind Management:
1. Own your mind as your primary instrument.
2. Clarify your highest values by conducting a fearless moral inventory.
3. Take responsibility for every experience you have, it comes from your thoughts, not the world.
4. Your thoughts/emotions don’t come from you; they come from the three gunas. Make sure you understand what they are.
5. Monitor your every thought and the emotion it produces, see the guna behind it.
6. Discriminate the habitual emotional thought patterns that compel you to act against your highest values creating pain and suffering.
7. Evaluate your daily actions to discover those that do not support your highest values.
8. Change those thoughts and the actions they produce by conditioning new chosen thoughts into your primary instrument. Apply karma yoga to every thought, word and deed.
7. Relax, stop worrying, as your primary instrument automatically serves your highest values in your day-to-day life, no matter what unfolds.
I know it sounds easier than it is, but if we want to be free of suffering, there is no other way. Vedanta offers you complete knowledge of reality along with moksa. It may not be a magic pill for the ego because it does not inoculate the jiva from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but it does free us from identification with the suffering egoic jiva, which makes all the difference in the world. You are on the Vedanta bus, trust it to take you where you need to go, remembering that the steps to get ‘there’ are the qualities of being there, and there is no ‘there’ to get to. The ‘steps to get there are the qualities of being there’ because you are THE there.
Much love
Sundari
