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When
you sit for meditation and close your eyes, almost the
first thing you notice is that your awareness is not
continuous. It does not consist of a single, homogenous
stream but flows as different, sometimes disconnected,
streams of thought. Psychologists call this phenomenon
"dissociation." By dissociation is meant not the appearance
of various pictures in the mind, but the emotional sectioning
of the mind and the identification of the self with
each division.
Dissociation
of awareness is the human response to the diverse challenges
of life. An average person has to play a number of roles
in day-to-day life: as a child, parent, spouse, worker,
boss, taxpayer, citizen, artist, thinker, etc. In a
normal person all these diverse activities are held
together by the common bond of self-awareness. There
is in us a unifying center known as the self which gives
identity to our existence, continuity to our experience,
and wholeness to our personality. In the Upanisads the
self is often compared to the hub of life to which the
spokes of life-activities are attached.1
However,
under certain abnormal conditions produced by stress
and emotional conflicts, dissociation becomes so strong
that the self is unable to integrate the contradictory
streams of thought. The person in whom this happens
develops a divided personality and lives in mutually
incompatible worlds. When this process is carried to
an extreme, it may result in neurosis or something worse.
It was as an explanation of neurosis that the phenomenon
of dissociation was first discovered by the French psychologist
Pierre Janet in the middle of the nineteenth century.
However, as already mentioned, mild forms of dissociation
occur almost every minute in a normal person and are
a big problem in meditative life. Spiritual aspirants
must understand the nature and cause of dissociation.
The
immediate cause of dissociation is the presence of obstructions
in the mind which prevent the free and uniform flow
of awareness. What are these obstructions? Western psychologists
call them by various names: instincts, drives, impulses,
complexes. In Indian psychology these are called samskaras
and are regarded as latent impressions produced by earlier
experiences, including those of previous births. These
"impressions" are not like dots on a paper. They are
rather like fields of mental forces. Just as a river
is divided into different branches by big rocks or sandbars,
so the stream of thoughts is divided into different
branches by samskaras.
Investigation
into the way compulsive emotional drives operated led
Freud to two important discoveries. One is that the
mind is not fully conscious and a major part of it consists
of the "unconscious." The other discovery is that most
people are unaware of the operation of their own emotional
drives because these are excluded from the conscious
mind and are kept in check in the unconscious by a process
which Freud called "repression." When a person controls
his or her emotions and impulses consciously, it is
called suppression. But when the control is effected
unconsciously, the process becomes repression.
These
basic ideas of Freud were known to the ancient Indian
sages. They regarded the whole mind as intrinsically
unconscious and the Purusa or Atman as the only source
of consciousness. Only that part of the mind which is
illumined by the light of the Purusa was regarded as
the conscious mind (manas), the remaining part
of the mind with a preponderance of tamas being
regarded as the unconscious (citta) which was
understood to be the storehouse of samskaras. A higher
part of the mind with a greater degree of sattva
was further marked off as the buddhi, the source
of spiritual intuition and true will, and the empirical
(vyavaharika) self of human beings.
Two
Types of Samskaras
Samskaras
or latent impressions are of two kinds: those which
give rise to desires, emotional impulses, instinctual
drives etc., and those which give rise to concepts,
ideas, etc. In most of our normal thinking, ideas and
concepts are found linked to desires or emotional impulses.
An
idea or concept normally consists of one or more images
and corresponding words, respectively known as rupa
and nama in Indian psychology. In abstract thinking
(such as philosophical speculation, mathematical calculation,
etc.) the mind deals almost exclusively with words,
symbols and images.2 But in ordinary thinking,
words and images are invariably linked to desires, impulses
or drives. In Vedanta, impulses, desires, etc. are known
as vasana or bhoga-vasana; (Patanjali
in his Yoga Sutras refers to them as klesas,
a term obviously borrowed from Buddhist sources.)
Normally
we cannot think of persons or things without simultaneously
feeling some emotion or desire. Every emotion is linked
to a large number of ideas. Love for a person brings
to the mind many pictures and words about him or her.
Similarly, anger produces many pictures and words in
the mind.
How
does this linking between ideas and desires or impulses
take place in the mind? It takes place through a process
of willing known as samkalpa or intention. From
our childhood we associate persons and things with different
desires or emotions. This association is generally made
at first through conscious willing or samkalpa. Later
on it becomes unconscious and automatic.
Every
day we make so many samkalpas or intentions, such as,
"I will do this," "I will eat that," "Let me think of
him," and so on. Once a samkalpa is made, several ideas
and emotions rush into the mind. When we sit for meditation
we may make the samkalpa, "I will think of God alone;
I will not think of anything else." But owing to the
action of past samskaras, so many ideas and desires
or impulses rise in the mind and cause distractions
during meditation. This is generally referred to as
"wandering of the mind."
Control
of the Vrttis
Patanjali
uses the term vritti mostly to mean a cognitive
modification of the mind such as an idea or a concept.
He defines yoga as the control of vrittis (yogascittavrtti
nirodhah 1. 2). But before control of the vrittis
becomes possible, they should be freed from the hold
of impulses and drives.
By
themselves, images and words are harmless. It is the
impulses connected to them that create all the trouble.
Take, for instance, the case of a person addicted to
smoking. Every time the memory of the pleasure of the
experience or even a cigarette comes to mind, the smoker
feels an urge to smoke. But if through medical advice
and fear of cancer he or she succeeds in controlling
that impulse, that person can think about smoking or
cigarettes without feeling the urge to smoke. Or suppose
person B is rude to person A. Later on A finds that
whenever the memory of B arises, the impulse of anger
also arises in his or her mind. But suppose A pardons
B. Then when the picture of B arises, it no longer creates
anger in A's mind.
It
is the hooking of instinctual impulses to memories that
is the root cause of all our emotional problems. This
linking is of the nature of an invasion. Like surface-to-air
missiles, impulses from the unconscious invade the memories
which appear in the conscious mind. When this happens
we act without thinking about past experiences or future
consequences. Says the Yoga Vasistha, "Vasana
is the sudden seizing of an object without thinking
about the past or future owing to deep-rooted habit."3
The
first struggle in meditative life is to break the connection
between memories and impulses. This is what purification
of the mind really means. In a purified mind instinctive
impulses do not operate. Memories in the form of pictures
and ideas appear but they are not tied down to impulses.
Like white clouds which do not rain but disappear in
the blue sky, these memories disappear after remaining
in the field of consciousness for a short while.
Purification
of Samskaras
The
purification of the mind really means the purification
of samskaras which, as we have seen, means breaking
the connection between impulses and ideas. How can one
do this?
One
method is to weaken the power of the impulses through
abstinence, avoidance, withdrawal and other forms of
tapas or austerity. Another method is to increase
the number of good samskaras through virtuous karma.
Something like what physical chemists call the Law of
Mass Action operates in mental life also. When dharma
samskaras (good impressions) increase, they keep in
check adharma samskaras (bad impressions). These
two methods — tapas and virtuous karma — are
unavoidable disciplines during the early stages of meditative
life.
Patanjali
speaks of a third method, which may be practiced along
with the other two. This is to change the connection
between impulses and mental images. Images exert a great
influence in the mind. If bad impulses, when they arise
in the mind, are connected to the image of a holy man
or holy woman, they immediately get controlled. Similarly,
bad images cease to appear bad when connected to good
emotions. This process of changing the connections between
mental images and impulses is called pratipaksa-bhavanam.4
This is to be done through proper self-analysis, but
this becomes effective only when the new connections
are tested in action.
A
fourth and higher method is to detach the will. The
connection between images and impluses is consciously
made by exercising the will. This connection is supported
by the will. If the will is detached, the samskaras
break apart. However, detachment is not easy. It becomes
possible only when supported by other disciplines. A
story is told about the great French impressionist painter
Matisse. A visitor to his studio pointed to some unholy
pictures hanging on the wall and asked Matisse: "Don't
you think these have a demoralizing effect on people?"
The artist calmly replied, "My dear man, it is not a
woman, it is only a picture." An artist sees only a
picture in a woman, whereas an ordinary man sees a woman
in a picture — this is the difference between the
two. This does not of course mean that all artists are
holy sages. But in them the creative urge becomes so
strong that it produces a certain degree of detachment
— aesthetic detachment as it is called. However,
owing to a lack of systematic moral discipline, most
artists are not able to sustain this detachment for
long.
All
impulses can be reduced to three types of instinctual
reactions: "towards," "against" and "away from" —
raga, dvesa and bhaya, as Indian
psychologists call them. The terms dharma (virtue) and
adharma (vice) can be applied only to these implulses
and the actions that result from them. Memories, that
is the various images and ideas that rise in the mind,
are neutral. By themselves they are neither good nor
bad; it is their association with impulses that makes
them good or bad. When we speak of purification of the
mind, what we really mean is freeing the memory from
the hold of impulses, or smrti parisuddhi, purification
of the memory, as Patanjali calls it.
When
bad memories appear, one should not get upset but should
calmly proceed to free them from bad impulses through
self-analysis. Further, one should understand that mental
images appear living only because they are charged with
consciousness through association with the self. When
the self is disconnected from the mental images by detaching
the will, they get deflated and disappear.
The
Action of Samskaras
Normally
the action of samskaras can be noticed only when they
sprout into vrittis. Memories and impulses are all different
forms of vrittis. Says Swami Vivekananda: "These feelings
have to be controlled in the germ, the root, in their
fine forms, before even we have become conscious that
they are acting on us. With the vast majority of mankind,
the fine states of these passions are not even known
— the states in which they emerge from the subconscious.
When a bubble is rising from the bottom of the lake,
we do not see it, nor even when it is nearly come to
the surface; it is only when it bursts and makes a ripple
that we know it is there."5
By the practice of purification and meditation, the
spiritual aspirant comes to have greater insight into
the subtle workings of the mind and the way samskaras
sprout and operate.
How
do samskaras sprout into vrittis? What activates the
samskaras? Just as the recording in a magnetic tape
is activated by the electric current in the tape recorder,
the samskaras are activated by the cosmic energy flowing
through the mind. Regarding the nature of this cosmic
energy Indian sages hold different views. According
to the Samkhya Yoga school it is rajas, the mobile
element of the three gunas, that manifests itself
as all movements in the cosmos. The Gita says,
"This lust, this anger, arises because of rajas."6
Commenting on this line, Vedanta Desika says, "Watered
with rajas the seeds of subtle impressions left by the
experience of objects of senses sprout into desire and
anger."7
In
the Vedas and the Tantras the cosmic energy is
called prana. By prana is meant not the air we
breathe, points out Swami Vivekananda, but "the sum
total of all forces in the universe, mental and physical,
resolved back into their original state."8
The Yoga Vasistha says, "The tree of the mind
has two seeds: one is the latent impression, the other
is prana. When one of these is weakened, both get quickly
controlled."9
According
to yogis, the movement of prana in the psycho-physical
system depends upon the activity of two main channels
known as ida and pingala. Pranayama
is an exercise for controlling these channels. When
the activity of these channels is controlled, the mind
becomes calm. However, it should be noted that pranayama
only stops the sprouting of the samskaras but does not
destroy them. When the effect of pranayama wears off,
the samskaras sprout again.
Prana
activates the samskaras of both ideas and impulses.
Ideas produced by samskaras affect only the surface
of the mind like ripples, whereas the impulses and desires
produced by samskaras affect the whole mind and split
it into different streams. Patanjali makes it clear
that meditation can control only the gross vrittis that
appear on the surface of the mind.10
The deep division in the mind caused by emotional conflicts
are to be overcome by controlling the samskaras of desires.
The
Five States of Samskaras
In
order to control the activity of samskaras we must know
how they operate. All samskaras do not exist in the
same state. According to Patanjali a samskara may exist
in any one of five states.11
The
first state is called prasupta (dormant) in which
the samskaras remain undeveloped. A child is born with
hundreds of samskaras, but most of these remain dormant
during childhood. As the child grows older, more and
more samskaras become active. According to Patanjali,
in each birth only those samskaras become active for
which favorable conditions exist in that particular
birth.12 The rest
of the samskaras remain dormant. This shows that environment
is also important in the operation of samskaras. Good
and favorable conditions at home and in society awaken
the best samskaras in people.
In
the second state called udara (expanded) the
samskaras are freely expressed. When conditions are
favorable our latent tendencies get free expression,
provided they are approved by society. Many of our normal,
simple desires belong to this category.
When
certain desires become strong but are disapproved by
society, they are repressed, that is, kept in check
in the unconscious. This repressed condition of the
samskara is called vicchinna. In this state the
samskaras are in a turbulent condition but are prevented
from sprouting by the powerful influence of other samskaras.
Repression is one of the important discoveries of Freud,
but he could not correctly explain how it takes place.
According to Yoga psychology, a strong samskara can
repress a weak samskara. For instance, fear samskara
may repress lust or greed samskara. Since this process
goes on in the depths of the unconscious, the person
does not become aware of it.
Repression
caused by conflicts raging in the depths of the unconscious
drain a lot of mental energy and weaken the mind which
becomes unfit for meditation. Through careful self-analysis
and constant mental alertness, spiritual aspirants should
get rid of repressions by finding out the hidden conflicts
and their causes.
The
fourth state in which samskaras exist is called tanu
(attenuated). If desires and impulses are consciously
and intelligently controlled, the concerned samskaras
lose their impetuosity and become weak. Without intruding
into the conscious mind they then remain in seed form
in the known depths of the unconscious, always
within the reach of the conscious mind. This conversion
of samskaras into the tanu state is the result of long
practice of disciplines and purification.
In
the repressed (vicchinna) state, samskaras remain powerful
and active and are beyond the reach of the conscious
mind. But in the attenuated (tanu) state, the samskaras
lose their power and are always under conscious control.
In the yogi most of the desires and impulses have been
reduced to the tanu state. As a result the mind of the
yogi remains calm and he or she enjoys sama sukham,
the joy of self-control.
Repression
is unhealthy and leads to mental disorders. But yogic
suppression conserves psychic energy and enables the
aspirant to rise to higher levels of consciousness,
though during the early stages it may entail a certain
amount of struggle.
The
change of samskaras into the tanu state does not mean
their destruction. Just as seeds sprout when the ground
is watered, so also the attenuated samskaras will become
active if they are stimulated. However, if the seeds
are roasted in fire, they will not sprout again. In
the same way, if the samskaras are subjected to the
light of higher consciousness, they will be reduced
to a deactivated condition known as dagdha-bija
("burnt seed"). Such samskaras cannot sprout again even
when the mind is brought into contact with sense objects.
Through repeated spiritual experience the yogi burns
up desires and impulses and reduces them all to the
dagdha-bija state. There is no other way to destroy
samskaras completely.
Stages
in Purification
Breaking
the connection between images and impulses represents
only the first stage in the purification of mind. In
the second stage, the samskaras of impulses and drives
are reduced to the attenuated (tanu) state. In the third
stage, the samskaras are reduced to the burnt or deactivated
(dagdha-bija) state.
In
a fully illumined soul, all the samskaras of impulses
and desires have been irreversibly deactivated, and
so he or she is free from desires and impulses. But
the ideas and concepts produced by samskaras will remain.
Sri Ramakrishna used to say that just as a burnt rope
may retain the shape of a rope but cannot bind anyone,
so a fully illumined soul has only a semblance of desires.
Dissociation
and the Three States of Consciousness
We
began with a discussion on the phenomenon of dissociation
of awareness and how it is caused by samskaras. There
is yet another type of dissociation of consciousness
which is more radical and at the same time a natural
one. It is the division of consciousness into the three
states: jagrat (waking), svapna (dreaming)
and susupti (deep sleep). This dissociation is
not caused by samskaras. It is a spontaneous process
connected to the rhythms of life, the exact cause of
which is one of the great mysteries of life.
Waking,
dreaming and deep sleep represent three entirely different
states, each with its own notions of time, space and
the self. The dream state is not a continuation of the
waking state any more than the deep-sleep state is a
continuation of the dream state. Between the two states
a rupture in the continuity of consciousness takes place.
Consciousness seems to undergo cycles of projection
and withdrawal. What is common to all three states is
the awareness of "I." This shows that the self has different
dimensions and, corresponding to these, there are different
levels or layers in the human personality structure.
In
ancient India the three states provoked deep interest
and were the subject of much study and investigation.
Spiritual aspirants must have a deep understanding of
the three states, for these have a direct bearing on
meditative life. True spiritual experience is regarded
as a state different from the above three states. It
is a state which reveals the real nature of the self
and its relation to the Supreme Spirit. The light of
this experience burns up worldly desires. As in the
case of other experiences, spiritual experience too
leaves its impressions or samskaras in the mind which
act as a check on worldly samskaras. The residual impressions
left in the mind by spiritual experiences are called
prajna samskaras. Even after the spiritual experience
has ceased, the prajna samskara helps to maintain higher
knowledge.
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