January 2025 Week 2

2nd week of the New Year and we are still pausing!! Don’t rush ahead trying to figure out what you should be doing and not doing, remember - The stillness we seek comes from within.

One key component to finding that stillness is quieting the mind and its endless activity (that is if you are anything like me). Remember Patanjali’s simple solutions to the mind chitta or busyness was presented to us in the past 3 sutras: practice and non-attachment. Last month he explained that even if you have a solid practice, if your mind is attached to stories and busyness then your practice will not resonate. This month Sutra 1.16 takes the idea of non attachment even deeper:
“When one ceases to thirst for outward manifestation, having realized the Purusha, one attains supreme non-attachment.”
(Purusha is defined as: consciousness or pure awareness. It refers to the eternal soul or self that transcends time, space, and individuality. Unlike our physical body which undergoes changes throughout life, Purusha remains constant - untouched by external influences.)

In this sutra, Patanjali goes on to explain the higher form of vairagya or non-attachment. The detachment of the mind from its personal desires and enjoyment is the ordinary vairagya.
The mind might want something; but, having control, you tell the mind, "No," and it stays away. But in the higher non-attachment you don't even think of attaching yourself. In other words, with the ordinary vairagya you may be completely free from new things coming in to tempt you. But this sutra deals with the “next level” thoughts, the grooved patterns or samskaras created by our past experiences. You can't just go into the mind and magically erase the impressions (although that would be amazing lol). There is hope….they get themselves erased at one point. When? When you succeed in going within and realizing the peace and joy of your own Self. The moment you understand yourself as the true Self, you find such peace and bliss that the impressions of the petty enjoyments you experienced before become ordinary specks of light in front of the brilliant sun. That is our intention - The stillness we seek is inside. That is the highest non-attachment. Before that, you are in-between. You have not had that highest level; but you have experienced some mental peace. If that supreme non-attachment comes even once, even for a second, you experience that joy. That's why we try to sit for a while in meditation every day. If we get even a glimpse of that, we will not try to go here and there to taste other things.
In Hindu there is a saying, "Man me Răm, hath me kàm. " Literally, it means, "In the mind, Ram (God); in the hand, work." Or it could be said more clearly as, "Keep the heart in God and the head in the world." If you know how to put your heart in God, you can rest there always and still play in the world. It will no longer be a hell to you, but a beautiful playground. Nothing can bind you; you can enjoy everything as play. You can be an expert player.
In the same way, we need never be afraid of the world if we learn how to enjoy it. We can really enjoy the world and even give all the pleasures to our senses. But when? Only when we have found the source and connected one part of the mind there— then we can enjoy everything. Otherwise we will get lost. So, "Enjoy the world," doesn't mean immediately. Achieve supreme vairagya (non attachment) first, and then enjoy. That is the secret of success in life. One who does this will always succeed. There can be no failure in his or her life. Everyone should do that. That is our goal and birthright— nothing less than that. (Some notes taken from Demystifying Patanjali by Swami Kriyananda)

This certainly seems like a tall order to obtain such peace in our minds, but that is why we call meditation and yoga a practice. Like any sport or instrument that we play, in order to get better we must practice and each day may be different in our abilities but we just keep trying. Try try and try again. Have you ever had even a nano second of peace in your mind while in some form of meditation or deep involvement in an activity? I have had brief moments of this absolute peace and because of that I will continue to practice!