October 2024 Week 5

Excerpts from an anonymous meditation entitled “Good Orderly Direction”: It is when we try to make our will conform with God’s that we begin to use it rightly. To all of us this was a most wonderful revelation. Our whole trouble had been the misuse of willpower. We had tried to bombard our problems with it instead of attempting to bring it into agreement with God’s intention for us. All I have to do is look back at my past to see where my self will has led me. I just don’t know what’s best for me and I believe my Higher Power does. G.O.D., which I define as Good Orderly Direction, has never let me down, but I have let myself down quite often. Using my self-will in a situation usually has the same result as forcing the wrong piece into a jigsaw puzzle - exhaustion and frustration. When I ask G.O.D. for guidance I know that whatever happens is the best possible situation, things are exactly as they are supposed to be, even if they aren’t what I want or expect. G.O.D. does do for me what I cannot do for myself, if I ask. - wow that hits home!
Well I can think of a few situations off the top of my head where I willfully inserted myself, my demands and my plans into my life or someone else’s. When I look back at those times I certainly have a sense of regret and wishing I had the wisdom and the energy to let go and trust and more importantly to not get so attached to an outcome. Our intention this month has the energy of trust and faith that I crave at this point in my life, I no longer want to carry the self imposed heavy burden of having to fix, manage and or control. I had a situation this week with a dear family member and its tricky because I could say I inserted my will into her life, however it was with the intention of loving and supporting this person and trying to help someone who is not well. I am trying not to label it good or bad or right or wrong and at this point the trust and faith comes in by letting it unfold and trusting. Does this meditation call to mind anything in your life that you can envision yourself being in the way of? Are you inserting yourself? Not trusting? It’s always good to pause and ponder, maybe listen to one of this months meditations.
Before we leave this month I also want to touch on our Sutra once again - Sutra 1.12: “That can be controlled through practice and non-attachment.” This Sutra is in the Yoga Sutra section called: Mastering the Mind. The last 5 months we discussed the 5 modifications of the mind which can bring us pain or not. This Sutra lays out the simple, but not easy, solution to the mind disturbances and it is practice and non-attachment. Patanjali is telling us that there is hope, we have the capacity to arrest our thoughts and we can gain mastery over our mind. The terms: abhyasa (practice) and vairagya (non-attachment) are said to the be the backbone of Yoga sadhana. “Arresting the roaming tendencies of the mind is dependent on a twofold technique. This twofold technique is abhyasa and vairagya”.
Boy is our mind powerful!! There is a term in Yoga, Samskaras which are deep grooved patterns in our mind. They are habitual ways of interpreting and responding to life situations. Every action we perform - physical, mental or verbal - creates an impression in our mind. Each time an action is repeated, these impressions become stronger and the Samskara groove deepens. We often do not see things as they are, rather we see them Through the lens of our Samskaras. They can become so deep that we becomes their product and thus have little control over our thoughts, speech, and actions. Eliminating these samskaras is very difficult but it can be accomplished with 2 steps: 1. Vairagya (non-attachment) we rid ourselves of old mental habits, and with Abhyasa (practice) we create new ones. With Abhyasa we can create samskaras that help the mind cultivate a taste for peace, stability, and introspection. Eventually we create new deep grooves that influence the mind from deep within. These new Samskaras are the result of a well-designed Yoga sadhana, which to remind you is simply a daily spiritual practice. Vairagya (non attachment) also comes into play at this point to assist Abhyasa allowing us to be committed to this practice while keeping us free from anxiety about its fruit, not being attached to the outcome. Leading us back to our intention…..Please Get Out Of The Way, You are Slowing God Down - in order to put this into action I for one need a daily sadhana and I need practice and more practice and then letting go and not being attached to the outcomes! Amazing full circle lol.
In the next 4 Sutras, Patanjali explains the exact nature of Abhyasa and Vairagya, how they are mastered, and how they can lead us to the experience of samadhi (peace, peace, peace).