If someone you know is a hoarder, you know what their homes look like. There's clutter everywhere, filled with random things, objects that take up space not because they are needed but because they were bought impulsively, and even worse, there's an inability to let go of these objects even as it has proven its uselessness. In short, a hoarder's home screams chaos.
Our minds are also like that physical space. If we choose to hoard thoughts or details in our minds that are of no consequence, it becomes very chaotic. These days, we are in huge danger of hoarding information. Most of us spend a lot of time online, or we binge-watch TV series, or even when we go to malls and don't buy anything, our minds take in all the sensory experiences of wanting to buy and wanting to acquire and attaching to what we think looks good and attractive and appealing. But just like the hoarder's home, our minds become a war zone of sorts. The focus of the month is pratyahara, which means withdrawal of the senses. This is one of the limbs of Ashtanga yoga, the eight-fold path of yoga. These limbs are not steps or prerequisites wherein you have to master one before you proceed to the other, these limbs are to be practiced simultaneously, similar to how when you're in school, you study Math and Science and English simultaneously. In the eight limbs, asana or physical poses have gained a lot of popularity while pratyahara is largely unknown to the average yoga practitioner. To practice pratyahara means we become conscious of what the mind consumes. It means we do not hoard, we become minimalists in the things that our senses consume. We stay away from reading things like gossip and fake news, we do not spend our time playing violent games, we abstain from consuming the fear and suffering inherent in animal "food" products, we don't use strong artificial smells to stimulate the senses, etc. If we want to attain yoga, we must study in a way wherein we value all these different limbs together, and not just become very good in asana but neglect pratyahara or dhyana (meditation) or the yamas (ethical precepts including nonviolence). Pratyahara is like a mental cleanse, to rid ourselves of the toxic information that clutters our peace of mind. Our senses gravitate towards objects, and our mind follows the senses, and the mind seems to be out of control following the senses that follow objects. Pratyahara is to remove the attachment of the mind to the senses so it can focus inwards. Practice today in a way that asana and pratyahara comes together. When there are pleasant sensations, instead of chasing after this sensation, turn your attention inwards. Similarly, when there are unpleasant sensations, instead of running away from the sensation, turn your attention inwards as well. Remove the attachment and the agitation, move the physical body, at the same time turn the attention inwards to the inner mind.
0 Comments
We may think we live our lives through the external world-- what we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, but when we look deeper, we realize where we truly live is in the world inside and even beyond our minds. Two people can be present in the same yoga class, one may absolutely love it, and the other find it to be inconsequential. It is because the external factors offer only a stimuli in which our internal world reacts to, but it is still our inner world that shapes our interpretation and perception.
Pratyahara or withdrawal of the senses is a practice of turning our attention inwards, so that we observe how the senses react. We retreat to our inner world, not to escape the external world, and most certainly not to be blind to the suffering of others, but to find the inner peace that is independent of the external world. In the beginning, we may thread only at the superficial level of the mind. But with practice, we eventually tap into the knowledge of the Self that is beyond the glass ceiling of the mind. When we know how to do this, we can then go back to the external world and become more active, because we are not slaves to our senses and we instead operate from a better understanding of the Self. We can live our lives chasing after sensations we like and running away from sensations we don't like. This is the easier path, but it is also a path that keeps us trapped in a never-ending loop. As yogis, we can take another option, the more difficult option in which we become masters of our senses. It requires practice and discipline to learn how to go inwards, but ultimately this is what could lead us to absolute freedom and liberation. Prati means away while ahara means external thing that we consume. The Sanskrit term pratyahara translates as withdrawal of the senses. One may wonder why we would choose to withdraw the senses. Perhaps for the non-yogi, it doesn't make any sense. For the yogi seeking enlightenment however, pratyahara is a practice that helps us with our goal of liberation. It is not so much depriving ourselves as it is directing our energy towards something more important.
Perhaps you've heard the analogy of an empty jar with big rocks, small stones, sand, and water. If you put in the water in the jar first, and then the sand, and then the small stones, by the time you get to the big rocks, they won't fit anymore. But if you use the same jar and put in the big rocks first, carefully arranging them, followed by the small stones, sand, and water, you could fit everything. Our spiritual practice is like the second arrangement. If we direct our energy towards the most important thing-- our liberation-- by focusing our senses and our energy inwards instead of using it to attend to our cravings and attachments and aversions, our practice will be steady, our inner lives rich, and we will still have room to live our lives from the physical and external plane. If we are interested in liberation, then let our practice be our big rock, and let us direct our energy towards it. |
Archives
March 2020
|