Following Sunday’s satsang, are there practical ways one can incorporate to cultivate more sattva? especially for a predominantly rajasic “jiva”?
Lucua, (Vedanta teacher from South Africa) has advised that I need to ‘slow down”, pause before responding – however, oftentimes reaction takes over, making me aware of the “horror place in me”.
Any advice/suggestions, knock on the head, would be most welcome.
Sundari: This is indeed one of the most important questions we all need to work on, some of us more than others. We will definitely be getting ‘knocked on the head’ until we learn to manage rajas as it is the energy that scatters the mind making discrimination very difficult, if not impossible. All three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas are always present because they give rise to everything in creation. But they are also always changing and manifest in the mind in ever-changing proportions. Sattva, which is the energy of intelligence, clarity, peace of mind, is actually the nature of the mind; we cannot cultivate ‘more’ sattva, only manage the relative proportions of rajas and tamas. Tamas, the energy of dullness clouds the mind. Rajas is a fire that burns brightly, and tends to be the most obvious because it is the energy of action, desire, and passion. There is nothing wrong with rajas or tamas, we need both to function. But if either dominates the mind, sattva is covered up, and you have problems.
All three gunas are objects known to you, the Self. They have no more reality than any other object. But to have a good life, we need to understand these three energies and manage them. To begin with, this takes discipline and a lot of determination – there is no fast track. Too much rajas fragments the mind and not only turns it outwards, it always results in too much tamas. These two troublemakers are joined at the hip, so to speak. What to do about them? Well, obviously, knowledge of them and how they work to generate the typical thoughts and actions associated with them, is the place to start.
Sattva is the subtlest manifestation of sat, the mode of knowledge and bliss. It is the guna springboard both for a happy, healthy, life—and, for moksa, freedom from and for the limited, small self. What we are after is sattva that is a predominant ‘state’ of mind, produced only by Self-knowledge. However, it is not possible to have 100 % sattva. Firstly, because rajas and tamas supplant sattva as the gunas cycle constantly through the mind. Secondly, while we can cultivate sattva and manage rajas and tamas, we are not in control of the gunas. The Field of life is, meaning, Isvara.
Luckily for us though, armed with Self-knowledge and lots of determination to end suffering, we can make the changes necessary for a happy, healthy life and the permanent feeling of peace and satisfaction, even when life dishes up lemons. When we are satisfied, the mind sits still without any effort on our part. Such a mind is valuable because it reveals that the reflection of the Self in the mind is actually our non-dual nature – we identify with the one casting the reflection, not the reflection. This allows us to evaluate objects (all experience – thoughts, feelings and the external things that happen to us) as they are (guna-generated – apparently real), instead of how rajas projects and tamas denies them.
When rajas and tamas are generating our interpretation of what’s showing up in the mind and in our lives, they distort everything, and we will suffer. We all need our eyesight rectified to become guna literate and guna vigilant. Vedanta provides us with the means to do that – triguna vibhava yoga. It’s like getting the best eye-glasses possible, giving us ‘clairvoyance’ – clear vision. The ability to respond appropriately, and dharmically.
If all we want is to feel good we need not seek enlightenment, but we do need to cultivate sattva. If our main aim is moksa, we will not have peace of mind unless our life reflects knowledge-based truth as well. Only with applied Self-knowledge can we be objective and work with our stuff creatively to remove obstacles to happiness as they arise. The main obstacles to our happiness are always subjective – connected to the jiva’s values, conditioning and its unresolved emotional/mental issues.
We all have a certain guna profile which will determine the jiva personality. There is not much we can do to change our inborn jiva nature, other than to see it for what it is. Unless we are born sattvic sages, we will have either rajas or tamas dominating sattva. So, how do we cultivate sattva, so as to manage rajas and tamas? The place to start is with a fearless moral inventory. What values inform our lives? If our values are not in keeping with Vedanta, we will not have peace of mind. Rory posted a satsang this week on the importance of a values based life, and he gives the 20 essential values that should be part of everyone’s checklist. Read this list, print it and put it up somewhere you see if often.
If our values are not what they need to be, we will not connect our actions with results. Ask yourself, what keeps showing up in your life? Though most of our troubles are repetitive, the patterns are not always easy for us to see because results have observable and unobservable effects. It is easier to observe results that take place immediately. But what about the unseen unconscious patterns of suffering in our lives driving all our unpleasant karma? These will all be connected to what values inform our binding vasanas.
If you truly want to have an enlightened, healthy, and happy lifestyle, discrimination is very simple.
1. Make sure your values are in line with dharma
2. Connect actions with values – and with results. We need to take stock, drop all self-insulting and  adharmic activities, and replacing them with activities that uplift and harmonize the mind. It is not easy because the ego uses its habits in an attempt to manage rajas and tamas. But if they are unhealthy habits, this never works. Taking away the habit exposes the ego to an energy that is trying to eliminate it—to which it does not take kindly. It will kick, scream, and fight the new intentions tooth and nail. We only need to look at failed ‘new’ year intentions to see proof of this.
Beating yourself up for failing is a waste of time. But if we steadfastly refuse to clean up our act, we only have ourselves to blame. If something you do or think agitates or dulls the mind, you must renounce it. You cannot just keep doing what you are doing and somehow expect your mind to become pure or your life magically to change. Without a pure mind, the truth will not incarnate in you, and without a pure mind, your life will be a mess.Â
Because of our past conditioning, the ego is extremely attached to things that are not good for it. Just observe the mind and the conversation that takes place in it when you try to clean up your act. It is predictable because rajas and tamas are so totally predictable. If you know very well what is not good for you and you go ahead doing it, you deserve to suffer because you are going against dharma. As we all know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly expecting a different result. This is how the Field teaches us. If you are going to grow, you must face the music and ‘bite the bullet’. As James always says, ‘man up and pack it in!’ So, take stock of your values and the patterns in your life, and what you need to do to change them.
3. Most importantly, we must take responsibility for ‘our’ projections and denials even though ultimately, they do not belong to us. When we fully take stock the mind is resolved. Responding to life according to dharma is then natural and effortless. It does not require nail-biting, mind-bending self-discipline. You are a disciple unto the Self because you have broken the back of the binding vasanas. They become like burned ropes with no power to bind.
Practices such as yoga, meditation, and ‘sitting in the silence’, while they are not a replacement for self-inquiry, can help us to ‘slow down’. They are aids in managing the habitual thoughts/emotions that dominate the mind from our conditioning. But only when Self-knowledge is firm and my mind is pure can I process experience as it happens—in ‘real’ time, as the saying goes. Things come up and I respond appropriately, without any ‘karmic drag’. Unpleasant blowback karma is avoided.
I am Dharma with a big “D’, effortlessly. I see the big picture, both from the perspective of the Self and the jiva and I lay my everyday happenings to rest. If ‘old stuff’ comes up, I offer into the fire of Self-knowledge. Karma yoga is no longer something I need to remind myself to do – it’s automatic knowledge. The karma that the jiva usually generates because of unconscious rajasic/tamasic conditioning is now like a little dog on a very short leash, sitting at your feet, unable to run away, bite or cause mischief. You can pat it on the head, give it a cookie now and then. Good little dog.
There is no other easy route to manage rajas or tamas. We can start on the ‘outside’ by cleaning up self-insulting activities, engaging in yoga or meditation to help the mind slow down. But trying to ‘slow down’ without first dealing with what is lacking in our values and with the habitual patterns behind the rajasic tendencies will not work for long. It’s just a temporary bandage. Ultimately, freedom from the gunas requires that we face up to the habitual and often deeply buried parts of the psyche we all prefer to avoid. You can try to side step them with the Advaita shuffle – after all, our jiva conditioning is not something we are responsible for, and it has no impact on us as the Self. Why bother with it?
Moksa is not about perfecting the jiva, it is a conceptual identity after all. But to repeat – if we want a sane, peaceful life and the perfect satisfaction of permanent and actualized Self-knowledge, we need to identify and resolve all self-insulting jiva issues, whether predominantly rajasic or tamasic, in light of Self-knowledge. This requires a values reassessment, and it is where ‘the rubber hits the road’. There is no fine print to this.
Nobody can do this for us, though the teachings of Vedanta are hugely inspiring, they must be assimilated and LIVED, if we are really after Self-actualization.
Much love
Sundari