MORE THAN JUST SURVIVING - SUTRA 1.5

Modifications or thought-waves (vritti) can be defined generally as either causing pain (klishta) or not causing pain (aklishta). Some may be supportive and empowering, while others may be restrictive and debilitating. Some may be considered useful, while others un-useful. Some may move us towards realisation of the Self while others away from it.

When modifications (vritti) occur, they in turn inspire further modifications. In meditation, the practitioner exercises the power of intellectual discrimination to pacify modifications interrupting the cycle which eventually leads to the cessation of all modifications. Thoughts and emotions (vritti) can be gross, subtle or extremely subtle in nature. By observing the nature of our thinking and feeling throughout the course of the day, when we sit to meditate we can disregard superficial gross movements in the mental field with greater skill, allowing us to go deeper in our practice.

Our primary objective when identified with the human condition is to survive. As a result, fear is our core emotion. We fear being unable to experience existence, which we associate predominantly, if not exclusively to the body-mind system. The mind serves to ensure our survival by using different emotions to communicate to the body when we need to take action, returning it to a position of safety. Once, our well-being is assured, we focus our attention on experiencing greater comfort, peace and joy. Fundamentally, our emotions serve to energise us, so as to move us away from what is of threat, the things we dislike, and towards peace or happiness, the things we do like.

Although we experience one or more emotions at any given time throughout the day, most of these often go unnoticed. Despite this, how we behave is often driven by unregulated rising emotions (vritti). Just as the mind uses emotions to communicate to the body to inspire it to move toward a more satisfactory end, the mind uses thinking and reasoning to achieve this end. The emotion itself, however, is short-lived resulting in our rationalising our behaviours. In many cases, we are not sure why we do what we do.

Experienced events and their associated emotions are stored in the mind according to the feelings they cause. For every emotion we experience, there are thousands of associated thoughts. In consequence, should one single emotion be triggered, it can invoke countless thought patterns. The opposite is also true, when one particular thought pattern becomes active, it can stir up a variety of feelings. These in turn can result in further thought processes and so the cycle continues. These are the modifications (vritti) which can result in causing pain (klishta) or not causing pain (aklishta).

Through the practice of meditation we learn to disengage with the mental fluctuations in our field of awareness by concentrating our attention. As we move into deeper states of clarified conscious awareness, we pacify emotional modifications. This often culminates as an experience of bliss which is not dependent on any previous occurrence or external condition. In this state, we rise above the ordinary functions of the body and mind, which are focused on avoiding fear and experiencing comfort. In this state, the practitioner moves towards transcending the influence of the five causes of pain (klishtas) which are outlined in sutra 2.3.

We have an appreciation that human behaviour is influenced by the desire to avoid pain or to experience pleasure. The difficulty arises when modifications (vritti) occurring in the mental field (chitta) which might initially appear to be a cause of pain actually have the capacity to yield a pleasurable experience, while thoughts, ideas, desires or feelings regarding what might appear as a pleasurable experience actually result in pain. By cultivating a clarified, thought-free state of intuitive awareness, one can develop non-attachment, freeing themselves from all pain and suffering. In this state one can witness and recognise all modifications, including thoughts or feelings that may arise, as impermanent.

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