Hey everyone, Skanda here! Welcome to the Grey Zone, where things aren't always black and white. We're all about exploring ways to manage your mental health, eat well, and stay fit. Here, we'll unpack these topics and empower you to craft your unique journey. Returning explorers (you awesome 51!), welcome back!
Back in 2019, I was in a bad mental headspace. A lot of things were falling apart around me and I started going to therapy. The therapy was fantastic. My therapist always advised me to “Observe my mind” and “Let go of my thoughts”. I thought I understood this back then, but boy was I wrong.
I was confused between observing my mind with merely listening to its chatter. However, my thoughts were clouded by conditioning, leading me down familiar, destructive paths. For instance, a simple idea like "I didn't do well on the test" would spiral into the self-defeating conclusion, "I am a failure."
And my Mind was super quick in doing this.
Then I found this book, "Atmamun: The Path To Achieving The Bliss Of The Himalayan Swamis." I was like, "Really? A book about Himalayan swamis? No way, this has to be a joke of a book."
I was wrong, again. The author talked about this crazy idea that your mind isn't You.
How does that make sense? How can My thoughts and emotions not be Me?
The book led me to completely new insights. He explains how the Mind and the actual Self are two different entities.
The Self, often referred to with a capital "S," revolves around a compassionate and peaceful state that exists beyond the turbulent emotions and thoughts that usually dominate our consciousness.
In contrast, the Mind is a product of conditioning shaped by societal, cultural, and personal experiences. These influences create habitual thought and behavior patterns that operate largely without conscious awareness. (Autopilot)
The man who knows that he lives in a prison will find a way to break free of it. But the one who believes that he is free while being imprisoned will remain imprisoned forever.
The Four Functions of The Mind
Yogis describe the Mind as comprised of 4 parts.
Manas is the active mind, processing sensory input and generating thoughts and emotions. It's the mind in motion, constantly reacting to stimuli
Chitta is the repository of impressions and past experiences.
Buddhi is the intellect that provides discernment and decision-making. It is able to differentiate and discriminate.
Ahankara: I-maker or ego (though not "egotistical") is the ego that creates a sense of individual identity.
Here is how they work together
"That cake looks delicious; I want a piece." (Manas gets input from the eyes)
“Chocolate cake is delicious af” (Chitta picks it up from memories)
"Eating this cake could undermine my diet, but it could also be a nice treat." (The differentiator, decision maker)
“I enjoy indulgent treats and junk food” (The Ego (I-ness))
This intricate interplay often operates on autopilot. Reacting to a notification, responding to a criticism, or forming an opinion can happen automatically, driven by the mind's conditioned patterns. We become spectators to our own lives, living on a script written by these mental processes.
Understanding these components is crucial for gaining control over our thoughts and actions. It's the first step to breaking free from autopilot and living more consciously.
If you are able to “Observe” the thoughts in your head and distance yourself and ask yourself “Is this useful or not useful?”.
Conditioning of the Mind: Samskara, Klishta, and Vasana
Understanding the interplay of the four functions of the mind gives us insight into how our mental processes operate, but to truly grasp how conditioning influences our thoughts and behaviors, we need to delve into deeper concepts like samskara, klishta, and vasana.
Samskara, often translated as “mental impressions” or “imprints,” refers to the deeply ingrained patterns of thought and behavior that are formed through repeated experiences and actions.
Growing up in an Indian household, a common samskara instilled in me was the prioritization of others' needs over my own. This ingrained pattern of self-sacrifice, while rooted in values of empathy and respect, often led to personal neglect. By consistently placing parental desires above my aspirations, I inadvertently suppressed my own identity and sense of self.
Suppose someone had a traumatic experience with dogs in childhood. As a result, they develop a deep-seated fear of dogs. This fear is a samskara, an ingrained mental impression that influences their reaction to dogs even in adulthood.
Klishta
A klishta is a thought tinted by emotions, often negative ones, that distorts reality.
It’s like looking at the world through a colored lens, where everything is filtered through a particular emotional hue.
A great example is looking at two ordinary pens. The moment we see two pens, we always compare it with each other. Then we say one is better than the other. Then if we are given the “shittier” pen, we feel bad about it.
But they are just hunks of plastic, neither are inherently good or bad. We have created the constructs of good and bad. The world is just is. Any comparative construct is from our own mind.
When I was quite the little boy, I was always told that education and marks were the most important thing in the world. This led to every festival with my cousins be a bragging area of who is doing better and who is getting the “better college/marks”.
Again, the good and the bad are colouring we add to the world.
The world just is.
We all tend to add color to neutral situations. A simple tweet like "BJP is a good party" can instantly evoke strong reactions. Instead of considering the possibility that the person is merely testing the platform or expressing a genuine opinion, we often jump to conclusions, painting the tweeter with broad strokes.
Our minds, influenced by personal biases, quickly jump to conclusions, transforming neutral information into emotionally charged narratives.
Vāsanā
Vāsanā is a behavioral tendency or karmic imprint which influences the present behavior of a person. They are in a simple way, mental habits that we have.
Writing from an Advaita Vedanta perspective, Waite refers to a model offered by Edward de Bono:
If you take a jelly, solidified and turned out onto a plate, and you trickle very hot water onto the top, it will run off onto the plate and leave behind a faint channel where the hot water melted the jelly. If you now pour more hot water, it will tend to run into the same channels as before, since these offer the line of least resistance, and deepen the channels. If this is done repeatedly, very deep channels will form and it will become difficult, if not impossible, to get the water to run anywhere else. The equivalent of an entrenched habit has been formed
An easy way to demonstrate a Vasana is to notice your thoughts after reading the following statements and how you instantly have a “reaction” ready for it
"all politicians are corrupt"
"Nothing good ever happens to me,"
"I struggle with desire, I can't avoid dessert after dinner",
“It’s not good enough/perfect enough”
"They're just doing it for the money,"
"I'm not as successful as my friends."
In essence, vāsanās are the underlying blueprints of our personalities. They shape our perceptions, reactions, and decisions, often without conscious awareness. This is why it's said that 99% of our thoughts are merely echoes of past experiences, replaying on the mind's screen.
What Do I do about it?
Handling Samskaras
Identify the Samskara: Recognize the patterns of thought and behavior that repeatedly cause you distress. Pinpoint the specific situations that trigger these reactions.
Observe Your Emotions: Pay close attention to your emotional responses. Intense or disproportionate reactions often signal the presence of a deep-rooted samskara.
Process the Experience: Once identified, allow yourself to feel the emotions associated with the samskara without judgment. This process can gradually weaken its hold.
Handling Vasanas
Mindful Awareness: Observe your thoughts without judgment. Notice the recurring patterns and the situations that trigger them. This awareness is the first step to breaking free.
Question Your Beliefs: Challenge the assumptions underlying your vāsanās. Are they based on facts or emotional reactions?
Cultivate New Habits: Replace old, unhelpful patterns with new, positive ones. This involves conscious effort and persistence.
Handling Klishtas
Mindful Awareness: Observe your thoughts without judgment. Notice the recurring patterns and the situations that trigger them. This awareness is the first step to breaking free.
Question Your Beliefs: Challenge the assumptions underlying your vāsanās. Are they based on facts or emotional reactions?
Cultivate New Habits: Replace old, unhelpful patterns with new, positive ones. This involves conscious effort and persistence.
This newsletter is just a taste of the mind-bending concepts you're about to explore. Vasanas, Klishts, and Samskaras are like the Bermuda Triangle of the mind – mysterious, complex, and with the potential to completely change your perspective. I've laid out some basic coordinates, but the real adventure lies in charting your own course.
Don't just take my word for it. Dive deep, question everything, and see if this stuff actually holds water.
The beauty of these concepts is that they invite experimentation and personal discovery. So go ahead, be skeptical, be curious. The only way to truly grasp their significance is to put in the work.
I have attached some resources below and some of my favourite quotes from the book.
Best
Skanda
Resources
Here are some amazing quotes by Kapil Gupta
Attachment gives birth to hope and need. If you are attached to them, you will need them to do certain things... When they do not, it will cause you pain
Happiness and misery are two sides of the very same coin. To seek happiness is to invite misery
Life’s nectar lies in experience, rather than reward. Rewards fade from memory. Experiences remain forever
The man who knows that he lives in a prison will find a way to break free of it. But the one who believes that he is free while being imprisoned will remain imprisoned forever.
You’ve always been told to fight for your freedom of mind. But the truth is this: the greatest freedom in the world is freedom from mind
If you are serious about living a peaceful life, drop all matters pertaining to the world, and pursue all matters pertaining to yourself
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s525/client/snv?isnewsnv=true¬eGuid=20adc5aa-ebfe-c847-862d-d6244b774319¬eKey=WUiUxAGcfPpR8-_sMnQac_R-1ab8hSy6E2uSp1QJGwFJ523eOCY6RdP2Bw&sn=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fshard%2Fs525%2Fsh%2F20adc5aa-ebfe-c847-862d-d6244b774319%2FWUiUxAGcfPpR8-_sMnQac_R-1ab8hSy6E2uSp1QJGwFJ523eOCY6RdP2Bw&title=Ego%2B%25231
https://swamij.com/klishta-aklishta.htm
https://swamij.com/witnessing.htm#isthisparticular