Welcome to day 3.
So far we have spent time thinking about our inner guru (intuition) and our dharma (alignment and purpose). Today we will cover desire.
As humans, almost everything we do is driven by desire. Desire is wonderful, it's a wild, mobilising energy that can propel us towards our goals but it can also derail us in a flash. Untrained or misdirected desire is one of the things that can override our intuition and cause us to fall off our Dharmic path.
You are what your deep driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
-- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (IV.4.5)
In the Katha Upanishad we find a really helpful and clear distinction between the two directions our desires can take us - Shreya and Preya.
Shreya - perennial joy.
Preya - transient pleasures.
Transient pleasure is the quick fix, the short burst of satisfaction that leaves us wanting more - when we pursue preya we will never be satisfied. Perennial joy is spiritual contentment, shreya is a state deep within our souls, it doesn't depend upon a specific set of circumstances, objects, people or environment to exist. Shreya is falling in love with your life over and over again.
These concepts and their explanations come about in a wonderful story. The story is the Katha Upanishad and it’s about a boy called Nachiketas and his run in with Yama, Lord of Death.
Nachiketas lived many thousands of years ago in a time when ritual sacrifice was very important. One day he saw his father sending to sacrifice a very old and skinny cow. Nachiketas was struck by the unworthinesses of the offering and of the absurdity of empty ceremonialism and so calls his father’s actions out.
It doesn’t go down well and in a rage over being questioned Nachiketas’s father sends him to the house of Yama, Lord of Death.
Nachiketas arrived at death’s door only to find him not in. When Death returned some three days later he offers Nachiketas 3 boons as recompense for his rudeness.
For the first boon Nachiketas asked Death to make his father forgive him, Death agrees. For the second boon Nachiketas asks for the secret of the fire ritual, Death agrees. For the third and final boon Nachiketas asked for the secret of life.
'When a person dies there arises this doubt:
"He still exists," say some; “he does not,” say others. I want you to teach me the truth.'
It’s a big question and Death does not immediately answer. In fact he refuses. What he decides to do instead is to is test Nachiketas earnestness - is this young teenager worthy of learning the secrets of life? (It’s no co-incidence that Nachiketas is a teen, the age of development of intuition).
Instead of immediately giving him the knowledge he desire Death instead tries to tempt him - he offers long life, women, horses, unending wealth...all manner of gratifying things. Nachiketas stands firm, his desire isn't directed towards 'stuff', he wants to know the truth.
He points out that it is utterly fultile to have all of the ‘things’ he’s been offered while he stands staring Death in the face. So he persists in his line of questioning and Death offers him the path of yoga and meditation as the path to knowledge, with a warning that its a really tough journey once you are on it - in other words it is far easier to stay asleep than stay awake.
Get up! Wake up! Seek the guidance of an
Illumined teacher and realize the Self.
Sharp like a razor's edge, the sages say,
Is the path, difficult to traverse.
Yama, lord of death, also offers us this definition of the state of yoga:
When the five senses are stilled, when the mind
Is stilled, when the intellect is stilled,
That is called the highest state by the wise.
They say yoga is this complete stillness
In which one enters the unitive state,
Never to become separate again.
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THE MIND AND THE SENSES
One of the main driving forces behind our desires are our senses. Another really important message of the Katha Upanishad is that of the need to tame and train the senses.
"Perennial joy (shreya) or passing pleasure (preya)?
This is the choice one is to make always.
The wise recognize these two, but not
The ignorant. The first welcome what leads
To abiding joy, though painful at the time.
The latter run, goaded by their senses,
After what seems immediate pleasure."
To understand how we are driven by our desire its useful to refer to how the yogis view the mind. They split it into 4 distinct parts collectively called Antar Karana.
MANAS this is our functioning mind, the sensory processing part of the mind. Our senses feed information in and we react accordingly. Most of us use this part of our mind as we go about our day to day life.
CHITTA this is our whole consciousness that is the store house of our lifetime of impressions. We can consider this our bank of memories and also all our conditioning and learned behaviours. This area influences the reactiveness of the Manas to our sensory input.
AHAMKARA this is our ‘I-maker’ or Ego mind. In yoga the ego doesn't refer to a character trait - the ego is us, all of the things that go towards making up our personality.
BUDDHI this is our discriminatory mind. It knows, judge and decides. It is sometimes called our ‘higher mind’ (and where our intuition dwells). Using this area to filter through the sensory input we can start to see our desires for what they are and discriminate as to which ones are helping us on our journey and which are hindering.
Yoga, self-study and meditation (amount other spiritual and mindful practices) help to cultivate the buddhi, this in turn evolves and develops the experiences that are stored in chitta, which in turn impacts our personality, ahamkara and our creative self, manas.
But of course its not as simple as that - we can only separate these functions intellectually and this is just one model of understanding. The yogis believe that the 4 parts of the mind are wholly and innately connected, work on one, a few or all of them and you will impact and benefit the others.
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THE DESIRE CYCLE
In the Yoga sutras Patanjali offers us a really clear cut way to decipher our desire cycle.
We notice what we are attached to and what we are averted by.
'Attachment is that which follows identification with pleasurable experiences.
Aversion is that which follows identification with painful experiences'
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2:7-8 translated by Swami Satchidananda
The senses can lead us on chasing our own tails in a never-ending cycle of desire, attachment and aversion. Attachment and aversion are not to be demonised - we just need to learn to direct those energies.
For example:
You smell a cake baking, it smells so good that you cannot resist eating it. You grab a fork and wolf it down. At some point you are full but your attachment to the experience of smelling and tasting the cake is so great that you can't stop eating. Eventually you eat so much you feel sick, at which point the very look, smell and taste of the cake avert you.
This happens all the time!
When we are more in tune with our senses the situation may go more like this:
You smell the cake, your tastebuds go crazy, you cut yourself a slice and enjoy every moment, savouring the flavours and staying really present to the experience. You recognise when you have had enough and go about your day untroubled. Now imagine all of the times you get caught in a desire cycle in just one day!
Training our senses is a process, we will trip over ourselves but those are usually the best lessons. To think that we will ever get to a place of 'perfection' will be an obstacle in itself. The key thing is to notice - notice when we are running after our sensory desires rather than using our senses to meet our higher purpose as defined by our dharma.
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A BLESSING FOR THE SENSES
by John O'Donohue
May the touch of your skin
Register the beauty
Of the otherness
That surrounds you.
May your listening be attuned
To the deeper silence
Where sound is honed
To bring distance home.
May the fragrance
Of a breathing meadow
Refresh your heart
And remind you you are
A child of the earth.
And when you partake
Of food and drink,
May your taste quicken
To the gift and sweetness
That flows from the earth.
May your inner eye
See through the surfaces
And glean the real presence
Of everything that meets you.
May your soul beautify
The desire of your eyes
That you might glimpse
The infinity that hides
In the simple sights
That seem worn
To your usual eyes
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Oh, that blessing - especially the final verse! I come back to it often, reminding myself that it is a choice how I see the world react to it.
We can reward our senses by treating them to things that uplift them - silence, beautiful music or chanting for your ears, food and drinks that feel nourishing and tasty, massages, hugs and movement practices for our sense of touch, aromas that please your nose (I for one love the cleansing feeling of a deep breath of crisp morning air) and for the eyes, just giving them a break from artificial light and screens will do wonders.
JOURNAL PROMPT
Take a clean page of your notebook and draw two columns. On one side write down the 5 senses and on the other you can fill in all the things that you find uplift and indulge them.
I have written some of my favourite things below to give you an idea - oh how I love the smell of lavender - just thinking about it now, in the middle of winter, is enough to make me feel warm.
You don't need to do this all in one day - the list can grow and evolve over time.
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SIGHT
SOUND
TASTE
TOUCH
SMELL
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big views, the starts, puddles, inspirational art, beauty, the face of those I love
chanting, silence, being away from electrical hums, being part of stimulating conversation, poetry, birdsong, my kids voices
ice cold water, raw vegetables, dark chocolate, salty olives, ramen broth, a kiss
hugs, stretching, a hot bath, stroking my dog, receiving a massage, knitting, weaving and painting, picking an apple from the tree, gardening
clean mountain air, the ocean, warm skin, lavender, horses in clean straw
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A Treat For The Ears
While I hugely value silence I also love music. Here is a playlist made specially for this course with some of my favourite soothing sounds and mantras.
Click here for the spotify playlist
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Affirmations for desire and the senses
My desires will propel me to my higher purpose
I recognise what I want is not always what I need
I honour my senses and am grateful for how they enrich my life
There is always enough
All that I desire is already within me
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