Five Ss to get the freedom back

The lost freedom

The rational mind, the emotional mind, and the unconscious mind are all storehouses of our habit patterns. Generally, we keep taking decisions with any one or more of these brains. Since we are not aware, we keep making decisions based on the likes and dislikes of the emotional mind, biases of the rational mind, and the memories of pleasant or unpleasant sensations in the unconscious mind.

Regaining freedom with the help of five Ss

There is no easy way to get over these fixations and connect to the true self. The simple reason is that these fixations are stored deep in the rational, emotional, and unconscious mind. The following five Ss may help us re-centering our life to the true self:

1.       Swadhyay
2.        Shraddha
3.        Samvedana
4.        Swadharma
5.        Samadhi

Swadhyay

Swadhyay means self-reading. This is a very powerful tool to reset our biases. The Rights and wrongs are stored in the rational mind in a particular context. We are not able to reset the same with the change of the context. Moreover, as we gather more experience we get to know that our sets of rights and wrongs were based on very limited facts. 

Books written by masters of different subjects help us work on our logic and biases. We can broadly divide the books into 4 categories:

1. Books that take us from certainty to confusion: There are many books written by agnostics seekers who tried to understand the true nature of reality without any biased mind. When I read "A Search in Secret India" by Paul Brunton, it gave me a very different perspective of reality. I have not been able to meet the Yogis referred to in the book but got to know about them through the author. Books like "The Field" by Lynne Mctaggart make you understand the world of plants, intentions, and consciousness. The latest research in these areas. I read the book "My Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor who is a brain scientist who had a stroke in the left brain. She describes her experiences of the stroke in the book which makes us aware of a new dimension of reality. All these books shake our certainty of reality and we start exploring it afresh with an open mind. 
2. Books about the present-day understanding of science and its limitations: These books help us understand the limitations of logic and our understanding of reality. I read a lot of books written by neurologists to understand the functioning of the brain. I tried to search the seat of consciousness inside the brain with V S Ramachandran through his book "The Tell-tale Brain" and "Phantoms in the Brain". I read a lot of other neurology books to understand the seat of "I". The books on quantum physics and the cosmos helped me understand the nature of reality at quantum and cosmic levels and the current gaps in our understanding.
3. Experiences of the Masters: The books written by the masters like "Ramakrishna Vachnamrit" by Mahendra Gupta, "Life Divine", "Letters on Yoga" by Sri Aurobindo, "God Speaks to Arjuna" by Paramhansa Yogananda, "Commentaries on Living" by J Krishnamurti make our rational mind understand the limitations of logic. 
4. Classical texts:  There are many classical texts such as "The Ramayana", "Mahabharata", different Upanishads, and "Yoga Vashishta" that help us explore an altogether new dimension of reality. I studied many books on astrology and did a lot of research on horoscopes to understand reality from a different perspective.

All these books, help us understand the limitations of our understanding and make us open. Our rational mind slowly and gradually gives way to "shraddha". We develop faith in nature. We develop certain faith in the world of consciousness. If "Swadhyay" is supported with "Satsanga" (meeting spiritual people) and "Samvad" (having discussions with such people), that does wonders provided the people whom we are discussing are not fixated on their biases.

Thus, "Swadhyaya" helps to set the rational mind right. The reason which was centered around the fixations with our biases, gets oriented to a greater reality.

Shraddha

With "Swadhyay", "Satsanga" and "Samvad", we develop an agonistic faith. We are open to the possibilities rather than being certain about our mental creation of reality based on a limited understanding of reality. This helps us re-centering the emotional mind. 

The emotional mind is centered around likes and dislikes. These likes and dislikes are formed around our philosophy of life and threat perceptions. As we start realizing the wideness of the reality and limitations of our minds, the strength of our fixations with these likes and dislikes drops automatically. We start understanding the relativity of these likes and dislikes. For example, we may have a huge liking for a particular career like civil services. However, as our understanding of reality grows, that no longer remains that important in our framework of life. 

We slowly develop an agnostic belief in the consciousness and start exploring the same within and outside. There comes a sea change in our responses to the situations. Rather than reacting to them, we start observing and exploring them. Each incident and experience gives us further insights into the human psyche and the functioning of nature. As we observe more, we gain more insights into the nature of consciousness.

Samvedana (body sensations)

As we discussed in an earlier post "Enemies of Freedom" the unconscious mind plays a very significant role in the functioning of the emotional mind. It acts based on pleasant/unpleasant sensations. These memories are stored in the unconscious. These sensations give regular feedback to the emotional mind to strengthen our likes and dislikes. 

Howsoever we work on the rational mind and howsoever "shraddha", we inculcate, we will not be free of the likes and dislikes unless we observe these body sensations without reaction. The more equanimity we maintain with these body sensations, the greater freedom we gain from our likes and dislikes.

The Vipassana technique helps us observe these sensations and work on them. With this, our unconscious mind also starts getting re-centered on the true self.

Swadharma

As we start becoming free of the biases of the rational mind, the likes and dislikes of the emotional mind, and the pleasant/unpleasant sensations of the body, we start gaining the right understanding of our "Swadharma" and work accordingly in this world. "Swadharma" is the true nature of the self. When we act in this world with "Swadharma", we do not form biases or likes and dislikes. our like is not driven by the craving for pleasant sensations or aversion to unpleasant sensations.

One may have the "Swadharma" of management or execution. For example, an artist may like to make a painting or sculpture and concentrate the mind on that. An administrator may manage the administration well. Somebody may be good at organizing. Some may be more full of physical energy. Some may be good at setting up the systems and think from a wider perspective.

It does not matter what a person does so long as the center of activity is the process and not the outcome. If one acts as per one's true nature of "Swadharma", one enjoys the process. The process itself absorbs so much attention that he remains perpetually in the present moment forgetting the past and future which makes him forget the sense of time and he comes to a state called "flow".

With this, the center of the activities is also aligned with the true self.

Samadhi

With the center of activities recentered to the true self with "Swadharma", we become aware of our inner self. Since our fixations on the mental biases, the likes and dislikes, and the pleasant or unpleasant sensations of the unconscious mind drop and we act while being fully absorbed in the action, it becomes easier to search for the reality inside.

In a normal state of awareness, when we close our eyes, thoughts take over and we just start dancing to their tune. We are hardly able to concentrate on the reality. But, now as we close our eyes, our attention is free to explore the inner world. 

With this we start directly connecting to the true self and more and more of our life is guided by consciousness rather than biases and likes and dislikes.