Samvedana: Doing it Vipassana way

We are discussing the 5Ss to live a spiritual life that is full of infinite possibilities as against the materialistic life which is full of fear and stress. We discussed the first "S": "Swadhyay" in different posts. We also discussed the second "S": "Shraddha" in the last post. The third "S" is Samvedana.

Each life is full of immense possibilities if it is centered around the true self. We constrain ourselves by getting fixated. These fixations are contained in the rational mind in the form of rights and wrongs, in the emotional mind, in the form of likes and dislikes, and in the unconscious mind, in the form of pleasant and unpleasant sensations. We need to work on all these three levels of fixations together. We work on fixations in the rational mind by Swadhyay and the likes and dislikes of the emotional mind by Shraddha.

So many of us work on the rational and emotional mind and yet feel stressed and worried most of the time. We fail to realize the reason because the reason lies much deeper in the unconscious. Each of the experiences we like, results in the generation of neurotransmitters that make us experience pleasant sensations in the body. Similarly, the experiences we dislike, result in unpleasant sensations in the body. The memories of these pleasant and unpleasant sensations are contained in the unconscious. 

It's not one-way traffic rather it’s two-way traffic. These pleasant and unpleasant sensations give feedback to the emotional mind. The more we enjoy these sensations and the greater the craving for likes and aversion for dislikes. This can be understood with two examples. We meet a good friend after a long time. Immediately, our emotional mind likes it. We recall the old good days. It creates pleasant sensations in the body. We like these pleasant sensations and want more of these sensations. This liking for the pleasant sensations gives feedback to the emotional mind that strengthens our liking for the friend.

Another example is encountering a boss we do not like. We meet the boss each day and each day we feel unpleasant sensations in the body that give feedback to the emotional mind and our dislike for the boss gets stronger each day.

Generally, working on the rational and emotional mind is not successful because of the strong memories of the pleasant and unpleasant sensations stored in the unconscious. Since we are not conscious of these sensations, they keep coming from the back door and strengthen our likes and dislikes. Howsoever, we work consciously on the emotional mind, and the likes and dislikes come back again much stronger.

There is a simple trick, we can fix this problem with. That is being aware of these sensations with equanimity. The moment, we become aware of these sensations and observe them without reactions, we break the loop of fixations in the unconscious mind.

It seems difficult to be aware of these sensations since we have got so used to the loop due to years of practice. We start with the breath. We are generally unconscious of our breathing. But if we wish, we may become conscious of the same. So first we start becoming aware of breathing. As we gain awareness of our breathing, we slowly start focusing on a small area of our body such as the tip of the nose, and start becoming aware of the sensations in that area. Slowly, we start becoming aware of the sensations in the whole of the body. While being aware of these sensations, we focus on their temporariness and not their pleasantness or unpleasantness. With this awareness, the feedback cycle breaks and we become free of the fixations.

We can become free of the fixations in the rational mind, emotional mind, and unconscious mind by the triple S of Swadhyay, Shraddha, and working on Samvedanas through Vipassana. Since the rational mind, emotional mind and body sensations work in a loop, we need to work on all these three together to get rid of the fixations.