ASMITA
Yoga sutra 2.6
Drig Darshana Shaktyoh
Ekatmata Iva Asmita
The coloring (klesha) of I-ness or egoism
(asmita), which arises from the ignorance, occurs due to the mistake of taking
the intellect (buddhi, which knows, decides, judges, and discriminates) to
itself be pure consciousness (purusha/drig).
The above literal translation may sound difficult.
So, let us understand in a more simpler way- Asmita occurs when pure non-dual Consciousness (the
divinity that we are) forgets it is non-dual due to avidya or ignorance and it plays in a human being
as an individual (asmita), this second coloring comes almost simultaneous
with avidya, this is
a very subtle veil of I-ness, it has not yet have any characteristic, it now
appears as an individual entity, that has the four functions of mind; manas, chitta, ahamkara, and buddhi.
Finest form of individuality: Asmita is
the finest form of individuality. It is not I-am-ness, as when we
say, "I am a man or woman" or "I am a person from this or that
country." Rather, it is I-ness that has not taken on any
of those identities.
I-ness is necessary for the others: In relation to individual
thought patterns, the coloring of I-ness is necessary for attraction, aversion,
and fear to have any power. Thus, the I-ness itself
is seen as a coloring process of the thoughts. The practice is that of witnessing this Asmita (I-ness),
and how it comes into relation with though patterns.
Like the filament confusing itself with the
electricity:
The klesha of asmita is like the filament of a light bulb confusing itself with
electricity. The filament is the finest, most essential part of the light bulb,
but it still pales in comparison to the electricity that is the true source of
the light coming out of the bulb.
The image in the mind is not neutral: Imagine some thought that
it is not colored by I-ness. Such an un-colored thought
would have no ability to distract your mind during meditation, nor to control
your actions. Actually, there are many such neutral thought
patterns.
For example, we encounter many people in daily life whom we may
recognize, but have never met, and for whom their memory in our mind is neither
colored with attraction nor aversion. It simply means that the image of
those people is stored in the mind, but that it is neutral, not colored.
In
the post on Avidya, we understood that ignorance of man makes him incapable of
knowing that he is SELF/ DIVINE.
From
this Avidya, certain other beliefs emerge, as under:-
Ø Instead, man saw himself as his body, mind and intellect and
thought, that was his true identity.
Ø Once he believed that his body was his true
identity, then obviously, he has to take up all actions to glorify his physical
identity which he believes as real.
Ø With this, the second ignorance ASMITA, taking
the non-self Body, Mind, Intellect as SELF, all other ignorance flowed in a
perfect sequence, as a chain.
An
exercise to track our Asmita:
Here
is a fun exercise to track down your Ego and make friends with it, so it can
soften and quiet down. I like to call it the Labels exercise.
Observe
and take note on the following:
Ø
Labels, you tag onto yourself
ØLabels, that your mind tags on to people/ things/ foods/events/ actions/dress codes/behaviors…
Ø Comparative labels (how you compare your
labels with those of others)
Take a deep breath.
Settle into your seat and look over the collection of labels you
have jotted down.
Recognize the space they hold in your mind.
Keep breathing, and see if you can find a space in your mind
that allows you to drop the need to constantly label, tag, judge. Just be for a
moment, be here, present in the space where there are no labels.
A label is a judgment. Often we mistake the labels we give
ourselves for who we are. This exercise allows us to step out of the small,
limited picture, we often get stuck in.
When you take a step back you are able to see the larger
picture, and that is when you can find a sense of ease; because it is ok, you are
only a small part of a very big picture…
Love.
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