from head to heart...: Patanjali Yoga Sutra: Day 09

DAY 09: ELIMINATING THE CAUSE OF PAIN

All the pleasure and joys in this world come with a tax and this tax is sorrow.
Every event causes some pain because it finishes. Ending of any event has some pain (Parinaam dukha); greater the joy, greater the pain in the end. Longing or waiting for a pleasurable event is again pain (Taap dukha). Memory of events also brings pain (Sanskaara dukha).
Before you have something, feverishness to get it is pain; then, when you have it, the fear of losing or the end of event is also pain; and when it is gone, the memories of that event is also pain; so it is pain throughout.
Everything is painful. Love is beautiful but still painful. Separation creates pain. To please somebody and then to know if he/she is pleased is pain.
Two expressions of love:

Pain is everywhere in this world. Pain is the tail of everything /anything in this world.
So what to do to stop this pain?

The root cause of pain needs to be eliminated. The pain that hasn't yet come into life needs to be removed. How to do that?
The main cause of pain is forgetting that one's Self is separate from one's environment; the self, the seer (the senses) and the scene (the object) - lack of perception of the Self and the objects that are all around the Self. Usually we keep our life somewhere else and not in us.
When you give something more importance than life that becomes the cause of your sufferings.
Through meditation you can see the difference between the surroundings and the seer - the light.

This doesn’t mean that we have to run from world; this world is here for us to enjoy. But while we enjoy don’t forget the 'self'. This is 'viveka'.

Everything conveys you a message. Every aspect in this world is an expression of consciousness.
Everything in this world is dynamic. Every thing has a stage and everything is governed by certain principles & qualities.
The entire creation is made up of 5 elements - the five elements and five sense organs. There are five organs of perception and five organs of action. The entire creation is endowed with these ten and the mind.

The entire creation is there to give you pleasure and relief. Whatever gives you pleasure should also gives you relief. Otherwise, the pleasure becomes the pain.
The entire creation does give you enjoyment and liberation. You have to get yourself liberated of all these at some point or another. Otherwise they will become a pain.

The self, though is ever pure & untainted, is just a witness. But when it becomes one with intellect, seems to be get colored and get stuck in intellect. People get stuck in their thoughts and ideas. The self is the center of whole creation.

The world does not exist for the one who is realized and enlightened the way it does for the one who is not enlightened. There is no more suffering for the one who is awakened in the knowledge.

These gunas influence you according to their nature, time, place etc; you tend to identify yourself with the effect of that influence. Identifying yourself with the effect of the influence is Ignorance. Observe the tendencies that come up in you and know that you are not those tendencies; know that the gunas will influence you according to their nature - this is the way to go pass ignorance.
The definite understanding and the knowledge in the mind that the body is undergoing changes all the time; the world is undergoing changes all the time; that the entire universe is fluid - full of changes and is going on, on its own, according to its nature - is the way to come out of ignorance.
The definite knowledge that you are not the body; that you are the self, untouched & untamed, that the body is all hollow & empty, and every particle in this body is changing and that the mind is ever changing is the way to get out this cycle.

from head to heart...