Verbatim Copy from "Concentration and Meditation" by Swami Bhajanananda
Source: http://www.vedanta.gr/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/SwBhajan_ConcMeditation_ENA5.pdf
Purification of Samskaras (Pg 27-28)
"The first struggle in meditative life is to break the connection between memories and impulses. This is what purification of the mind really means. In a purified mind instinctive impulses do not operate. Memories in the form of pictures and ideas appear but they are not tied down to impulses. Like white clouds which do not rain but disappear in the blue sky, these memories disappear after remaining in the field of consciousness for a short while.
Purification of Samskaras
The purification of the mind really means the purification of samskaras which, as we have seen, means breaking the connection between impulses and ideas. How can one do this?
One method is to weaken the power of the impulses through abstinence, avoidance, withdrawal and other forms of tapas or austerity.
Another method is to increase the number of good samskaras through virtuous karma. Something like what physical chemists call the Law of Mass Action operates in mental life also. When dharma samskaras (good impressions) increase, they keep in check adharma samskaras (bad impressions). These two methods — tapas and virtuous karma — are unavoidable disciplines during the early stages of meditative life.
Patanjali speaks of a third method, which may be practised along with the other two. This is to change the connection between impulses and mental images. Images exert a great influence in the mind. If bad impulses, when they arise in the mind, are connected to the image of a holy man or holy woman, they immediately get controlled. Similarly, bad images cease to appear bad when connected to good emotions. This process of changing the connections between mental images and impulses is called pratipaksa-bhavanam (Patanjali Yoga Sutras 2.33). This is to be done through proper self-analysis, but this becomes effective only when the new connections are tested in action.
A fourth and higher method is to detach the will. The connection between images and impulses is consciously made by exercising the will. This connection is supported by the will. If the will is detached, the samskaras break apart. However, detachment is not easy. It becomes possible only when supported by other disciplines. A story is told about the great French impressionist painter Matisse. A visitor to his studio pointed to some unholy pictures hanging on the wall and asked Matisse: “Don’t you think these have a demoralizing effect on people?” The artist calmly replied, “My dear man, it is not a woman, it is only a picture.” An artist sees only a picture in a woman, whereas an ordinary man sees a woman in a picture — this is the difference between the two. This does not of course mean that all artists are holy sages. But in them the creative urge becomes so strong that it produces a certain degree of detachment — aesthetic detachment as it is called. However, owing to a lack of systematic moral discipline, most artists are not able to sustain this detachment for long.
All impulses can be reduced to three types of instinctual reactions: “towards,” “against” and “away from” — raga, dvesa and bhaya, as Indian psychologists call them. The terms dharma (virtue) and adharma (vice) can be applied only to these impulses and the actions that result from them. Memories, that is the various images and ideas that rise in the mind, are neutral. By themselves they are neither good nor bad; it is their association with impulses that makes them good or bad. When we speak of purification of the mind, what we really mean is freeing the memory from the hold of impulses, or smrti parisuddhi, purification of the memory, as Patanjali calls it.
When bad memories appear, one should not get upset but should calmly proceed to free them from bad impulses through self-analysis. Further, one should understand that mental images appear living only because they are charged with consciousness through association with the self. When the self is disconnected from the mental images by detaching the will, they get deflated and disappear."
Samskaras to Vrittis Pg 29
"How do samskaras sprout into vrittis? What activates the samskaras? Just as the recording in a magnetic tape is activated by the electric current in the tape recorder, the samskaras are activated by the cosmic energy flowing through the mind. Regarding the nature of this cosmic energy Indian sages hold different views.
According to the Samkhya Yoga school it is rajas, the mobile element of the three gunas, that manifests itself as all movements in the cosmos. The Gita says, “This lust, this anger, arises because of rajas.”11 Commenting on this line, Vedanta Desika says, “Watered with rajas the seeds of subtle impressions left by the experience of objects of senses sprout into desire and anger.”12 In the Vedas and the Tantras the cosmic energy is called prana. By prana is meant not the air we breathe, points out Swami Vivekananda, but “the sum total of all forces in the universe, mental and physical, resolved back into their original state.”13 The Yoga Vasistha says, “The tree of the mind has two seeds: one is the latent impression, the other is prana. When one of these is weakened, both get quickly controlled.”14 According to yogis, the movement of prana in the psycho-physical system depends upon the activity of two main channels known as ida and pingala. Pranayama is an exercise for controlling these channels. When the activity of these channels is controlled, the mind becomes calm. However, it should be noted that pranayama only stops the sprouting of the samskaras but does not destroy them. When the effect of pranayama wears off, the samskaras sprout again.
10. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1977), 1.241-42.
11. Bhagavad Gita, 3. 37.
12. Tatparyacandrika on ibid.
13. Complete Works, 1. 148.
14. Laghu Yoga Vasistham, 28, 34."
Source: http://www.vedanta.gr/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/SwBhajan_ConcMeditation_ENA5.pdf
Purification of Samskaras (Pg 27-28)
"The first struggle in meditative life is to break the connection between memories and impulses. This is what purification of the mind really means. In a purified mind instinctive impulses do not operate. Memories in the form of pictures and ideas appear but they are not tied down to impulses. Like white clouds which do not rain but disappear in the blue sky, these memories disappear after remaining in the field of consciousness for a short while.
Purification of Samskaras
The purification of the mind really means the purification of samskaras which, as we have seen, means breaking the connection between impulses and ideas. How can one do this?
One method is to weaken the power of the impulses through abstinence, avoidance, withdrawal and other forms of tapas or austerity.
Another method is to increase the number of good samskaras through virtuous karma. Something like what physical chemists call the Law of Mass Action operates in mental life also. When dharma samskaras (good impressions) increase, they keep in check adharma samskaras (bad impressions). These two methods — tapas and virtuous karma — are unavoidable disciplines during the early stages of meditative life.
Patanjali speaks of a third method, which may be practised along with the other two. This is to change the connection between impulses and mental images. Images exert a great influence in the mind. If bad impulses, when they arise in the mind, are connected to the image of a holy man or holy woman, they immediately get controlled. Similarly, bad images cease to appear bad when connected to good emotions. This process of changing the connections between mental images and impulses is called pratipaksa-bhavanam (Patanjali Yoga Sutras 2.33). This is to be done through proper self-analysis, but this becomes effective only when the new connections are tested in action.
A fourth and higher method is to detach the will. The connection between images and impulses is consciously made by exercising the will. This connection is supported by the will. If the will is detached, the samskaras break apart. However, detachment is not easy. It becomes possible only when supported by other disciplines. A story is told about the great French impressionist painter Matisse. A visitor to his studio pointed to some unholy pictures hanging on the wall and asked Matisse: “Don’t you think these have a demoralizing effect on people?” The artist calmly replied, “My dear man, it is not a woman, it is only a picture.” An artist sees only a picture in a woman, whereas an ordinary man sees a woman in a picture — this is the difference between the two. This does not of course mean that all artists are holy sages. But in them the creative urge becomes so strong that it produces a certain degree of detachment — aesthetic detachment as it is called. However, owing to a lack of systematic moral discipline, most artists are not able to sustain this detachment for long.
All impulses can be reduced to three types of instinctual reactions: “towards,” “against” and “away from” — raga, dvesa and bhaya, as Indian psychologists call them. The terms dharma (virtue) and adharma (vice) can be applied only to these impulses and the actions that result from them. Memories, that is the various images and ideas that rise in the mind, are neutral. By themselves they are neither good nor bad; it is their association with impulses that makes them good or bad. When we speak of purification of the mind, what we really mean is freeing the memory from the hold of impulses, or smrti parisuddhi, purification of the memory, as Patanjali calls it.
When bad memories appear, one should not get upset but should calmly proceed to free them from bad impulses through self-analysis. Further, one should understand that mental images appear living only because they are charged with consciousness through association with the self. When the self is disconnected from the mental images by detaching the will, they get deflated and disappear."
Samskaras to Vrittis Pg 29
"How do samskaras sprout into vrittis? What activates the samskaras? Just as the recording in a magnetic tape is activated by the electric current in the tape recorder, the samskaras are activated by the cosmic energy flowing through the mind. Regarding the nature of this cosmic energy Indian sages hold different views.
According to the Samkhya Yoga school it is rajas, the mobile element of the three gunas, that manifests itself as all movements in the cosmos. The Gita says, “This lust, this anger, arises because of rajas.”11 Commenting on this line, Vedanta Desika says, “Watered with rajas the seeds of subtle impressions left by the experience of objects of senses sprout into desire and anger.”12 In the Vedas and the Tantras the cosmic energy is called prana. By prana is meant not the air we breathe, points out Swami Vivekananda, but “the sum total of all forces in the universe, mental and physical, resolved back into their original state.”13 The Yoga Vasistha says, “The tree of the mind has two seeds: one is the latent impression, the other is prana. When one of these is weakened, both get quickly controlled.”14 According to yogis, the movement of prana in the psycho-physical system depends upon the activity of two main channels known as ida and pingala. Pranayama is an exercise for controlling these channels. When the activity of these channels is controlled, the mind becomes calm. However, it should be noted that pranayama only stops the sprouting of the samskaras but does not destroy them. When the effect of pranayama wears off, the samskaras sprout again.
10. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1977), 1.241-42.
11. Bhagavad Gita, 3. 37.
12. Tatparyacandrika on ibid.
13. Complete Works, 1. 148.
14. Laghu Yoga Vasistham, 28, 34."
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