The Perceptual Mind
When it comes to our relationship with the mind, we can find ourselves in a healthy and optimal balance, working our way back to a place of alignment, or filled with suffering. It really depends on our focus. Ultimately, however, it will be rooted in the choices we make. You see, living mentally isn’t something that happens to us. It’s a result of our choices, and where we put our trust. Do you trust in your mind to make decisions for your life? Do you feel like you carry the weight of the world, feeling caught up by the weight of mental fluctuations? Well, from a yogic perspective, this is exactly what is meant by “chitta vritti” which translates to mental fluctuations or ‘mind chatter.’
Our perceptions, whether we like something or not, can often be rooted in judgments rooted in past experiences that have in someway molded the way we see ourselves or others and they have been cultivated really from other people’s projections and not the truth. When we look at the four different padas in the yoga sutras we can see this evolution of the field of consciousness and how we as are able to reshape the phenomenal world based on our perceptions, these samskaras that we create and how we can look back on our thoughts and our reality, our personal and professional life and how these fluctuations in our perceptions of ourself or the world lead us to act in one way or another. The stories we create around our perceptions have an impact on the story we create about ourselves and the world around us, how we verbalize this story and it creates our experience.
We can see through self-study how many of these perceptions are not real truth. When we come back to what is true, we can see that from witnessing objectively even the subjective experience that we are having, we can learn to trust what we are witnessing in the moment, as long as we are not trying to identify with that as the truth. It is simply the experience we are having, and to be able to refocus and come back to center and slow down instead of pushing ourselves even to find an answer or conclusion for the experience we are having, we can start to bring peace to the extremes, bring a balance between the thoughts, feelings and physical sensations we are experiencing. So we can begin to look at asana as a practice for our highest unfoldment whether we are on the mat or off the mat, we are never out of yoga.
When we look at these perceptions and fluctuations, we always want to ask ourselves first, ‘Is this true?’ Is what I am witnessing the truth or is it based on a perception that I have about my own experiences and past interactions with this pattern? Then we can ask, “What type of experience am I having?” Am I enjoying this? Is this bringing me to a state of bliss or am I extremely uncomfortable? Is the reason I dislike or like this, the reason I’ve placed a value on this, because I have some type of judgment about myself or the situation unfolding?
These are a few simple ways we can look at different types of attachments we are having so we can see if there are any. It’s not good nor bad, it’s simply that we have an opportunity when we look at our attachments to cultivate a compassion and love and forgiveness for the aspects of ourselves that are really whole but searching for wholeness somewhere else. If it is a perception, is there a story that goes along with this? Are there memories being triggered that are adding value to this perception that is arising? Is there a way we can come back to the truth in the moment and allow for the heart to open and compassionately bring forgiveness for you even buying into the idea that this is the truth, that this is real. How can you open up your own perception to create a larger reality for yourself? Instead of feeling closed or small or limited.
Practicing this every day in small doses can help you meet each and every interaction in life as an experience. One that is being presented to you, for you, so you can further bring awakening into your life and step further into your own authentic expression of how consciousness is moving through you.
