Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom by B.K.S. Iyengar

Author:B.K.S. Iyengar [Iyengar, B.K.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rodale Books
Published: 2006-12-18T22:00:00+00:00

Memory: Liberation or Bondage

When Pavlov rang his bell for the dogs at mealtimes, the dogs salivated because the bell hit a “bell equals mealtime” mechanism in them associating with and triggering memory. The bell triggered the “time to eat” response, and salivation occurred instantly. The dogs didn’t say, “Wait a minute, this is a secondary wave. This is only a bell.” It is very difficult for us to pick up the secondary wave rising from the unconscious toward the surface. We are caught up in the action that it provokes, both like salivation, at a physical and sensorial level or the level of doing something (salivating is an action). We’re caught up in the consequence before we can interrupt it.

For example, sex or violence in films acts like this on us. Even if we dislike or disapprove of them at a conscious level, they create secondary waves from unconscious sexual or aggression sandbanks that muddy the waters of consciousness. Only someone who is completely free of causality is beyond the dangers of pollution. The advertising business is largely based on the trick of triggering a response in the customer’s unconscious mind. Our consciousness increasingly becomes what we feed it.

It’s very difficult to be aware of these secondary waves rising. We always think that we are reacting in a certain situation to the primary stimulus, the ruffle on the surface of consciousness, but in fact, far more than we can ever realize, we are reacting to the predisposition that is in the samskara at the bottom of the lake. Consumers buy products without knowing what it is that has unconsciously motivated them to do so. We think we’re acting in freedom; we convince ourselves that we are, but in reality we are manipulated or influenced by these waves. The word influence comes from the Latin “to flow in,” which shows that their language understood thought as a current or wave. The yogi wants to see and act directly so he needs a flat-bottomed lake in order to act solely in response to the stimulus that comes from outside and that is on the surface.

How do we catch secondary waves coming up from the floor of consciousness? Let us say you are driving a car and a small absentmindedness or selfishness on the part of another driver releases a wave of anger in you. Before you know it, you are honking your horn, cursing, and driving aggressively yourself. Does it do any good? Do you feel better for letting your serenity be so easily shattered? Does blaming the other driver restore your peace of mind? No.

If you want to intercept the secondary waves rising, you need speed and clarity of perception, an acute self-awareness. If your lake is muddy and impure, if there are lots of toxins in your system clouding your vision, clarity of vision is impossible. If your liver is sluggish with toxins, your brain will be impaired because the liver is not filtering the blood. Your nervous system will be slow to react to danger, but disproportionate in the degree of stress it registers.

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