Unlock Your Real Nature With The Keys To Calm
If you experience racing thoughts, here’s a new approach. Instead of feeling frustrated with seemingly untamable thoughts, think of the mind as a golden retriever puppy. It’s easy to love a puppy. Less easy to love, your mind is an important part of you. Wherever you go, there it is. But like a puppy, it can be trained to be calm. Patañjali yoga shows why the mind is not calm and how to train it to be calm. And there are real benefits. According to book one of the Yoga Sutras, when the mind is calm, you experience your real nature — pure calm awareness. Otherwise, the mind reflects the world resulting in the experience of confusion also known as racing mind.
Why Is My Mind Not Calm?
The mind is not calm because it is usually occupied in the five types of confusion. For purposes of explanation, we’ll keep comparing the mind to a loveable golden retriever puppy and name him Cooper. Patanjali says there are five basic types of confusion in the mind and we can liken them to Cooper’s experience.
Correct perception (Cooper correctly perceives a bone and gets excited.)
Wrong perception (Cooper mistakes a stick for a bone and gets excited.)
Conceptualization (Cooper barks and imagines a bone in various ways and gets excited.)
Deep sleep (Cooper takes a nap and his mind is groggy.)
Memory (Cooper remembers a bone he had last week, mmmmm.)
There Are Three Forms of Correct Perception
The three basic ways that Cooper perceives things correctly are:
Through his senses, e.g. “I see a bone!”
By inference, e.g. “Smells like a bone, must be a bone!”
From the words of someone he trusts, e.g. “Hey, Cooper, here’s a bone!”
Your mind works the same way. But you also perceive things incorrectly
when the mind compares sensory input with data from the past and identifies an object incorrectly;
with too many words, thoughts or ideas; and
as a result of incorrect memory.
What Helps to Calm the Mind?
A calm mind, like a calm puppy, is possible with training and long-term practice without interruption. Five basic things that help are:
Belief that it is possible;
Enthusiasm;
Commitment;
The 8 limbs of Yoga (discussed in Book Two of the Yoga Sutras); and
Your innate wisdom.
How Does Om Help?
Another way to calm the mind is to contemplate OM, which brings realization of the real self and freedom from obstacles like sickness, laziness, indulgence, mistakes, failure to concentrate, etc. About Om, Swami Vivekanda wrote:
[T]hese three letters अ उ म (A.U.M.), pronounced in combination as Om, may well be the generalised symbol of all possible sounds. The letter A is the least differentiated of all sounds, therefore Krishna says in the Gita अक्षराणां अकारोऽस्मि— “I am A among the letters”. Again, all articulate sounds are produced in the space within the mouth beginning with the root of the tongue and ending in the lips — the throat sound is A, and M is the last lip sound, and the U exactly represents the rolling forward of the impulse which begins at the root of the tongue till it ends in the lips. If properly pronounced, this Om will represent the whole phenomenon of sound-production, and no other word can do this; and this, therefore, is the fittest symbol of the Sphota, which is the real meaning of the Om. And as the symbol can never be separated from the thing signified, the Om and the Sphota are one. And as the Sphota, being the finer side of the manifested universe, is nearer to God and is indeed that first manifestation of divine wisdom this Om is truly symbolic of God.
—The Mantra: Om: Word and Wisdom
The Four Keys to Calm
The four keys to calm found in Book One of the Yoga Sutras are specific attitudes that can be practiced that tame restless or anxious thoughts. To consciously choose even just one of them and practice it really works. Try just one for one day and see if that is your own experience.
Friendship toward those who are happy;
Compassion for those in distress;
Joy toward those who are virtuous; and
Neutrality toward those who are not good.
You can just try it and see how it works for you. But if you like reasoning, the reasoning behind the first one is that when the mind is not calm, there is a tendency to react with envy when other people are successful. Some call it “crabs in a barrel” or “tall poppy syndrome.” If someone is outstanding in some way, a troubled mind wants to find a way to reduce them. It’s not you that does this; it is the mind. Rather than follow that mental tendency, you can tame the mind to stay in a friendly attitude. On the other hand, when you see someone experiencing trouble, a troubled mind may blame them, their karma, their thinking, it’s their own fault, etc. When the mind starts down this track, you can tame it to stay in a compassionate attitude instead. When you meet a person who is trying to follow a spiritual path, a troubled mind may experience thoughts of envy, or self-judgement, and look for ways to discredit them. To avoid this kind of thought pattern, meditate on joy, which would be the natural reaction of a clear mind seeing someone abiding in their true nature. With respect to people who are really doing harm to others, people we might consider truly bad, the mind can swirl with ideas and thoughts of anger. The recommendation to train the mind in neutrality rooted in the nondual philosophy that what we see in others is a reflection of ourselves, or, if you prefer the Jungian idea, a reflection of the dark side or shadow.
This practice like the Buddhist tradition of cultivating friendliness, compassion, delight, and equanimity known as the four “heavenly abodes . . . radiates not just inward toward oneself and one’s experience, regardless of its qualities, but also outward toward all beings. This willingness to greet all phenomena with kindliness is the basis of nonreaction.” The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali A New Translation With Commentary, by Chip Hartranft.
Other Practices
There are other methods that you can use to hold the mind’s focus on one thing that will also produce greater stillness and calm. You can —
Focus on the breath. Since the breath and the mind are connected, the mind can be calmed by making the breath slow and steady.
Or, focus on sensations as they arise and notice any mental activity that arises with sensation. Noticing reactions to sensory experience is a way to cultivate nonreaction.
Or, focus on the light in your heart center.
Or, concentrate on any one thing and let all perception flow only to that object.
What Are the Benefits of Training the Mind to Be Calm?
Patanjali says nothing can stop the yogi who masters their mind. A still mind is like a pure crystal reflecting clearly anything on which it is focused. Ultimately the mind becomes so clear that it reflects the true nature of all things — pure consciousness. In the light of the real nature, there is wisdom of the ultimate truth of reality. The imprint of such an experience can even block out all other imprints of prior suffering. So the benefits accumulate. Ultimately, the self becomes disentangled from anything but its real nature.
This discourse from Swami Sarvapriyananda is inspired by a lecture from Swami Vivekananda: "The Real Nature of Man" (Jnana Yoga).
The Sufi Master and Poet Hafiz writes about the real nature, which is also your real nature, in The Lamp That Needs No Oil
I have made the journey into Nothing.
I have lit that lamp that
Needs no oil.
I have cried great streams
Of emerald crystals
On my scarred knees, begging love
To never again let me hear from
Any world
The sound of my own name,
Even from the voice of divine thought
Or see that pen you gave me, God
In the sun’s or sky’s skillful hand
Writing
Anything other than the word —
One.
I have made the journey into Nothing.
I have become that flame that needs
no oil
Beloved,
Now what need is there to ever Call for Hafiz?
For if you did,
I would just step out
of You.
A Few Notes . . .
Sutra literally means thread, a short statement with the most information in the fewest words. In the original Sanskrit language, the sutras have only about 1,200 words in 195 sutras, and the word sounds and forms link the sutras together in a way designed for memorization and chanting all the verses. English doesn’t work quite as well, but you can still grasp the idea. Patañjali wrote these 195 sayings on yoga around 500 BCE and 400 CE. They were not new then. They were a new synthesis and organization of yoga philosophy that existed, some say, since primordial or mythical times. According to the Mahabharata, Brahma is the founder of yoga. The story of this is that after being born from the navel of Visnu, Brahma awakened to consciousness and did not know what he or anything around him was. He was confused and disoriented, but he stilled his mind, entered into a state of yoga, and experienced divine vision. This is what the practice of yoga offers you too.
The Yoga Sūtras are divided into four parts. Part One is the path to calm mind (discussed above). Part Two is the path of action (includes the 8 limbs of yoga). Part Three is guide to yoga superpowers. Part Four is a guide to the experience of our real nature.
Sources
There are lots of sources for learning about the Yoga Sutras in more depth. Here are a few well-read and loved texts. We’re not affiliates, just sharing.
Bryant’s commentaries are fascinating and very in depth. Not for everyone, but if you love a big hearty meal of a read that will give endlessly, this one is wonderful.
Swami Satchidanana talks to you like an old friend with the wisdom of an enlightened soul. Easy to read, funny, understandably loved by many.
Yes, this book shows the Ashtanga Primary Series. But it also includes a commentary on the Yoga Sutras in the back that is very comprehensive.