Redirect Ignorance With Mantra
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Ignorance. That word in itself can create a specific inner reaction or arising of energy. We typically label others with this word and typically in a negative light. While ironically calling someone else ignorant is in itself perhaps a practice of ignorance by the one labeling.
Recently, the quote below has been a personal contemplation and reflection.
“So what does ignorance look like? The ignorant anticipate pleasure and pain before enjoyment, recapitulate them after enjoyment, and reflect over them after so that they leave strong impressions on their minds”- Tripura Rahasya
I am no exception to this ignorance. At times it is “louder” and almost screaming at me. Other times, it quietly floats along in the everyday. Most of us may have a different idea around the word ignorance. The googled definition is: lacking knowledge or awareness in general.
Both the yogis and the dictionary are pointing to the same thing… ignorance occurs when we are unknowingly aware, when we are not Present.
The ignorant anticipate pleasure and pain before enjoyment. Basically saying before xyz happens, we live in the story of what might happen, already experiencing it as something we prefer or don’t prefer. This sounds like lack of knowledge to me. Because the xyz has not happened, we actually don’t have knowledge about it. Even if a past event has been similar, it is not the same as now. We tend to use our knowledge of a past experience as the truth for an upcoming experience. Don’t get me wrong, past experience can be helpful with discernment, so long as we remain open to what is happening as it’s happening and not our mental distinctions around it.
Recapitulate them after enjoyment, and reflect over them after so that they leave strong impressions on their minds. I would expand that even while it is happening, we can often still be in the story about what is happening and experiencing it from the perspective of our own commentary instead of what is actually happening. And how often do you repeat over and over in your mind a past experience and your commentary around it. This sounds alot like lack of awareness in general because if your mind is consumed by the commentary of something that happened in the past, are you being fully aware of the current moment that you are in? Can you see how if you continue to repeat that commentary constantly, you might be reinforcing your belief around it and deepening those neural pathways? As I have mentioned before, strong impressions can be great for useful habits like tying your shoes and riding your bike. It’s not useful when it’s constantly saying “I could have done better” or “XYZ happened to me and it’s the worst” or “Those people are always…”
So how do we free ourselves from ignorance? Through presence… and practice.
Show the mind what you want it to be familiar with over and over and over again.
A tool I have been using when I get caught up in the “mind stuff” is mantra. Through constant awareness [and personal accountability], when I catch myself in anticipatory stories, recapitulation of the past, or commentary about the current moment, I simply say silently to myself OM.
Why OM? It represents everything! It is the sound of the whole universe. It is the universal, unchanging, timeless light of awareness that I AM, we all are, as one and in union. It is love.
Now OM might not resonate for you. Pick a different word or a short phrase. The purpose of the mantra is to break the mental patterning and bring you back to here and now… which shows the mind what you want it to be familiar with.
This familiarization is also a significant part of Meditation in Motion classes. By using specific tools, you cultivate a deep inner attunement that reveals not only the innate intelligence within you but an impersonal energy that’s the foundation of this inner wisdom. Your mind becomes familiar with the relaxation or meditative state, it becomes familiar with following your inner wisdom instead of the outside world, expectations, shoulds, and it becomes familiar with pure presence instead of the reactive perceiver and conditioned patterns that so often run our lives.