Note: Being a good Stoic (or at least trying to be) I assume A-C. D isn't expected and thus a pleasant surprise should it come about.
A. My plane cancelled, I lose the money for my flight, receive no compensation, and miss out on my plans altogether.
B. My plane is going to be delayed,I miss my connection and still miss out on my plans.
C. The plane is delayed, leaves eventually but goes down in flames taking me along with everyone else with it,
D. I arrive at my destination on time.
Stoic and Patanjali Yoga training are different perhaps but both aim at somewhat similar goals (up to a point, Patanjali goes further).
*
May 2019 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Angry Me
April...I had an intense 'Jihaasaa' desire to get rid of things. I disposed of most of my furniture, many of them more than 60 years old. Then sacks and sacks of old papers. Then nearly 5000 coins that got accumulated over decades and then most of all my old books. Now the house my father gave me is the only physical asset remaining
On May 19th I am scheduled to give a talk of the Three Gunas at Mind Body Soul Yoga in Manhattan.
Angry Me
So I left my house on April 24th to catch my flight by Air India from Chennai to Mumbai en route to Newark. At the airport I gave the print out of my itenary . The person at the counter quietly said that my name was not there and asked for my PNR. I said I had the confirmed ticket issued by United Airlines as I started feeling a mixed feeling of panic and anger, manifestations of Tamas and Rajas. She said that my name was not there. The supervisor who was standing by did some typing and said that my ticket was cancelled as United Airlines did not send them the ticket number. They could not do anything because the flight was overbooked. Suddenly I felt extreme panic and anger and it was a bad feeling, very bad. Suddenly I remembered something that happened almost 20 years back
I had gone to JFK airport in New York to board a flight from NY to Chennai by a Middle Eastern Airline. I had phoned the airline office earlier and they confirmed my ticket. But at the counter they said that my name was not there and that I could be accommodated in their immediate next flight which was one week later. I did everything I could do, begged, shouted but they would not care. I fought with them until the aircraft left without me. I had not only missed the flight and felt drained and extremely unhappy with all the contentious engagement with the airline staff. I could have saved the additional pain by accepting the reality of the situation. Some heroes manage to get things done in these situations and most have to accept the situation .
This came to my mind in a flash and I decided not to fight and feel more unhappy. The airline would not even contact United Airlines about rescheduling as they had not issued the ticket. Even if I contacted United US office, I would not be getting into the Air India aircraft. It was hopeless. I collected all the heavy baggage ( we as a couple do not travel light ) and came home in the hot humid after noon. Then I contacted United in USA and after an hour of talking they finally rescheduled my journey on May 2, 2019. So I am still in Chennai. I do not know if I would travel on May 2, 2019. Will they offload the old man again? Maybe I can continue the story in my next newsletter. To feel a little more easy, I posted the following on my facebook page
Root out Anger
Root out Anger
Even if it is
Righteous indignation
It is injurious to health
Especially when one is
An eighty year old.
Root out Anger
Even if it is
Righteous indignation
It is injurious to health
Especially when one is
An eighty year old.
Just got offloaded
From a flight from
Chennai to Newark
From a flight from
Chennai to Newark
Anger and panic are reactions. I am propelled by desires. Desires may be of two types. Desire to get what one wants because getting that will give me happiness. Then there is the desire of getting rid of something that gives pain. These desires propel an individual to act. These activities that emanate from the mind are called vrittis. Activities that are done to get what one wants are called pravritti and activities that are done to get rid of what one does not want are nivrittis. When the activities produce the desired results then one is happy. If not, one reacts with anger or sorrow or depression depending on whether one is in a rajasic mode or tamasic mode. In our lives many people do not get what they want or are unable to get rid of what they do not want and the reaction of anger and sorrow affects the individual again and again and it is injurious to health.
Patanjali sitting in the sidelines and watching the whole mankind feeling repeatedly anger and pain (occasional pleasure) says that the life is full of pain only. So sometime in life one has to sit back and realize that this repeated attempts to get what one thinks will give pleasure and get rid of pain giving things makes life pretty unhappy. So Patanjali would say that the real self is not affected either by the desire or by the activities nor by the reactions like sorrow and anger. So everyone at some point in this life or in future life should understand the true nature of the Self
The root cause of activities, then the results, then the reactions to the results are desires. But a Yogi like Patanjali who has realized the true nature of the Self gives up all desires naturally consequentially as the mind is able to recognize the real Self and feels absolute fulfilment without any more desires to get something or get rid of something else.. Some one asked the question about how to overcome panic or fear. The easiest and the most sure way is th know the truth about the Self. There is no other way and that is the sure way.
Then I posted this on the facebook page
At the end of a long yoga program the Yoga Master asked the participants to briefly say what they desire to do next. Here are a few answers
Yogabhyasi 1. I want to do handstand in the middle of the room for 30 minutes.
Yogabhyasi 2, I want to stand on my fingertips
Yogabhyasi 3: I desire to do headstand for 3 hours continuously
Yogabhyasi 4. I desire to be a siddha yogi, I desire to walk on water
Yogabhyasi 5: I desire to do 80 pranayamas at a stretch @ one breath per minute four times a day
Yogabhyasi 5: I desire to do uninterrupted dhyana/meditation for one hour
Yogabhyasi 6: I wish to run a rich yoga business
Yogabhyasi 7: I desire to be a famous yoga teacher
Yogabhyasi 8: I want to do Gayatri mantra japa one crore times (10 million times) in my life
Yogabhyasi 9: I desire to flatten the himalayan peak and give yoga sermons to hundreds of people
Yogabhyasi 10: I desire to do 108 breathless suryanamaskaras at a stretch
Yogabhyasi 11: I desire to master all the yoga texts and become a walking encyclopedia of Yoga
Yogabhyasi 12: I desire to become desireless (vairagi)
Ok then how does one become desireless? On one hand one has to realize according to the old texts of samkhya yoga and the upanishads that the world even as it gives a few crumbs of happiness here and there in bits and pieces, it invariably gives only pain as most people most of the time experience. With the best efforts one may achieve what one wants and get rid of what one does not want but it is a hit and miss process, usually less hits and more misses. Expecting that earth and heaven would give permanent happiness is unrealistic. As Patanjali says parinama tapa samskara dukha. pain comes due to several causes. On the other hand by a logical step by step approach these philosophies show that the Self, the real subject is not the body mind complex but the unwavering pure consciousness, the drashta of yogis, the purusha of samkhyas or the atman of the vedantins. Once the mind understands and importantly recognizes the Self by analysis,contemplation, meditation the core yoga practices, then the mind or buddhi identifies the non changing purusha as oneself and not the ever changing miserable mind body complex as the Self. Once this takes place the mind will no longer go out of the way to satisfy the mistakenly identified self. With this paradigm shift the mind remains satisfied with the never changing pure Self and there is a natural steep drop in the number and intensity of desires. In course of time all the desires become weak and do not propel the individual to act as the way they used to.
According to these darsanas, desirelessness or vairagya-- they talk about is-- a natural consequence of the understanding of the Self and not a forced suppression of desires of the mind body pseudo self.
So,desires are of two types of getting what one wants for the mind body complex and getting rid of what it does not want. These desires, for fulfilment, require action called pravritti and nivritti. These activities sometimes produce the desired results and mostly do not give the desired results. This non accomplishment leads to anger if one is rajasic and sorrow or depression if one is tamasic. These reactions, anger and depression further affect the mind and body.The darsanas say that really speaking no one needs to be unhappy as the real Self is fulfilled for ever and desires do not lead to any permanent happiness rather they produce more pain than pleasure. So the reduction of desire by a natural process is recommended by yogis. Understanding and realizing the true nature of oneself is the solution, the way to achieve desirelessness. Yoga is absolute peace of mind, yogah samadhanam. A desireless mind, a fulfilled mind, a peaceful mind is a yogic mind
Srivatsa Ramaswami
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