We have now sufficiently understood how the psyche-mind self-organizes and self-builds, bottom-up, from the raw material of samskaras. Samskaras are the fuel, the impetus for this cyclical feedback loop. Catching the slippery samskaras by their tail, deep inside the waters of the psyche and quashing them is the only way to dismantle the beast. The psycho-mental complex builds up through samskaras, and so its dissolution must happen that way too.
This dissolution, this dismantling is more like the unspooling of a tape that was playing over and over again. Like the folding back of a telescope into itself. Like the collapsing of a whirlpool into itself. Like a dying star that caves under its own gravity. From this destruction arises a new cognition, like a phoenix from the ashes. A new cognition, a new lens, a new vision.
For most of us caught in the rigmarole of a full, hands-on life, we do not realize that our journey is on autopilot. We keep trudging ahead, eyes set on the next goal, the next desire. We believe that we are consciously, rationally choosing our desires and logically making plans for life. We believe our intelligence and rationality is guiding us to choose, decide and desire. Not really. Far from it. That belief is an illusion, just like our identity is. We are on autopilot, played like a puppet by the samskaras which lie deep in our depth memory, in our extra-psyche- mind. We are guided by them, by our ill-understood impulses and tendencies. Public intellectuals and philosophers have always said proudly, with a righteous sense of control “We are rational beings!”. Barely. That idea is laughable because we are completely under control of the samskaric feedback loop playing out in the fabrications of our psyche-minds. A hall of mirrors really, that is what our psyche-mind is. The samskaras are the real conductor of this grand orchestra, lurking behind the curtains, waving ghost-limbs in the air, controlling every tempo and beat! We are being delusional when we claim to be rational beings in control of our minds. Even when we do the ‘right things’, it is our impulses that are guiding us. When we use our better judgment to not do something, like not eat the extra piece of cake while on a diet, our impulses/tendencies lead us, both of the good and the bad kind. The good impulse won over the bad one, this time at least. No, we are slaves of our samskaric loops and there is no true rationality in that. Rationality or intelligence comes into effect only when we notice the cycle and urge to break out of it. Till then, till this intelligence is inactive, we live in grand delusions.
We carry identities which are chimerical delusions, we have misconceptions about being reasonable and intelligent. Till real intelligence kicks in.
Buddhi
This intelligence is ‘buddhi’ in yogic terminology, but it does not mean intellectual prowess, as we commonly understand. That again is another misnomer, a misunderstanding. Buddhi is the activator, the catalyst for collapse of these delusions, these myths. The myth of our identity, our rationality and our free will. It is the activator, the first strike to demolish this mythical psycho-mental complex. To dissolve that wispy, fanciful identity. It is also the activator of our new desires, more useful ones. Desires unrelated to these chimerical fancies. The desire for emancipation from these gilded fetters, the longing for a suffering free state, for evolution to a post-human.
The activator of our evolutionary impulse. The activator of our specie imperative.
New desires? Did the great noble ones not say ‘Desire is the root of all suffering’, hence we must forsake them? Not really, not so simple. Even the longing for a desireless state is a desire, is it not? We cannot wish away our desires, we cannot stuff them into a chest, lock and chain them to throw them into a deep ocean. If only. The nature of our desires must change. They must change course, reverse direction. Notice the emphasis on ‘Desires must change’ and not on ‘You must change your desires’. That is because you cannot, with your mind change it. ‘You’ are a puppet in the hands of your samskaras, barely in control, remember?
It must happen to you, you cannot really do it. You can try, be aware and prepared.
