July 2021
Mary Taylor
Impermanence, Trust and Emptiness
Q: I have struggled terribly since I began my sitting practice many years ago with what appear to be contrasting notions of śraddhā and emptiness. The former seems a requisite for the cultivation of a truly full life while the latter has, for me, more personal resonance and, for lack of a better phrase, more "internal" logic than the trust faith requires.
You are not alone in this struggle. The two terms are not so much contrasting as they are intimately connected. They are both vital to a full life that embraces our circumstances and to the subtle, embodied, mental constructs and moral ground that produce logical connections as a means of giving life a sense of stability and meaning.
In an attempt to wrap our minds around what śhraddhā and emptiness mean individually, it can be helpful to define and name them as two different and therefore separate things. We prefer the translation of śhraddhā as trust, rather than faith because faith can have the undertone of “blind faith.” It can imply one gives up the integrity to stay awake while keeping discernment front and center. Emptiness is difficult to define. It is also a state of being awake and alert; that of pure awareness and the indescribable experience of interconnectedness and impermanence wrapped into one. A kind of open-hearted awareness or, in the words of Tenzin Robert Thurman, an experience of “the clear light of the void.”
Once we’ve defined the terms it’s important to allow their essence to reflect back on one another so they merge together and provide a more clear and deeper understanding. An eager and inquiring mind may be tempted to chisel the terms apart completely thereby missing how they support each other. This, of course, hinders one’s perception and understanding of the Metta perspective—that emptiness requires trust and that the ability to trust is profoundly impacted when one has those rare tastes of emptiness.
Experiencing emptiness in everyday life—off the cushion and out of the mind—is not something that happens on demand. It arises almost as if it were a sixth sense. And one condition that is essential to the experience of emptiness is trust. We have to learn to trust in a way that permeates our conscious awareness and that leads us to deeper levels of intuitive understanding that lead us to moments of clarity. There are different levels of trust; śhraddhā that is trust in a deity, a theory or a powerful person, for example. That level of trust is considered to be tamasic or rajasic.
Everyone inevitably goes through phases in their mind of that form of trust. But the sattvic trust, the one that facilitates our brushes with emptiness, is the direct experiencing of nirodha or the suspension of all mental activity and formation. This is how trust is intimately connected to the direct experience of emptiness because you are not trusting in any “thing” but instead are awestruck with the nature of reality.
Q: What does yogic philosophy tell us about obsession and compulsion? How and why do obsessive and compulsive behaviors arise? Can any good come out of either, or both of them?
Obsessions and compulsions (and when they’re combined what is called OCD) are relatively modern psychological terms introduced in the 1800’s, so addressing them as such is not part of classic Indian philosophy per se. However, what is definitely a traditional part of the teaching is that with the continuous contemplation of an object one will develop attachment and repulsion and that these mind states and resulting behaviors can totally take over one’s life story and become roots of great suffering for oneself and for others.
It’s interesting to ponder the notion that perhaps some of the ancient Vedic rituals might have been influenced by priests who had OCD tendencies. Many of the rituals are extraordinarily precise and at the same time very complex. They may include mantras, yantras, and detailed mathematical patterns. Traditionally the “rock stars” in the Brahman community are those who have memorized one of the entire Vedas in the densely woven backward and forwards gaṇa pati form—something that would require extraordinary focus over a long period of time and which would therefore mean they’d also be “rock stars” in terms of meditation or possibly have a tinge of OCD. Or both.
Any of us who’ve experienced OCD tendencies can attest to the fact that, even with a consistent yoga practice, the mind can sometimes have difficulty letting go or “turning the page” on such mental states. Especially when situations are difficult, anxiety-provoking or confusing.
From a practice standpoint, when we cannot let go of thoughts or compulsive behaviors, we have temporally forgotten an important aspect of our meditation training—the part that teaches us to bring our attention back to a chosen field as a way of taming the runaway mind. With obsessive thinking, the mind may seem hyper-focused, but it is not consciously being focused, and that’s what the meditation practice teaches us to cultivate.
When we repeatedly forget that step of consciously focusing in daily life—as in the case of being stuck in an obsessive thought pattern—we may believe we have lost the ability to bring conscious awareness into the situation at hand and this is when obsessions and compulsions become destructive.
However, when an obsessive thought or compulsive behavior arises and we notice it, if we are able to pause momentarily and introduce a hint of consciousness to the act of noticing, then what under other circumstances might be destructive can become of great value. This is true in part because in the noticing we have “tamed the mind” under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Therefore, under less complicated circumstances bringing consciousness to the forefront of our awareness will become increasingly easy. It is also true because typically, obsessions and compulsions arise subconsciously, in response to something that is incomplete or confusing. By shining the light of conscious awareness on our compulsion or obsession without reacting immediately, there is a good chance that something that is amiss, beneath our surface awareness will be revealed. At that point, rather than the obsession or compulsion causing harm, it may in fact benefit us by allowing us to face whatever the root cause is so that we may deal with it compassionately. So, when obsessions and compulsions can be seen, then they become powerful tools for discernment, and can be extraordinarily useful in bringing compassion into action and also in benefiting oneself and others.
In terms of practice, if you can recognize an obsession or compulsion and then hold it in your awareness without grasping it too tightly and without rejecting it, you will eventually be able to see its context, its impact, and possibly a path through it. Cues that can signal the arising of obsessive thoughts or compulsive behaviors might be changes in breath, changes in perception, blockages of perception or thought, a sense of panic or absolute stuckness, fear, the inability for your intentions to be put into action, and so on. When you can see these states more clearly in this way perhaps you can then see ways to put the tendencies to good use.
Q: How can we understand the impermanence of life (anitya) without losing the passion for the moments in life? And how can we understand the impermanence of beings in duḥkha without losing compassion/karuṇā for them?
Impermanence allows you to really feel and then see on a deep level the stunning unfolding of everything that manifests. This is the nature of the creative energy (Prakṛti) in that it reveals through direct experience that which is the most wonderful and joyous. We won’t say that impermanence is a thing because things are impermanent. But the impermanent, ever changing and evolving nature of all things on all levels reveals that which is inexpressibly satisfying.
In this light, each moment, each detail is seen to contain everything else and has an amazing depth and beauty. Therefore, the most minuscule or seemingly insignificant aspect of anything can provoke great wonder, insight and passion.
In terms of living beings, it is important to not take the mistaken perspective of impermanence as meaning, “We’re all going to die, so what’s the problem? Anything goes.” This view can cause great suffering. This view does not take into account that other beings (and possibly we, ourselves) will continue to suffer due to ignorance and fear. Especially there is fear of death. And this can go on life after life until the natural experience of compassion and love permeate one’s thoughts, actions and feelings and allow the letting go of false identities; the ignorance that causes the confusion that one is one’s body or one’s mind.
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