Take Charge of Your Emotions

1. Take Charge of Your Emotions

2. The Holy Name and the processes of devotional service bring us to the Lotus Feet of Krsna. As a by product they remove all the causes of suffering and distress. • The techniques discussed here can support our devotional practices and the chanting of the Holy Names.

3. S P I R I TUA L Realization extends beyond the living symptoms to the point of thinking, feeling and willing MATERIAL

4. Thinking , Feeling and Willing is about pleasing Krsna and His devotees Thinking, Feeling and willing is limited to the body and its effects. Thus we create different bodies for enjoyment! Material Pool

5. Spirit Soul is separate from thinking , feeling and willing that takes place at the Bodily Level

6. The 9 fold processes of devotional service make our thinking, feeling and willing centered around Krsna!

7. on the bodily platform

8.  While contemplating the objects of the senses, ”….activities of the mind—thinking, feeling and willing—are expressed through our senses. And these sensual activities are known as our living condition.” SrilaPrabhupada Lecture, New York, April 15, 1966 • a person develops attachment for them, • and from such attachment lust develops, • and from lust anger arises. • From anger, complete delusion arises, • and from delusion bewilderment of memory. • When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, • and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool. Modern Psychologists differ on what comes first Thinking or Feeling?

9. Prabhupāda: This thinking, feeling, willing, they are all taken together as reasoning. What do you think? What is the psychology? Hayagrīva(?) Prabhu? What is there? Thinking, feeling, willing, do you think that you shall be a rich man, you think. Then you make your process how you will become a rich man, then work will (indistinct). Or you will, thinking, feeling, willing, "Yes, I must be rich man," then how you can in this way, that way. But intelligence is above thinking, feeling, willing. Everyone, a dog also thinks he'll feel, he has no intelligence. He has intelligence (indistinct). Śyāmasundara: He says that all reasoning comes about as a result of our desires or our will, whatever we are willing, then we begin to reason. Prabhupāda: That is not willing, that is thinking. That is not willing. Śyāmasundara: Rationalizing. Prabhupāda: Yes, thinking. I am thinking to become like this. If we generally say like that, "I am thinking." Is it not? Śyāmasundara: I am thinking to go somewhere. Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, I am thinking. So if there is any difference between thinking, feeling and willing then thinking first. Śyāmasundara: Will, willing something is more like desiring something, isn't it? Prabhupāda: That desiring begins from thinking.

11. Thoughts and Feelings:Difference • Thoughts: • Thoughts convey to the listener what we are thinking. Feelings: • Feelings • Feelings convey to the listener our emotional and/or physical states. • EMOTIONAL: “I feel happy.” (feeling state)PHYSICAL: “I feel cold.” ( physical sensation state) • Thoughts, or beliefs (which are also thoughts) may be conscious or unconscious. Some of our core beliefs may be buried deep below the surface of our awareness. That means it is possible we are unaware of the thought or underlying belief that might be fueling a particular feeling.

12. ACT IMPORTANT MAKE A SCENE HUMBLE BEHAVIOR FIGHT Mistakes LOVE Top performer HURRY AWAY CARE IGNORE Nervous Blissful Excited Elated Sad Sympathy Angry Fear Lonely My boss is crazy I am not a good …. She is rude I am boring Fire is hot I cannot trust men I can watch lectures on a big TV

13. ACT IMPORTANT MAKE A SCENE HUMBLE BEHAVIOR FIGHT Behaviors/ Willing/Action Mistakes LOVE Top performer HURRY AWAY CARE IGNORE Nervous Blissful Excited Elated Sad Sympathy Feelings Angry Fear Lonely My boss is crazy I am not a good …. She is rude Thoughts/ Beliefs I am boring Fire is hot I cannot trust men I can watch lectures on a big TV

15. When we interact with the external environment we are triggered in various ways. Sometimes we take the bait and get hooked and sometimes we avoid them! • The bait on the hook correlates to our belief systems or desires. • a proud person will take the bait of being praised and can be fooled • A person who thinks they are not lovable will hook into the smallest sign of apparent neglect and feel unloved

16. On the surface we perceive ourselves as competent. However, if we had a hyper-critical parent when we were growing up, who frequently put us down, another part of us may question our competence. Then, at unpredictable times we may feel fear if we think our competence is being doubted by others (bosses, etc,) and our behavior might be affected, and we won’t know why.

17. Each person has their own hooks and triggers and therefore relationships get confusing

18. Its like wearing buttons……….when pressed we react in certain ways based on our thoughts It will be useful for us to create a self- awareness of these buttons that we are wearing!

19. If we understand the thoughts and feelings behind our behavior, we will be able to give that understanding to others also. Conflicts will be easier to resolve!

25. Memory, a revival of samskara Samskaras are embedded in the subconscious and unconscious layers of the mind whose seat is the cerebellum or hindbrain. You can recall past experiences from the storehouse of samskaras in these layers of the mind. The past is preserved in the chitta to the minutest detail, not a bit is ever lost. When the fine samskaras come back up to the surface of the conscious mind as big waves, when the past vrittis come back to the surface of the conscious mind by recollection, the process is called memory recall. Revival of samskaras induces memory or smriti. Memory cannot exist without samskaras. How a samskara is formed An experience in the sense plane sinks down into the depths of the subconscious or unconscious mind (chitta) and there becomes a samskara. A samskara of an experience is formed or developed in the chitta at the very moment that the mind is experiencing something. There is no gap between the experience and the formation of a samskara in the deeper mind. A specific experience leaves a specific samskara. The memory of this specific experience springs from that particular samskara only, which was formed out of that particular experience. When you perceive an orange and its taste for the first time, you get knowledge of an orange. You know its taste. You know the object: orange. A samskara is formed in the mind at once. At any time, this samskara can generate a memory of the object, orange, and knowledge of an orange. Though the object and the act of knowledge are distinguishable, yet they are inseparable. Cyclic causation of thought and samskara An object awakens or revives samskaras in the mind through external stimuli. Hence, a thought arises subjectively from within, without a stimulus from outside. When you think of a cow that you have seen before, you repeat the word ‘cow’ mentally and only then the mental image appears. Next, a thought is formed. Samskara causes thought, and thought causes samskara just as a seed is the cause of a tree and the tree is the cause of the seed in turn. A vritti in the mind produces a samskara and a samskara in turn again causes a vritti. Owing to the force of stimuli either from within or without, the seed-like samskaras again expand and give rise to further activity. This cycle of vritti and samskara is anadi or beginningless, but has an end when one attains liberation. Now they dissolve into Prakriti or assume the state of laya. They cease to produce any effect on a jivanmukta, liberated being. Samskaras should be fried up by continuous samadhi. Then only you will be free from the cycle of births and deaths. Samyama over samskaras Samskara is also known as residual potency. When all vrittis or thoughts die away, the frame of the mind remains with samskaras alone. This is termed as the potential mind. In Vedantic parlance, it is called antahkaranamatra. All samskaras co-exist in the mind. One who has a yogic vision can vividly notice the marvels that take place in the mental factory, how the vritti arises in the mind lake, how it subsides and how a samskara is formed. You will be struck with wonder when you are able to observe this. Samyama or control over samskaras imparts direct knowledge of the residual potencies. A yogi brings into direct consciousness his previous lifetimes through the knowledge of his samskaras. Positive and negative samskaras Like all forces, samskaras aid or inhibit one another. When you notice a man suffering from a serious sickness and the feeling of mercy arises in your heart, all the samskaras of your previous merciful actions coalesce together and force you to serve and help that man. Similarly, all samskaras of charitable actions come forth to the surface of the conscious mind when you see a man in dire straits, and they force you to help him. When one positive samskara or virtuous action comes into play, another samskara of a dissimilar nature may also emerge and come in the way of its fulfilment. This is the fight between a positive and a negative samskara. For example, when you try to fix your mind on the Self and think of purity, just at that moment all negative thoughts and samskaras burst forth with violence and vengeance. This is termed as ‘crowding of samskaras’. Positive samskaras also crowd together and help you to drive out negative samskaras. The father of Swami Advaitananda was a great bhakta of Chandi. At the time of his death, he was semi-conscious. He began to repeat all the shlokas of the ChandiStotra which he had learnt by heart while he was young. This is crowding of spiritual samskaras. Past samskaras constitute prarabdha When you are born, the mind is not a mere tabula rasa or blank tablet. It is a storehouse of samskaras, predispositions, predilections, etc. A child is born with his individual samskaras, with his past experiences transmuted into mental and moral tendencies and powers. The mind evolves through the impressions received from the universe through the senses. It will take many lifetimes till it gathers the complete experience of the world. Every person is born with his inherent samskaras which are embedded, lodged or imprinted in the chitta, which is the seat for prarabdha or past karma. In earthly life, one gains many more samskaras or experiences through actions, and these are added to the original store and become the future sanchita karmas (accumulated actions). All samskaras lie dormant in the chitta as latent activities, not only of this life but of all previous lives. The samskaras of one’s animal lives, a kingly life, a peasant’s life, are all hidden in the chitta. In each life, only those samskaras which are appropriate to that particular type of birth will operate and come to play. The other samskaras will remain concealed and dormant. As a merchant closing the year’s ledger and opening a new one does not enter in the new book all the items of the old, but only its balances, so does the spirit hand over to the new brain its judgement on the experiences of a life that is closed, the conclusions to which it has come, the decisions at which it has arrived. This is the stock handed over to the new life, the mental furniture for the new dwelling, a real memory. Thank You!Next Week:Scenarios – ExamplesScenarios- PersonalScenarios- Bhagavatam