One of my favorite quotes by the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu says:
"Watch your thoughts, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny." - Lao Tzu
Lao Tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher and author of The Tao Te Ching, a foundational text of Taoism. But I always like to ground things in yoga philosophy, and to me, this quote lands squarely in the field of Karma as it beautifully illustrates how our karma often begins with small stuff, and over time this small stuff can begin to accumulate and become embedded into our personality which plays a role in determining the overall karma of our lives.
Karmic Imprints: Samskaras & Vasanas
In the system of Karma, you can think about past impressions, memories, and conditioning as karmic imprints that can be classified into a couple of categories. With our deepest Karmic imprints, called Samskaras (the deep grooves, ruts, or imprints), I imagine Samskaras as being grooves or patterns that are etched into stone — memories, impressions, and subconscious conditioning that are more indelible - Note how I don't want to say permanent! but Samskaras are often buried a little deeper into the subconscious part of our operating system.
In contrast with Samskaras, a Vasana is still a karmic imprint, but compared with an etching into stone, a vasana is a bit more like tracing your finger through sand — something that's a little bit more malleable and temporary.
Vasana is translated directly from Sanskrit as a smell or an essence, which is such a visceral and evocative definition of what this word means. I like to picture, the cartoon character Pigpen from Charlie Brown, who you might remember hds a cloud of dust and dirt floating around him everywhere he went!
To use a more real-world example, perhaps you can imagine the essence of someone who walks into the room carrying a very strong energy, or a particular mood. Depending on the mood, it can either make the air feel heavy and thick, or at the other end of the spectrum, someone can instantly lighten the mood or perhaps ground the room when their presence and energy is felt.
How Vasanas can turn into Samskaras
A vasana, or essence, is something that might start with something as small as a thought, which might be fueled by a particular mood. But as we reinforce vasanas over time, those imprints can become embedded deeper and deeper.
Last year, I did a road trip through the outback of New South Wales Australia, and I listened to an audiobook by Dr. Joe Dispenza called Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. I thought there were some really interesting concepts with East meeting West - such as how our vasanas or moods, over time, can begin to take hold as something that begins to define our personality - or our character as Lao Tzu might say.
In this book, he described something called a trigger event. A trigger event is something that creates an emotional response in the body. That emotional response is also coupled with a chemical, hormonal response in the body, where the body dumps cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. The initial hormonal flush froma trigger event can last a period of just minutes, or even up to a day or two.
However, as we go beyond the initial flush of hormones from the initial trigger event, this of course can lead to what we consider a mood. A mood, as he defines in the book, is something that can last a period of minutes, hours, days, or maybe even up to a week or two. But, if we don't shake that mood by a week or two, it is leading toward what we might think of as a longer-term temperament. If we find ourselves in a particular mood for a period of weeks to months, it becomes a bit more embedded into a default way of operating. And of course, from a temperament, we can start to operate in a default way as part of the personality, which of course can define a period of months to years in our lives, or even our entire lifetime.
Practicing Karma Yoga
What's nice about doing work in the domain of Karma through Karma Yoga, is that our vasanas and samskaras don't have to be permanent. They are something that we can affect to the extent that we make the subconscious more conscious. and something that can become part of a Karma Yoga practice.
I love the quote from Alan Watts: "You're under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago." Of course, this can be easier said than done! Hormones are powerful, and our subconscious default mode network can carry a tremendous amount of momentum, with years or even decades of practice behind it. As we find ourselves following a trajectory from a trigger event, to a mood, to a temperament, to a personality, in any ofthese stages it is common to find ourselves in a loop where thoughts fuel particular feelings, and then the feelings reinforce the thoughts, and so forth. It becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.
"Thoughts are the language of the mind and emotions are the language of the body. Therefore, as the mind thinks, the body feels."
So you can kind of think of it like this: Thoughts are the language of the mind, and emotions are the language of the body. Therefore, as the mind thinks, the body feels. And when we memorize our emotional state, the body actually memorizes its chemical state.
One of the strategies we can use to help break free from a karmic pattern is by creating coherence between mind, body, and emotion. In other words, we can create the conditions in the body ahead of the circumstances, or ahead of the actual events taking place.
You might have noticed on days when you wake up feeling a little bit agitated, it's easy to feel agitated about a lot of stuff. Likewise, if for any reason you're feeling sad, it's easy to feel sad for other reasons as well. This works the other way too; if you've ever gone to a standup comedy show and had a great time, after the show, you might find yourself laughing a lot for the rest of the night. What this tells us ishow the condition that we place into the body including the hormones of the body makes us receptive to experiencing things likewise. This is from a coherence of mind, body, and emotion and the result is that anger brings about more anger, sadness brings about more sadness, or laughter brings about more laughter.
The Alchemy or Breaking Vasanas & Samskaras
So the method of practice is something that can be done in a waking state, as well as in meditation as we drop below the thinking mind. In a waking state, the method of creating these conditions in the body is through a process of feeling in the emotional state that we want to feel in the future, even if that state is irrespective of how we're perceiving the conditions currently.
Here's an example: If you've ever done a gratitude practice and have stated out loud something that you are grateful for, you might be able to relate to how vocally stating the words or cognitively thinking something that we're grateful for, is different from actually feeling the emotion of gratitude. For example, if somebody's ever stepped in and completely saved your butt when you were in a tough spot, you know that feeling where you just want to hug the person that's done this really kind and generous act.
So even without having that condition of somebody just coming in and saving your butt, it is possible to channel that feeling of gratitude. Another example might be if you were feeling a lack of self-confidence, perhaps tapping into the emotional state or feeling of what it feels like to feel empowered. Or if you have been feeling anxious and uncertain about what the future looks like, you might establish a practice of tapping into the feeling of what it actually feels like in the body to feel the chemical and emotional state of trust.
These are just a couple of examples, but the idea is to create the feeling in the body, which can then produce the desired chemical state, so that as those events start to take place in the future, we're receptive to it. So the body is in the right state, and the mind and the heart are in a state that is coherent with the actual events. Remember, this is a practice, and like any other practice, consistency is key.
About the Author:
Jason teaches Yoga in Wollongong Australia, and has been an educator for over 20 years. He is passionate about the wisdom and transformational power of Yoga. As a lifelong learner, he has completed trainings all over the world including 18 months of full-time Yoga studies in college. Jason facilitates 200hr Yoga Teacher Trainings in Sydney, Australia, specializing in Yoga history and philosophy. Jason has published several online courses about Yoga Philosophy which can be found at www.flowcollectiveyoga.com/courses
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