Frenzied and Frozen

Welcome to Sutra a Day.

It’s a Friday, the venerated end of the work week for those of us in 9 – 5 office jobs. It’s a day when we – if we have boundaries – leave work behind and head into the realms of pleasure, however we define it in our mind. I’m using my lunch hour to write today’s sutra. I’m at home, sitting in a chair by the window, staring at the frozen outside while cars zoom past post. Just two days ago, the world was coated in ice and completely still save the bluster and whistle of a gusting wind. The melt allows the busy-ness to resume, for people to drive, to walk, to live in more of a rush. To complete actions with less care. The sun is shining, a long awaited visitor in this area of the country. Things look differently in the sun. 

Who Sees? 

3. Tada drastuh svarupe’vasthanam.  “Then the Seer (Self) abides in Its own nature.”

What is our nature? The dictionary defines it as the basic or inherent features of something. The Seer is not the body and not the mind. The body is the shell we walk around in, the form we take on this earth. The mind is the filter through which the self sees – that’s why we need to clean the filter of those mind-modifications of ego, of intellect, of emotions and desires, of pleasure and pain. So the Seer is something else – but what? It’s not those things.

The sun is a filter, the icy gray day is another filter, they make the same environment seen through the same window (mostly clean) look different. That said, the window is another filter. The world doesn’t really appear in mesh, like the screen would have you believe if your mind wasn’t already conditioned to know better. The stillness of the icy days created space for thoughts and emotions, still a filter though. The Seer is the self, not the body, not the mind, not the seen, not the filters. 

But I’m still left questioning, what does that mean? Who is that seemingly inaccessible Self? I know a bit about who it is not. And why does it matter? We experience life through our bodies and our minds. Because we experience life through these, yoga includes the asana, meditation and contemplation among other things. Things that clean the filter so the Seer sees more clearly. 

But is the goal of life to experience this one life as this individual?  

At this point, we can recognize there is something beyond the mind and the body. We may not understand who that is or what the features ARE (vs aren’t) that make up the nature of the self. Perhaps it’s enough to recognize at this point that the Seer is not characterized by those things that characterize an individual. Perhaps the nature of the Seer will become more apparent in the next sutras. Stay tuned….