Mind Over Matter

One concept in yoga, commonly practiced through meditation exercises, is the idea of emptying the mind. Sutra seven of the Yoga Sutras states “The sources of right knowledge are direct perception, inference and scriptural testimony.” In order to find right, or valid, knowledge a person must rid the mind of thoughts. These thoughts should be eliminated altogether in a sense. The book places the analogy that all of our thoughts cannot be thrown into one single garbage pail. Our thoughts should be categorized and assembled to be removed meticulously (i.e. vegetables into the compost, paper and plastic separated).

All thoughts need to be discarded, regardless of whether they are good or bad. Holding onto good thoughts is similar to refusing to let go of your favorite shirt, even with all the stains, holes, and indefinite stench. In order to empty the mind, you must think “I no longer need this shirt” rather than “I could hold onto this shirt just in case I need it someday.”

The physical body is easier to control than the mind, making an empty mind a hard thing to come by. After controlling the physical body, we are able to control the five senses to excite awareness of the mind. Controlling our body, senses, and mind through mental modifications can change our view of the world because the world is our own projection. I agree with the idea that changing ourselves changes the world. It is easier to become liberated and change if we are the cause.

By reforming your thoughts you can reform your life. I think of the prison example in the sutras and twisted it into something more relatable: high school. During your time in high school, you are miserable because of the pointless school work, endless drama, and lack of freedom. If you continued to dwell on how miserable you were in high school, you would not be able to be happy now. Years later you look back on high school as a time you had a blast doing stupid things with your friends that taught some valuable lesson. Your perception of high school is different, even though you have photographic evidence of countless awkward phases. It is always easier to do this following events but can be achieved during the event with practice. Emptying the mind of the good and the bad thoughts allows us to just be.