We wake up in the morning, but sometimes yesterday wakes up with us. Someone spoke harshly. A plan went wrong. We remember it, then remember it again. Before the day has begun, we are already tired.
Let us imagine that someone has not returned our call. At first, we think, “They must be busy.” Later, we wonder, “Are they avoiding me?” By evening, we have decided, “I do not matter to them.” One unanswered call has become a whole story.
Does this sound familiar? The call was not returned. That is what happened. The rest is what the mind has added. Perhaps our story is right. Perhaps it is wrong. But we may suffer from it before we find out.
The mind does this to help us make sense of life. It remembers, compares, plans, and warns us. These abilities are useful. Yet sometimes the mind keeps working on a problem long after there is anything useful left to do.
Much of life carries on without this running commentary. The heart beats. The body breathes. We do not have to tell every cell what to do. Thoughts, too, often arrive before we have asked for them.
Why do some thoughts return so easily? Past experiences leave habits. If we have felt ignored before, an unanswered call may bring back the old hurt. A familiar thought follows a familiar path, just as water follows a groove.
Sāṃkhya asks us to look at our own experience. A thought comes. A feeling follows. Both can be noticed. Are we only the story being told, or is there more to discover?
We say, “I am worried.” But we can also notice, “There is a worry in my mind.” The worry is still there. We have simply begun to see it rather than being completely caught in it.
The teaching distinguishes the changing mind from the witness that knows it. Our thoughts and feelings belong to nature, which is always changing. The witness does not become each thought it knows. This is something to explore patiently, through looking and practice.
We can still make the call. We can still ask what happened. We need not let the story decide the answer before the other person has spoken.
Let us begin there: with one ordinary moment when we notice what the mind has added. In the next essay, we will look more closely at what it means to watch our thoughts.
Further reading: Sāṃkhya Kārikā 19–20, 23–27. The witness is called purusha; the changing mind and body belong to prakriti.
Leave a Reply