tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post1334749486126524732..comments2023-10-16T13:06:42.360+01:00Comments on Happiness of Being: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: What are vāsanās and how do they work?Michael Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-57737020481614397172021-12-05T15:37:27.671+00:002021-12-05T15:37:27.671+00:00The same friend in reply to whom I wrote this arti...The same friend in reply to whom I wrote this article replied to me saying, ‘Some of my original confusion stemmed from thinking about that the “fruits” that have been selected for one’s prārabdha leave behind “seeds” after being experienced. After reading your explanation, I am now thinking that the fruits leave behind seeds because one is drawn to attend to experiencing the fruits due to one’s viṣaya-vāsanās. This attention strengthens some of them and causes new one’s to sprout. Is that is what, “The fruit of action perishing, as seed it causes to fall in the ocean of action,” means?’, in reply to which I wrote:<br /><br />Yes, but the reason the <i>vāsanās</i> are strengthened and give rise to related ones is because under the sway of those <i>vāsanās</i> we attend to whatever experiences arise according to <i>prārabdha</i>, so what strengthens them and causes related ones to sprout is not the experiences themselves but our allowing ourself to be swayed by those <i>vāsanās</i>.<br /><br />What Bhagavan means in <a href="https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2017/09/upadesa-undiyar-tamil-text.html#uu02" rel="nofollow">verse 2</a> of <i>Upadēśa Undiyār</i> is that it is the seeds (namely <i>vāsanās</i>) that cause us to fall in the ocean of action, and though each fruit perishes as soon as we experience it, the seeds persist and perpetuate themselves, but only to the extent to which we allow ourself to be swayed by them. Therefore the fundamental error we make is allowing ourself to be swayed by our <i>viṣaya-vāsanās</i>, and hence the only solution is for us to cling firmly to being self-attentive and thereby not allow ourself to be swayed by any <i>viṣaya-vāsanās</i>.Michael Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-88642750156692215032021-12-05T15:29:47.248+00:002021-12-05T15:29:47.248+00:00After posting this article here yesterday, today I...After posting this article here yesterday, today I have added one more paragraph before the <a href="#ny10" rel="nofollow">paragraph</a> preceding the tenth and eleventh paragraphs of <i>Nāṉ Ār?</i>, namely:<br /><br />Though <i>vāsanās</i> seem to have power over us, they do not actually have any power of their own, so they derive their power only from us. That is, we endow them with power by allowing ourself to be swayed by them, so when we do not allow ourself to be swayed by any particular <i>vāsanā</i> we are thereby depriving it of whatever power it may seem to have over us. The ultimate source of all power is only ourself as we actually are, namely <i>sat-cit</i>, which is pure awareness of being, ‘I am’, so when we rise as ego we derive our power from what we actually are, and since everything else (all phenomena or <i>viṣayas</i>) seem to exist only in the view of ourself as ego, they derive whatever power they seem to have only from ego. That is, the seeds that sprout as <i>viṣayas</i> are our <i>viṣaya-vāsanās</i>, because <i>viṣayas</i> appear only when we allow our attention to move away from ourself under the sway our <i>viṣaya-vāsanās</i>, so by directing our attention away from ourself we give power firstly to our <i>viṣaya-vāsanās</i> and consequently to whatever <i>viṣayas</i> appear from them like plants appearing from seeds.Michael Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.com