Samskara

A standing wave in consciousness.

Samskara constellations

In order to receive insights, which is the language of our soul or the Self, our genuine essence - we need to keep our mind still, calm and empty. The mind can be likened to the lake - if the water is still and calm, then the reflection in the water can be seen clearly. If there is a wind and waves - the image is fragmented and distorted.

We tend to think that the thoughts and images are produced in the brain, but in fact neuroscience doesn't have any valid proof, that it is the case. This idea that the brain is generate everything can be compared with that of the TV set. Imagine that someone who sees the TV at the first time. He does not know how the TV work and see the images there, and he does not have any idea about the radio waves. If such a person in the process of investigation of the TV set will remove some components, and the image is disappear - he may come to the conclusion that the TV itself generates the images. But we know that this is not the case. The brain is more like the modulator of the signal than the creator it.

Think of your dreams - imagine how much resources are required to generate all this material.

Another concept that challenges the idea that the brain generates everything is Carl Gustav Jung’s notion of the Collective Unconscious. Which basically means that on the deep layers of the psyche we are connected to the same one universal consciousness. The same idea is expressed by the much older philosophy of the Upanishads, which describes the individual soul (atman) as ultimately identical to Brahman - the universal, all-pervading, undivided absolute reality.

Jung arrived at his concept through his work with patients and their dreams. He noticed that people, including those who had never traveled or been exposed to other cultures, would encounter archetypal symbols and mythological material in their dreams that seemed to originate from cultures they had no direct contact with in their waking life. Jung began to the see the similar patterns in those mythological materials in the dreams of his patients. The same characters showed up in the dreams having only different appearance, depending on the culture and the individual psyche. So he had came to the conclusion that all the mythologies across the worlds are differ only superficially, but fundamentally they share the same roots and patterns. Jung have called this patterns - the archetypes.

So archetypes - are the patterns, which we all share.

So the mind is not the producer, but the receiver and modulator - and the goal is tune in to the desired state.

Slide

The mind may be likened to a photographic plate. If several impressions have been made upon it, then there can be no other impressions. That's why the mind should be kept pure from all undesirable impressions, in order that every impression may be clear. - Hazrat Inayat Khan - "The Music of Life" - Chapter 21 - Insight

This ability of the mind's structure has the two-fold consequences or applicaiton.

On one hand, we can use it as a powerful technique to manifest our reality - we intentionally put the so called slide into our photographic plate, which we call mind - and the results will be manifested in our physical reality.

Examples of the slides:

• "I have beautiful body and I love how it looks like"

• " Communication is magic"

• Imagine yourself after releasing your work to the world - your emotions

But there are also negative manifestations of the same phenomena.

Like inferiority complex.

Inferiority complex is a beautiful example of negative slide.

First of all, everybody most of the time are preoccupied with themselves and thus people generally don't see your flaws. But if you are wearing the negative slide, you so to speak showing off your flaws and then receive the confirmation of the outer world that this is really so. This is a vicious cycle.

Instead, you can replace the negative slide with the positive one and see what happen. Because it is only in your head. Or simply shift your attention from yourself to the other people.

Another example, if you want to improve your physical form, but you don't love yourself - this is pure waste of time and energy. You push yourself, look at the mirror - dissatisfied with result - another vicious cycle. It's better to exercise less hard, but actually enjoy it.

Every such slide can be engraved on the mind, and have the life of it's own. Thus it can influence our life either in positive or negative way - on the yogic language it might be called samskara.

"Every line that is deeply engraved on the surface of the mind may be likened to a vein through which the blood runs keeping it alive. While the blood is running it is productive of offshoots of that deepset line. There are moments when a kind of congestion comes in a line where the blood is not running, and there are no offshoots. This congestion can be broken by some outer influence. When the congested line is touched by an outer influence related to that line, then this sets the blood running again and offshoots arising, expressing themselves in thoughts. It is just like a waking or sleeping state of the lines. As one note of music can be fully audible at a time, so one line of offshoots can be intelligible at a time, and it is the warmth of interest that keeps the blood running in that particular line. There may be other lines where the blood is alive also; still, if they are not kept warm by one's interest they become congested and thus paralyzed. Yet the blood is there, the life is there; it awaits the moment to awaken. The sorrows of the past, the fears of the past, the joys of the past can be brought to life after ages, and could give exactly the same sensation that one had experienced formerly." -

Hazrat Inayat Khan - "The Music of Life" - Chapter 21 - Insight

This passage of the Sufi master -Hazrat Inayat Khan is describing how memories, emotional patterns, and mental impressions ( samskaras ) remain alive in the psyche even when they are not currently conscious.

A deeply engraved experience leaves a "line" in the mind.

The "blood" represents psychic energy, attention, or life force flowing through that memory pattern. When energy flows through the line, it generates "offshoots" - thoughts, feelings, associations, fantasies, reactions, and behaviors related to that pattern.

For example:

A childhood experience of rejection may create a deep line.

When psychic energy flows through it, many related thoughts arise:

• "People don't value me."

• Fear of criticism.

• Sensitivity to exclusion.

• Desire for approval.

These are the "offshoots."

What is congestion?

Sometimes the line remains in the psyche but is inactive.

The memory is not gone; it is dormant.

Inayat Khan calls this a congestion:

The energy is no longer flowing.

The pattern produces no thoughts or emotions.

It appears forgotten.

Yet it still exists beneath consciousness.

What awakens it?

An outer event touches that dormant pattern.

For example:

• A certain song.

• A smell.

• Meeting a person.

• Returning to a childhood place.

• A particular emotional situation.

Suddenly the old line comes alive again.

Energy starts flowing through it, and the old thoughts and emotions reappear.

You may have experienced this yourself:

You hear a song from ten years ago and instantly feel emotions you had not felt in years. The pattern was dormant, but not dead.

So the past is not gone, it is constantly speaking through us.

As one note of music can be fully audible at a time, so one line of offshoots can be intelligible at a time.

The mind contains countless patterns simultaneously, but consciousness can only focus clearly on a few at once.

At any moment:

• One memory stream may dominate.

• One emotional complex may be active.

• One chain of associations may occupy attention.

Many others remain in the background.

It is the warmth of interest that keeps the blood running

Interest is attention and emotional investment.

Whatever we repeatedly think about, fear, desire, love, or contemplate receives psychic energy.

This keeps that mental pathway alive.

Modern neuroscience would say something similar:

Neurons that fire together wire together.

Repeated attention strengthens pathways.

The last sentence is perhaps the most important:

The sorrows of the past, the fears of the past, the joys of the past can be brought to life after ages, and could give exactly the same sensation that one had experienced formerly.

The psyche does not merely store facts.

It stores living emotional realities.

A memory from twenty years ago can suddenly become present again, not as an intellectual recollection but as an immediate experience.

A person may intellectually know: "That happened long ago."

Yet emotionally feel: "It is happening right now."

This is why old wounds, old loves, traumas, and joys can feel so vivid when activated.

From a Jungian perspective, the passage is describing how psychic energy (libido) flows through complexes and memory structures, causing them to become conscious, unconscious, dormant, or active.

For Jung, libido is not just sexual energy (as in Freud), but more broadly - the total life energy of the psyche: attention, emotion, motivation, imagination, meaning. What the text calls “engraved lines” are very close to what Jung called complexes.

A complex is - a cluster of emotionally charged memories, images, and ideas organized around a core experience.

For example:

• mother complex

• rejection complex

• power complex

• inferiority complex

Each complex behaves like a semi-autonomous mini-psyche.

Jung literally said complexes can “take over” consciousness.

So the “line in the mind” is not just a memory - it is a structured emotional network.

When we encounter the external trigger - the complex gets constellated.

This is why Jung said:

“We are not dealing with memories, but with living psychic realities.”

Ego consciousness is relatively small and can not contain everything. But unconscious complex does not mean non-existing. It is still there - just not energetically active.

Complexes compete for energy, whichever complex is most charged becomes dominant.

So at any moment:

• one complex is “in the foreground”

• others are in the background (latent potential energy)

This is why mood can suddenly shift without obvious reason - a different complex has taken control of attention.

Attention = libido direction.

Whatever you repeatedly think about, emotionally invest in, identify with - becomes energized and strengthened.

So interest feeds a complex and lack of attention weakens its conscious grip (but does not destroy it)

This is also why certain emotional patterns feel “sticky” - they are repeatedly re-energized.

Body as the storehouse of the emotional patterns

And the most interesting parts is that we usually tend to think about emotions only in term of the brain. However, our bodies are the literally store our past experiences - our posture, our breathing patterns, our gait, our muscle tension. Since there is continuous feedback between the brain and the body on the cellular level - the condition of our body sets the certain general mood for our mind and we may be conditioned to certain patterns and behaviour, yet unaware of it.

So the road of unwinding knots of the mind and clearing the mind starts with the body.

— Nikita Ierisov