Day 5

This Divination of the Mundane is a habit that is going to take a while to establish.  The concept is clear within me and while it is established as a sincere spiritual goal, no, more than that, an imperative, the habits of mundane conversation seem to run quite deep.  

The scenario is quite easy to observe.  When I even slightly loose focus of my intention, slightly forget Gita 3:30, the established traits of my personality come forward.   My ego likes to please others, it likes to be liked, and this is a subtle part of my personality.  Nothing inherently wrong with that and there is not really anything to be done as it is part of my prarabdha, my karma in this life.  But during mundane conversations, when my spiritual guard is down, I don’t just listen to what the other is saying, my mind seems to be subtly searching for something to react to so I can say something pleasant or clever and thereby fulfill my need to please and be liked.  When dispassionately observed, it is rather amusing.

The slow, long solution, I think, will involve not only keeping my intention at the forefront of my mind, but within that, to listen without reacting.  The general path is for an input to reach me through one of the incoming senses, then get analyzed and judged in a nanosecond by my personality made up of all my helpful and unhelpful karmic history, which then colours the output or reaction appearing as a thought or a physical act or speech.  Listening (or seeing or tasting, etc) without reacting is to transform the nature of analyzing and judging which my mind is so accustomed to. When Krishna says to act without fire, meaning act without passion, that nanosecond of internal reaction is what He is referring to whether the reaction generates a wee little spark or a flame thrower.  Transforming this will require skill in practices of pratyahara, withdrawal of the senses.