Inner truth: The Art of Abhyasa

Your mind has set ideas of yourself, using proof, wrong knowledge or vikalpa, fantasies or fears or dwelling in the past. These four modulations of the mind plus sleep, (another modulation) can be restrained by practice or dispassion. How do you get over that? One can overpower this vrutti (modulation) through abhyasa (practice) and vairagya (detachment). Practise is that effort made to steadily be there in the seer.

A little effort is needed to relieve you from the five modulations and just be in the here and now. Bringing the mind to the present and not dwelling on the past memories. Often when the mind has wrong knowledge, it thinks it has the right knowledge. You should not be anxious to see, smell, touch, feel, understand anything... let things be the way they are. Who cares? The moment is free, fresh and full. Just knowing that again it is getting into the five vruttis, without aversion or craving, and coming back to the centre, to the seer. This is abhyasa.

The author is a spiritual teacher, founder of The Art of Living. www.artofliving.org