Qualities of Life
/
The philosophy of yoga teaches that all things, including our physical bodies, our thoughts, and emotions are composed of a mixture of 3 qualities: purity, change and inertia. Pure quality is called sattva, transformative quality is called rajas, and the steady quality is called tamas. Its helpful to look in nature to understand these qualities. In a river, the water stuck in tidal pools and eddies is stagnant and easily becomes muddy, that is tamas, the water in the rapids is turbulent and chaotic, that is rajas, the open water runs clean and pure that is sattva. These qualities compose every aspect of your life. It seems self-evident that we would rather be in that clear open water.
Visualize that your life is a cloth woven of three thread colors, you are the cloth, the color with most threads is most seen. So if we want our life to have more clarity, harmony and health we increase the sattvic quality of our lifestyle choices. As we weave in more sattvic threads to our life fabric we experience more tranquility and balance. For a yogi we seek to make sattvic choices to improve the balance in our daily life.
The key to understanding how to make sattvic choices is that whatever you ingest you must digest, whether its food, images, conversations, thoughts, feelings and experiences. If you eat something heavy(tamas) you might feel bloated and slow to digest. If you eat something greasy(rajas) you might have tumultuous digestion. The point is not to say ‘don’t do this or that’, rather its all about mindful choices that support your internal balance.
Ask yourself "Is what I am choosing to experience right now light, refreshing, pure and harmonious?"
For any student of Ayurveda, yoga’s sister science, there area some basic principles, one of the most pivotal is that "like increases like". Adding fire will increase the flames, ice will make things colder, etc. When we think about the 3 qualities, the way we bring balance to body, mind, and lifestyle is to increase what we do want and decrease what we don't want. If for example your working environment is already an action drama then having stimulants like caffeine, nicotine or alcohol will increase the fiery quality of rajas. To balance the work environment you could find a little more sattva at home with time in nature, soothing music and laughter with friends.
Lets take a sweet example, its time for dessert, your choices are 1. a sweet rice pudding with dates and honey, 2. A fried donut tower with powdered sugar, 3. A dense chocolate pound cake with vanilla ice cream. All will satisfy your sweet tooth but one will leave you feeling the lightest.
Another example, its time for movie night, your choices are 1. Romantic comedy, 2. Action Thriller, 3. Horror. Which will leave your mind most ready for a blissful nights sleep?
The goal is to challenge your habitual choices and start making a choice that represents the pure and balanced qualities of sattva. As you seek to weave in the threads of harmonious wellbeing, remember to Ask yourself "Is what I am choosing to experience light, refreshing goodness?"