the four merits, part 2

                                       

smriti: memory as a vritti

Patanjali has previously spoken about memory, as being one of the five vrittis.

We can look at a vritti as being a pattern of consciousness. These patterns are involved with memory on many levels, both seen and unseen. They are embedded in our whole being, from:

• DNA. Handed down via the family line. Sometimes you will meet people who have never known one of their parents, yet have their health tendencies, mannerisms and so on. This is quite different from 
• learned memory. What we "pick up" along our Path. For example, we pick up subtle ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving, from our environment, parents, and society.
• the karma of our race
• the karma and present times of our society
• our own karmic journey. Our lifetimes, particularly where we tend to repeat difficult relationships and behaviours

It was at this stage of samadhi, that my own memory took an unexpected turn: I started to "remember" my own, and others', past lives. So memory when it develops may not always be according to our own concepts. But, it will be according to our Life Path.

There can be a tendency to make the mistake of thinking, believing, that these vrittis, and memory, are all in our mind. That that is where they manifest. But, this is not correct. 

Vrittis actually go deep into our complete framework of being,  from our smallest particle upwards 

We are born with them embedded deep within, beyond our control. Memories from further back in time than what we can comprehend, sometimes. 

This is how karma can be handed down through generations, through society, through our own lifetimes. We accrue even more in a lifetime. Strangely, I did believe early in my yoga journey, that I could halt future karma, believing strongly that everything had to do with thoughts, and blocking them, as I had been taught that this was what blocking the patterns of consciousness, is. 

But, older and wiser, I now know that we are a complete entity, and that every single aspect of us, whether it is mental, emotional, physical, subtle, spiritual, everything is intertwined. And that vritti is involved with every single aspect.  

And in the deeper levels, such as the realms of chakras and tattwas (elements) these are not actually to do with memory: they just exist and are to be "found" within.

What changed my beliefs about stopping karma, in the concept of memory, was becoming a healer and dealing with past lives and lives between lives. I realised that we had karma all wrong, that we had such finite ideas about it. And, some years ago, I experienced the infinity realm of karma. I have consequently "let go" of any weird concepts to do with memory in connection with karma.

Next, we will look at how smriti, memory manifests as one of the four merits.