eagerness/desire

                  

sutra 21

Sutra 21 is quite difficult to define, as one can put so many meanings onto it, depending, of course, on one's own ideas, understanding, or experience. I say "or experience", because this is where true knowledge comes from.

Basically the sutra is saying that for one who is "eager", or you could say "desire", "ardent desire", success comes quickly. Success at what? In this content we are talking about the Path of Enlightenment.

And it is so true. When we are so deeply sincere, so dedicated, we employ:

• constant practice. No matter what, we keep on going. Through life's difficulties and life's joys.
• vairagya. We separate ourselves from anything that gets in the way of our Path. This is an inner and outer attitude. We just, in our heart, emotions, and mind, do not allow whatever is happening to sway us from our Path.

one of the big secrets in Life

And these are important secrets of life. Despite the obstacles which arise, we just keep going. The fuel for this is eagerness. We want to know, we want to experience, we want to be established in whatever it is we are after. We all have moments in time, when we resolutely keep going with something. Our inner problems do not sway us. The outer difficulties, whether big or small, do not sway us. 

How do we cultivate this eagerness? With anything, and including the results of meditation, if we just methodically keep on going, we start to enjoy the fruits of our labours. And these fruits, results, they spur us onto wanting more. In any area of Life. 

Personally, I have found that the joy of spirituality is like a beautiful song which will always call us back to our journey. I am not talking about Ashrams, groups, or any thing like that. I am talking about the practices and the resulting experiences. So, even if you "have a break" for some reason or another, the seed of that song will always call us back.

And it is the same with our lives. When we truly want something, we then have incredible desire for it. That desire could be called eagerness. But what happens if we do sincerely want to achieve something, and we do not seem to be able to follow the right path for us, to achieve it? What if we cannot maintain enough eagerness? What then? What if things, or people, keep getting in the way?

how to achieve

I know that I keep repeating myself, but I will reiterate some of the wisdom we have learnt so far:

• constant practice and vairagya, as above. The two cornerstones of achieving anything in life
• we need the right knowledge. In other words, what do we need to know for the situation. Sometimes it is just trial and error which shows us the correct way. And this is called experience. Remember that a Path of any sort, is made up of experience, and this gives us knowledge
• the four cognitions are check points for us to use. Using our mental faculties of reason, sense of oneself, reflection. I would also include emotions here as our feelings definitely help us to know whether or not something is right for us (bliss aka feeling good)
• the four merits of faith, energy/will, memory, intelligence. I have written quite a few posts about these, and in this one, although it is a brief summary of how to practice meditation, it gives you an everyday tool to use to succeed in your endeavours
• Patanjali is quite clear that we dip in and out of the first two samadhis. Back and forth, until we become established in the second one. Which is exactly what happens with whatever we try to achieve in life. We do well, we don't do so well, back and forth until: bingo! we achieve one of the stage of what we are after. And this is quite important to remember: that it is human to fluctuate, and indeed, is what our emotions do; our minds do; therefore why not also our endeavours? It does seem to be part of the cycle of life.