Rest and Cool Off

In yoga, understanding our mind, how it functions and reacts to impressions, is a central point of contemplation and practice. Patanali clearly defines the goal of yoga as calming the movements of the mind (i.e., thinking, remembering, analyzing, processing, etc.). To put it bluntly, to bring calm to the eternal merry-go-round of thought. 

Anyone who has ever wanted to think about "nothing" knows that it's not that easy. As soon as we are awake, the mind wakes up and moves. The movements of the mind are described by the three mahagunas sattva (pure being, feeling, knowledge), rajas (movement, energy, restlessness) and tamas (sluggishness, lack of understanding, attachment). According to Patanjali, depending on the interaction of these gunas, there are five states in which our waking mind can find itself, called 'panca vrittis'.

Read more about this and how to cool our Pitta in the summer in the newsletter. See link to the German edition.