Nature’s symmetry and balance is Sattwa. When we appreciate it we experience Sattwa, bliss.
Here is a quick review from the last post…
There are three forces which create our reality.
Rajas: force of movement, activity
Tamas: force of inertia, stability
Sattwa: exists when Rajas and Tamas are operating in a balanced way. It is a state of clarity and bliss.
Sattwa exists when Rajas and Tamas are balanced and operating in a healthy way.
Example: when driving a car, you push on the gas pedal to get speed and push on the brake to slow down. When you put the gears in neutral, you are operating without the push/pull. There is a joy that exists when we are not pushing, pulling, resisting, but simply basking in the balance of all of our body/mind activities.
In our life, we have the activity of our thoughts and our movements (gas pedal) and we have the “slow down” pedal which is activated through exhaustion, or awareness of the need for rest.
Too much activity creates unhappiness. Our thoughts are often overactive–an inner dialogue of “not measuring up, not good enough, you did that wrong”. Some leftover parental judgements. We are not happy with these thoughts. Too much physical activity also creates unhappiness—exhaustion, pain.
Too little activity also creates unhappiness. We may feel depressed, be a couch potato, suffer from phobias, feel a resistance to activity. We don’t feel energetic, alive, happy.
It is in experience beyond thought that our real happiness lies.
Harmony, symmetry in nature reveals happiness,
Beyond activity and inactivity. Beyond excitement and depression. Beyond winning and losing. Beyond choice.
When Rajas and Tamas are simply doing their jobs of keeping us alive and the mind and body are in neutral, then nature is operating our body/mind and we experience the bliss that is a happiness beyond opposites. When we go “up” (excitement) it is followed by going “down” (tiredness, depression) like in the old song: “What goes up, must go down.”
Real happiness does not go up or down. It is not lust or stimulation or infatuation or mania. It is outside of thought, outside of activity/inactivity. It is experienced when we are present with what is, when we allow the forces of nature to nurture us, listen to and heed our body, mind and emotions and rest fully supported in the lap of mother earth (gravity, tamas, inertia) and father sun (centrifugal force, rajas, activity).
The Baghavad Gita describes this state as being “inactive” in the midst of activity. Not reactive to the external or internal environment. This is bliss. Real happiness.
Have you experienced this bliss? If so, please share below!
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For the previous four parts in this series, click here>>>
