Last week we looked at the purpose of yoga being the stilling of mind thoughts to reveal our true self. In yoga, to help with this stilling, we can consider the five different types of mind thoughts or vrittis we can experience. These are
- pramana – right knowledge
- viparyaya – incorrect knowledge
- vikalpa – imagination
- nidra – sleep
- smriti – memory
The first of these, pramana, is our theme for this week – right knowledge. We know “right knowledge’ through perception, inference or reliable sources. During our lives our right knowledge thoughts are formed through our many experiences, what we are taught and learn from books and people we trust. For example, we know that there is day and then there is night – this is pramana.
As we understand the types of thoughts we experience, we can differentiate whether a thought is right, incorrect, our imagination, a dream or a memory. And being able to identify these thoughts then helps us to quieten them.
By doing this we begin to understand that we do not need to be attached to them, nor defined by them, we are so much more – knowing this is pramana 🙂 mind boggling I know!!!
Action: Allow yourself to pause and observe your thoughts. Without judgement identify the thoughts that present themselves as pramana, “right knowledge”. Allow yourself to recognise which thoughts these are and we will build on this over the next few weeks 🙂
As always, I’d love to know your thoughts
