The horse-drawn chariot is a metaphor for you:
- The chariot is your body.
- The horses are your senses – drawn toward the objects of desire.
- The reins are your sub-conscious mind – the part of you responsible for acting.
- The driver is your conscious mind – the part of you responsible for thinking.
- The passenger is your consciousness – your awareness, without which you wouldn’t be aware of the ride!
Here’s the reality:
- Just like the chariot, the more fit your body is the more efficiently it will function, the more comfortable you’ll feel, and the longer you’ll live.
- Just as the horses are drawn toward open pastures, your senses naturally draw you towards the objects of your desire; however, it’s your senses – not the objects – that energetically stimulate your body to act.
- Just as the reins enable the driver to direct the horses, your sub-conscious mind links your conscious mind’s thoughts to your actions.
- Just as the driver uses the reins to control the horses, your conscious mind can override your sub-conscious mind’s natural impulses.
- Just as the passenger witnesses the ride without controlling the chariot, driver, reins or horses, your consciousness is aware of your every sensation, thought, word and deed – but doesn’t affect them.
Here’s the cure for what ails you (since most of what bothers us are consequences of our own behavior):
Don’t be driven by unfettered senses to pursue external desires; true serenity is found deep within you. Notice the distinction between these three invisible parts of you:
- Your sub-conscious mind constantly multitasks silently; functionally, it’s responsible for sensory processing and bodily movement (i.e., you don’t have to consciously think “breathe”, “smell”, “feel”, “circulate my blood”, etc.).
- Your conscious mind continuously thinks single, consecutive thoughts; it rationalizes and analyzes; it’s evidenced by the voice in your head; you listen to its running commentary throughout the day as it makes decisions and judges.
- Your consciousness is the uber-subtle awareness OF whatever you’re experiencing or thinking.
Learn to distinguish between your ever-changing thoughts (evidence of your conscious mind), and your quiet, still, immutable awareness OF those thoughts (evidence of your consciousness). Your awareness is the only “thing” that exists that literally never changes – certainly not during your lifetime; thus, it’s virtually eternal and “unearthly” (i.e., essentially divine). This is the aspect of you that religion calls your soul or spirit. Yes – you have one. THAT is the crux of yoga.
Spend time focusing on your consciousness. When you realize its true nature, whatever the objects of your desire, they’ll begin to lose their hold and attraction over your senses.
“The undiscriminating can never rein in their mind; their senses are like the vicious horses of the charioteer. The discriminating ever control their mind; their senses are like disciplined horses. The undiscriminating …do not reach their goal.” (Bhagavad Gita, chapter III, versus 42-3).
God bless, Skip
