Q&A: What is Karma? Part III
The Middle Teaching: The wheel of vrittis and samskaaras
Note: These next few articles will be devoted to answering questions asked by readers. If you have questions, please submit them by clicking the button below!What is karma?
Need a little detailed explanation about what it is, and how we should work on it.
Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah. Salutations to all the teachers.
Karma is not some mysterious force meting out judgment upon living beings. Rather, it is nothing but the law of cause and effect, applied to our actions, words, and thoughts.
It is not a mystical idea to be believed in, but rather a fact of our direct experience.
Consider any action - perhaps the last time you spoke.
Notice, first, that you likely remember the last time you spoke. This memory is an impression left in the mind from two sources - the sound of your own voice, and the use of your organ of speech. That is, not only does your mind retain impressions of sensations (ie. sound, touch, sight, etc.), but also impressions of the use of your organs of action (ie. speech, grasping, moving, etc.).
Next, consider that the words were spoken in a language. The ability to speak this language stems from prior causes - you previously learned the language through repetition, trial, and error. This prior repetition resulted in a web of impressions in the mind, which you now refer to as “knowledge of the language”.
Next, consider the content of the words you spoke. Where did the content come from? How did you know what to say? If you observe, you will find that the content of the words also stems from impressions in the mind. Perhaps you were speaking about something at work, something about the last time you met your friends, about a song you recently heard, a show you watched, or an idea you had. In all these cases, the content of the speech stemmed from prior impressions in the mind that mingled together, and finally bubbled up, expressing themselves using the organ of speech.
Finally, consider the fact that you spoke at all, rather than remaining silent. There was an outward motion of the mind, gesticulating and expressing itself rather than resting inward. This outward, gesticulating, expressive motion is also a tendency, stemming from prior impressions and repetition.
This web of impressions, known as samskaaras, are the seeds of your karma, playing out in thought, word, and deed.
Recap
Over the past two weeks, we have been going over the question of karma in detail. Karma - like most of Indian philosophy - is taught at three different levels depending on the listener.
The first level is the basic teaching, where good actions create good consequences, and bad actions generate bad consequences.
The main takeaway here is that where we normally celebrate good consequences, the teaching shows us that there is a negative side to it too - we are spending our hard-earned punya, or karmic merit, in order to have the positive experience. The other way is true too - a bad consequence (which we may normally lament) has a positive side to it - we are extinguishing our paap, or karmic demerit.
You can find the article on the basic teaching on karma here:
If this level of teaching is insufficient, it is followed by the middle teaching, which is also the most complex. Here, we dive into the details of the root of karma, the different types of karma, and the mechanism through which karma is generated and bears fruit.
Last week, we began a discussion on the middle teaching, discussing how the kleshas are at the root of karma. Further, we discovered that karma and the kleshas have a mutually dependent relationship - karma generates kleshas just as the kleshas generate karma. As a result, we are stuck in an infinite cycle.
You can find the first article on the middle teaching here:
In this article, we will continue with our discussion of the middle teaching, going over the infinite cycle of vrittis and samskaaras, and the mechanism through which karma is born, and will continue the discussion in the next few articles as well.
“Thus turns the wheel of vrittis and samskaaras”
तथा जातीयकाः संस्कारा वृत्तिभिरेव क्रियन्ते।सम्स्कारैश्च वृत्तय इति।एवं वृत्तिसंस्कारचक्रमनिशमावर्तते।Tathaa jaateeyakaah samskaaraa vrittibhirEva kriyante. SamskaaraishCha vrittaya iti. Evam vrittiSamskaaraChakramAnishamAavartateSamskaaras of the same class are generated by the vrittis [of that class] themsleves. These vrittis are further generated by samskaaras. Thus turns the wheel of vrittis and samskaaras.
- Vyasabhashyam on Yoga Sutra 1.5
Everything we experience, and everything we do, leaves an impression on the mind. These impressions are known as samskaaras, and, as discussed in previous articles, can be compared to channels in the soil.
When a farmer pours water in the same place repeatedly, it leaves a channel. Then, when water is poured the next time, it flows as if automatically, within those channels.
If the farmer wants to deepen a channel, they can simply pour more water in it, for a longer period of time, more frequently. On the other hand, if they want a channel to disappear, they can simply stop pouring water in it, and pour water in the place where they want a new channel to appear.
This is exactly how our mind works.
The more we repeat an action or an experience, the more deeply ingrained it becomes in the mind. Then, once the samskaara is deep enough, that action or experience becomes automatic, and does not require as much effort.
When creating a new samskaara, it can feel uncomfortable.
We make mistakes, stumbling through the action. As we repeat the action, it steadily becomes easier. The initial discomfort is an indication that a new samskaara is being generated in the mind.
On the other hand, we can also remove samskaaras. Initially, it can be difficult to not allow our attention to flow in directions which feel automatic. But after some time, it becomes effortless.
Yoga - at least initially - can be seen as the art of creating and removing samskaaras, engineering or editing our own minds to suit our needs, rather than following patterns of conditioning that we did not voluntarily create.
Said another way, Yoga can be seen as the art of editing your own karma.
The twin foundations of Yoga are abhyaas (practice) and vairaagya (letting go), and can be seen as the pencil and eraser of samskaaras.
For more on abhyaas and vairaagya, you can take a look at the two articles linked here:
P: How is this linked to karma? I thought you said karma means “action”?
Let us explore the source of our actions.
Last week, we discussed how the source of karma is avidya, or the Primal Ignorance. Avidya leads to desire, or kaam, which then leads to karma, or action.
Avidya → Kaam → Karma
Here, we will dive into this cycle in more detail, looking at it from the angle of Yogic psychology.
Our actions are simply gross manifestations of thought, and thoughts are subtle manifestations of causal samskaaras. These three levels of karma - gross, subtle, and causal - can be symbolized by the three parts1 of Om (ॐ):
A (अ) represents the physical actions and experiences that happen in the physical world. If you sit down, stand up, speak, grasp, walk, and so on, this is all within the gross world.
U (उ) represents the vrittis that arise at level of thought - the so-called subtle world, or subtle body. This is nothing mysterious - you are experiencing it right now. When a memory or imagination arises in the mind, this is within the subtle world. In fact, all perceptions are ultimately also within the subtle world of thought.
M (म) represents the samskaaras that lay dormant in the mind. This is known as the causal body. We do not normally experience these directly (although they can be experienced, in a sense, in meditation).
Physical actions arise from thoughts, and thoughts further arise from impressions. A can be traced back into U, which can further be traced back into M. This is one of the many meanings of ॐ - the causal chain of karma.
Consider an example scenario to make this clear.
Imagine you are driving your car, and suddenly another car bumps into you. You roll down your window and start shouting.
All of this happened within the span of a few seconds, but let’s slow it down to unpack.
The action in question (represented by A) is the act of you rolling down your window and shouting at the driver in the other car.
Where did this action come from?
If we investigate in slow motion, we see that before your mouth opened to shout, and before the hand lifted off the steering wheel to roll down the window, a quick movement appeared in the mind in the form of anger. It may have been an explicit verbal thought like “I can’t believe they did that” or “what were they thinking”, or it may have just been a quick flash of anger with the same underlying feeling.
Either way, a vritti appeared in the mind, taking the form of the perception of the other car bumping into your car, coloured with the kleshas of asmitaa (“I am”-ness), dvesha (aversion), and perhaps a little abhinivesha (fear of discontinuity). The vritti, in this case, was coloured, or klishta, and so resulted in words of anger, violating the second Yama of satya, and thus generating so-called “bad” karma.
Like cause results in like consequence.
Where did this vritti come from in the first place?
Normally, we may stop at this point, blaming the external circumstance for the outburst. However, if we investigate, we will find that the source of the vritti was not external, but within the mind.
Let us dig deeper.
The vritti was the result of a samskaara - an impression in the mind. The quicker you were to roll down the window and shout, the deeper the samskaara, and so the more “automatic” the action. The samskaara, much like a seed, found the right environment in which to sprout, and so seized the opportunity to bubble up into a vritti, which, with sufficient momentum, bubbled up further into words and actions.
But where did the samskaara come from in the first place?
The samskaara, like all samskaaras, is nothing but an impression in the mind from past vrittis. Perhaps you had experienced others acting this way before, maybe you felt anger at something else, and it came out in this way, or maybe you had played out this or a similar scenario in your mind at some point previously. More obviously, perhaps you had physically acted in this way before. In all these cases, a previously experienced vritti left a trace in the mind, which then resulted in a new vritti, which then bubbled up into action.
Actions lead to vrittis, which lead to samskaaras, which then further bubble up as vrittis which once again become actions.
This is the cycle of karma.
P: Wait a second, I thought it was the wheel of vrittis and samskaaras. Where did actions come into this from?
Jogi: Where do you experience actions?
P: In the body.
Jogi: How do you know you have a body?
P: I perceive it.
Jogi: Where is that perception located?
P: In the mind, as a pramaana-vritti - a perception-vritti.
Jogi: Exactly so. Actions are nothing but perceptions, which are vrittis. Vrittis generate samskaaras, which generate further vrittis, which generate further samskaaras, and so on. If we investigate, we see that there is, in fact, no A, just U and M. When chanting ॐ, the mouth is either open or closed.
In this way, since karma is nothing but vrittis in the mind, we can simplify this view into a wheel of vrittis and samskaaras - the vritti-samskaara-chakram (वृत्तिसंस्कारचक्रम्).
Like generates like
Vrittis that are coloured with kleshas generate actions which are opposed - in a gross or subtle way - to the Yamas. In other words, vrittis coloured with kleshas will always generate at least some degree of “bad” karma.
In the gross, or obvious, sense, when a vritti is coloured by attraction, aversion, fear, and so on, it leads to thoughts, words, and actions which are selfish. This is because avidya as at the root, and asmitaa at the stem of the kleshas.
The kleshas depend upon a separation between “self” and “other”, and so all actions that result from the kleshas are manifestations of this separation. This very separation of “self” and “other” is what defines himsa, or violence.
You can find more on the subtle extents of violence here:
For example, when you rolled down the window to shout at the other driver, it came from a vritti that was coloured with a combination of asmitaa, dvesha, and abhinivesha. You were upset because you considered the car and your body to be yours, and so were averse to any damage that may come to them, alongside an undercurrent of a fear of death, however subtle. As a result, you acted in defense of the body-mind complex, and in doing so strengthened the sense of separation between yourself and the other driver. This manifested in the form of violating the Yamas, which have their basis in the dissolution of this boundary. A mango seed creates a mango tree, not an apple tree.
P: What about if I perform an action that is in line with the Yamas, but on the basis of klishta-vrittis? For example, what if I say something truthful and loving to someone because I want them to like me? This would be in line with the Yama of satya, but still rooted in the kleshas of raag and asmitaa, no?
Jogi: In this example, did you tell the othr person that you are saying these words only so that they will like you?
P: No, of course not! That would ruin it and they would think I’m weird.
The kleshas can never generate an action that is entirely in line with the Yamas2. Let us dig into our friend P’s example here to explore the ways in which vrittis coloured by kleshas can subtly oppose the Yamas even when they appear, on the surface, to be in line with them.
In the example, P said something truthful and loving to another person. On the surface, this is in line with the Yama of satya (ie. satyam, or truthful, and peshalam, or loving).
However, if we dig deeper, we can see that the very same action opposes not only satya itself, but also the Yama of aparigraha, or non-ownership.
First, satya would involve ensuring that the Yogi is not misleading the other person. In this example, P is telling the other person something truthful and loving not simply to share something truthful and loving, but for an ulterior motive, which they are hiding from the other person. In this way, even though P is speaking the truth, P is still misleading them into thinking something different from what is in P’s mind. For more on satya, take a look at the articles here:
Second, P is saying these words in order to gain something for themselves. They want the person to like them - ie. the particular body-mind called P. This could be so that P could call that person their friend (ie. “my” friend), claim that the person likes them (ie. likes “me”), and so on. Aparigraha - the fifth Yama - is non-ownership, extending not only to objects, but also to people, ideas, and the body-mind complex itself. Any time you say or think the word “my”, “me”, or “mine”, and take it seriously, it is a violation of aparigraha. More on aparigraha here:
To summarize, even though on the surface, it seemed like this action was in line with the Yamas, if we dig deeper, we find that it was, in fact, subtly against them, and so “bad” karma.
P: But it’s not as bad as shouting at the other person, right?
Jogi: Generally speaking, that is true. The more intense the degree of violence, the more intense, or “worse”, the generated karma is.
P: Is it possible for klishta-vrittis to generate “good” karma too?
Jogi: Yes, this is certainly possible. However, all actions stemming from the kleshas will always include some degree of “bad” karma, even if some “good” karma is mixed in.
If we take this idea back to vrittis and samskaaras, we can see that samskaaras that were generated by klishta-vrittis will result in future klishta-vrittis, and samskaaras that were generated by aklishta-vrittis will result in future aklishta-vrittis. Like generates like, not only in content, but also class.
So what can I do about it?
P: If vrittis lead to samskaaras, and samskaaras lead to vrittis, I’m stuck in yet another infinite cycle, right? It feels like I can only generate good samskaaras by generating good vrittis, but we just learned that all the vrittis in my mind are coming from previous samskaaras. What am I to do? Am I just doomed?
Once we learn about this cycle, it can feel as though we are doomed to fail. All thoughts come from prior impressions, but impressions come from prior thoughts, which come from prior impressions, and so on. How can we break out of the cycle?
The final level of teaching, which we will discuss in a few weeks, is that the method of breaking out of this bondage is to realize that You were never bound. By Realizing the Self as the Purusha, we can clearly see that karma belongs to the realm of Prakriti, and so there was never anything to worry about.
But even there, the question arises, how can I generate the samskaaras needed to break out of the cycle in the first place?
The answer here is at two levels of inquiry.
At the level of the middle teaching, where we are right now, notice that there is a small gap in between the vritti arising in the mind and the action playing out through the karmendriyas.
In the example at the beginning of this article, when the other car bumped into yours, rather than immediately rolling down the window, you can take a deep breath, count from one to ten, and then decide how to respond. With practice, you can increase the time gap between intention and action, and eventually become more skilled at intercepting thoughts before they turn into words and actions. That is, we can intercept the action between A and U.
One step further, we can use meditation to intercept the thought before it arises. After all, entertaining a thought also leaves an impression - a samskaara - in the mind. With practice, we gain enough skill and precision of attention to catch these thoughts, observe them, and let them go, rather than entertaining them. That is, we can intercept the thought between U and M.
Practising in this way, we can gradually refine the samskaaras in the mind.
P: But where would I get the desire to practice in the first place? Wouldn’t that be due to a samskaara too?
Jogi: Yes, it would! All actions, all desire, all mental activity, is nothing but samskaaras expressing themselves.
P: So then where would that samskaara come from?
Jogi: It is already there! After all, you are here, aren’t you?
If you did not already have these samskaaras, you would not be here, reading this article in the first place. The very fact that you are able to read through this article, and have an interest in Yoga, is an indication of your samskaaras.
P: What about for people who don’t have these samskaaras?
Jogi: We all do.
P: How can you say that with such confidence?
This is the next level of inquiry.
All living beings have the desire to be free from suffering. This is the primary motivator, that drives all actions of all living beings. All beings are doing the same thing - acting in the way that they see best to solve their own suffering.
Initially, we try to solve our suffering by running after pleasure and avoiding pain, but this search will ultimately come up short. All pleasure, as we know, is temporary, limited, and unsustainable. Sooner or later, the truth hits us in the face, whether we want it to or not. When it does, and only when it does, we see that it was all dukkha in disguise all along. This prompts a search for unlimited, sustainable, and permanent fulfilment.
This search is called Yoga, but is found all over the world, and is called by many different names.
For some, the search will initially be short-lived, perhaps following an unfortunate circumstance like the death of a loved one, a serious illness, or a face-to-face encounter with significant suffering. This kind of interest - known as shamshaan-vairaagya (the dispassion borne of the cremation ground) - will come and fall away quickly. However, like all experiences, it will leave a samskaara, which will sprout when the conditions are just right.
For others, perhaps like yourself, the samskaara for Yoga has deepened sufficiently that you are here now, spending time learning and practising. The deeper your samskaaras at this point in time, the deeper your practice will be In this way, we are all drawn to Yoga, whether we know it or not.
Until next time, if you have any questions, please submit them by clicking the button below:
Next time: Types of karma
ॐ also has a fourth component - the silence from which it arises, into which it falls, and which pervades it throughout. This silence represents the Self, which is, in Truth, independent of karma, just as silence is independent of sound.
If we dig into this line of reasoning, we will find that no action done as an individual can ever be entirely in line with the Yamas. In this way, the Yamas can be seen as impossible tasks, until we break free of the illusion of separation, at which point they become impossible to violate. More on this in the final level of teaching.