Caught in a Pattern ?

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What is a “Pattern” ?

Any cognition you make out of unawareness and incompletion, which comes back to you again and again in some form or the other, is a pattern or “samskara”. Cognition is any idea, perception, understanding, opinion or statements you create inside yourself. If you look in, you will see, your life is nothing but a bunch of patterns. From waking up in the morning to working in office, to interacting with people, to going to sleep, most of your actions are carried out in a pre-programmed manner. There is very little space for Life to happen to you, because you define the boundaries of your life with your patterns.

You start defining your life with your patterns.

For example, if you feel you lose your patience very quickly, that is a pattern. If you feel you have stage fear, that is also a pattern. If you feel you always fail in everything you do, that is also a pattern. Anything that stops you from expanding and making progress in the inner world or the outer world, is a pattern.

You are Not Born with Your Patterns

You are not born with the patterns. Please understand, when you are not born with a certain pattern, it means it is created inside you. Anything created can be changed. One of the biggest problems you face is, “I understand what is right and what is wrong, but I forget and do my own thing!” This is the one statement I hear from everybody every day, “I understand what is right and wrong, but when it comes to actions, I act as per the old patterns.” Now you can destroy the old one and create the new pattern. But constantly, for years and years and years, you go on cribbing – “No, I know what is right, what is wrong. But I cannot do, I cannot look, I cannot understand, I cannot change..!”

A small story:
One guy during the lunch time in his office, opens his lunch box and says, “Oh God, today again the same potato, brinjal and tomato rice.” Anyhow he eats it. Next day, again he opens his lunch box and starts crying, “Same potato, brinjal and tomato rice!” All his friends are really worried now. Third day again he opens his lunch box and exclaims, “Oh God, same potato, brinjal and tomato rice!” His friends started asking him, “Your wife doesn’t like you? Is there any fight going on between you and your wife? Why is she sending you the same food everyday knowing that you don’t like it?” That fellow says, “No I am not married. I cook for myself.”

Buddhi – intelligence – means knowing clearly, “Anything I created I can destroy and create something new.” Every time you think, “I cannot, I cannot, I cannot”, you are giving strength to your ignorance. When you say, “I can, I can, I can”, you are giving strength to your buddhi. Clearly recognizing that your patterns were created by you, and can be destroyed, is acting from buddhi.

Adapted from Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s teachings.