Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
118ot her, it ma ke s us c onstantly disc ontented wit h our present circumstances. As
Go t a ma observed the way one c raving after another took possession of his min d
and heart , he not ic ed how human beings were ceaselessly yearning to b e c o me
something else, go somewhere else, and ac quire something they do not have. It is
as though they were c ont inually seeking a form of rebirt h, a new kind of existence.
Craving (ta nhā) ma n if e s t s it self even in the desire to c hange our physic al posit ion,
go int o another room, have a snac k or suddenly leave work and go find somebody
to t alk to. These petty c ravings assail us hour by hour, minute by minute, so that
we know no rest. We ar e c onsumed and distracted by the c ompulsion to b e c o me
something different. ‘The world, whose very nature is to c hange, is c onstantly
determined to b e c o me something else,’ Go t a ma c onc luded. ‘It is at the me rc y of
c hange, it is only happy when it is c aught up in the proc ess of c hange, but t his love
of c hange c ontains a me a s u re of fear, and t his fear it self is dukkha.’
But when Go t a ma reflected upon these truths, he was not doing so in an ordinary,
disc ursive manner. He brought the tec hniques of yoga to bear upon t h e m, so that
they b e c a me mo re vivid and imme d ia t e than any c onc lusion arrived at by n o rma l
rat ioc inat ion. Every day, after he had c ollec t ed enough a lms for his daily me a l,
whic h he usually took before noon, Go t a ma would seek out a secluded spot, sit
down in the āsana post ure and begin the yogic exercises of ekāgratā or
c onc entration. He would practice t his mindfulness in a yogic c ont ext and, as a
result , his insight s gained a new c larit y. He c ould see them ‘direc t ly,’ enter int o
them and learn to observe them without the filt er of self-protecting egot ism that
distorts t h e m. Hu ma n beings do not usually want to realize the pervasiveness of
pain, but now Go t a ma was learning, wit h the skill of a t rained yogin, to ‘see things
as they really are.’ He did not, however, stop at these mo re negat ive truths; he
was also fost ering the ‘skillful’ states wit h the s a me int ensit y. A person, he
explained lat er, c ould purify his or her min d by c ult ivat ing these posit ive and
helpful states while performing the yogic exercises, sit t ing c ross-legged and, by
me a n s of the respirat ory disc ipline of prānāyamā, induc ing an alt ernat ive state of
consciousness.
Onc e he has banished malevolenc e and hat red from his min d , he lives without ill
will and is also full of compassion, desiring the welfare of all living beings... Onc e he
has banished the me n t a l habit s of laziness and indolenc e, he is not only free of
laziness and indolenc e but has a min d that is luc id, c onsc ious of it self and
c omplet ely alert ;... Onc e he has banished anxiet y and worry, he liv es without
anxiet y and his min d becomes c alm and st ill;...
Onc e he has banished unc ertainty, he lives wit h a min d that has outgrown
debilit at ing doubt and is no longer plagued by unprofit able [akusala] me n t a l states.
...We do not know how long it took Go t a ma to recover his healt h after his years
of asc et ic ism. The sc ript ures speed up the proc ess to ma ke it mo re dramatic, and
give the impression that Go t a ma was ready for the final struggle wit h himself after
one bowl of junket. T his c annot have been t rue. The effects of mindfulness and the
c ult ivat ion of skillful states t ake t ime. Go t a ma himself said that it c ould t ake at
least seven years, and stressed that the new self developed imperc ept ibly over a
long period. ‘Just as the ocean slopes gradually, falls away gradually, and shelves