Memory is the power to retain and recall the information and past experiences. Memory applies to both individual facts and experiences that one recalls as well as the brain’s ability to contain it all. A good memory reinforces one’s perceptions and an unpleasant memory can be very destructive. How does one handle memory? Memories are very important for one and each memory teaches one how to handle the repetition of a hurtful experience.
As explained in the Gita, an unpleasant memory leads to impairment of judgment. Bhagawad Gita: Chapter 2, Verse 63. Anger leads to clouding of judgement, which results in bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, the intellect gets destroyed; and when the intellect is destroyed, one is ruined.
Anger impairs one’s judgment. One can compare it to the morning mist, which envelopes the sun. When angry, one commits rash mistakes and then one regrets later. One’s intellect is clouded by a web of emotions. One’s faculty of judgment is affected by rage and it is coloured in an exaggerated manner. Then one enters into an area of bewilderment. One cannot discriminate between right and wrong and one is swept by the tide of overwhelming emotions. This leads to a biased representation of the memory. The intellect takes over and one is entrapped.
Memories are very vital for one and the power of breath awareness enables one to not become a victim of the thoughts which accompany a memory. Why is breath awareness important? Breath Awareness is an easy way to take control of one’s thoughts. It is not difficult and what one has to do is initially count one’s breath backwards from fifty-four to zero. The counting is simple and it is like this, ‘54 – I am breathing in’, ‘54 – I am breathing out’.
The process
- awareness of the breath
- visualization of the breath as one inhales and exhales
- concentration on the counting
Now one does not have to engage with one’s thoughts, and therefore they are not getting reinforced. Since this does not happen the next part is the traumatic memory is becoming weaker and weaker. Very often one finds that some past event can make one numb with fear. Fear is weakening and is again delighted to be one’s permanent guest living rent free in the mind. Breath awareness enables one to make the experience milder, which means that one does not reinforce the thoughts which start clamouring about how bad it was. Of course it was bad, but one has to learn that it cannot dictate one’s behaviour and control one’s mind. It is not easy, dear ones but a daily sadhana of breath awareness will make one feel lighter and not shackled.
Please try it and see for yourself, how you get transformed.
Aim Hrim Klim