I’ve been practicing these 9 words:

ahaṃkāra: attachment of ego

anāhata: heart chakra, unstruck

karma: action

samādhi: total self collectedness

śānti: peace

ānanda: deep contentment

ahiṃsā: absence of harm

ātmā: soul

tejas: illumination

There was a bit of randomness, but not entirely, in how they came together as a collection. It turns out they go really well together. One day I spent several hours writing ānanda (deep contentment, bliss) over and over again, and it actually improved my mood. Part of that could be the meditative quality of lettering. Speaking the words in sanskrit is important, too, because of the vibration, I was told by my sanskrit teacher. It makes sense, in any language, really. Our thoughts have impact, but the words we say aloud have greater impact, even if no one else is around.

Ahaṃkāra is an interesting word. It is the root cause of self-awareness. Being in a state of ahaṃkāra is being in a state of subjective illusion. The illusion is constructed by the ego, separating the self from the whole. Residing in a deep illusory state causes a person to behave out of character. While all humans can suffer from this (and usually do at some point in life), it seems the Karens and Kevins of the world are living in a state of ahaṃkāra. The mind binds together the concept of one’s self with an external thing, whether material or conceptual, or tangible.

The Arizona Target Karen is an extreme example of a deep illusory state causing out of character and strange behavior. First, she records herself beginning her rant and continues by knocking masks off of a display. Her rant evolves into a tantrum, attracting the attention of store employees. She asks why she has to stop and mentions her $40K Rolex, she explains that because she’s wearing a Rolex she has the right to destroy the display. She then records herself outside the front door of the store making sheep sounds (baaaahhh) at people wearing masks leaving the store. She mentions her Land Rover a couple of times. The video finally ends.

Upon further research, it seems Arizona Target Karen suffered a severe decline in mental well being. Whether a mental breakdown relates to ahaṃkāra, I do not know yet. It would make sense that living in a perpetual deep illusory state that is often accompanied by a state of agitation could contribute to mental health decline. Another adverse side effect is that it is thought to be impossible to accede to a higher spiritual level while residing in ahaṃkāra. It’s ironic, right? The Karens and Kevins seem to be lacking in self-awareness. This is perhaps why so many materially driven people feel spiritual and/or emotional bankruptcy, whether they are aware of it or not.

While self-awareness is important, the non-attachment of ego is probably the way to go. More sattva. What is sattva? Sattva is one of the three gunas. It is a mode of existence. The gunas are representations of temperament. Think attributes, qualities, and tendencies. Rajas and tamas are the other two gunas. Rajas is high-energy, passion, activity, energy, motion, zing. Tamas is slow, dull, lethargic, stagnant, blah. (Notice the duality*) Sattva has the quality of peacefulness, strength, balance, harmony, constructive, creativity, serenity, luminousness, positivity (not be be confused with toxic positivity*), universalizing, ethical. Think Goldilocks And The Three Bears. Sattva is just right. Sattva all the time wouldn’t be just right, but that’s a different blog post elaborating on toxic positivity.

I will explore each of these 9 words over the next several weeks.

*upcoming topic

**note in Devanagari the bindu is above the m, IAST bindu below

Bringing unabbreviated bliss to your entire life

ahaṃkāra