the gunas - The 3 fundamental forces of nature - tamas
The three fundamental forces of nature that are either concealing or revealing the presence of Purusha (the formless witness, universal consciousness). Depending on our lifestyle and our daily choices we either edge toward balance and centre, or drive ourselves toward habit, chaos, disease and destruction.
The three Gunas are, Tamas, Rajas and Sattva. Each have key features that define them.
According to the Yoga Tradition the Gunas are a major part of our spiritual endeavours and they facilitate our ability to know ourselves on a deeper level. They reveal, conceal and stir us up so we can see the range of our potential and the limits at which we are able to operate and move closer and closer to Purusha, the all knowing, mighty one.
This week we’ll be exploring Tamas.
Tamas is dark, heavy, inertia, downward moving, opaque. It’s super power is to conceal, causing dullness and heaviness, separating us from Purusha.
Tamas in its negative form can leave us feeling unenthusiastic, putting off important life events, procrastinating and makes us uncertain about life’s direction.
Tamas In its positive form we need tamas, gravity, in order to rest, receive and to turn inwards. In some ways tamas can be very stabilising and steady. The way to relate to tamas is hitting the snooze button 10x before you get up or knowing you have a deadline approaching but putting off the work you need to do to fulfil your task.
Emotionally Tamasic people usually withdraw, go silent, internalise, self criticise and at the extreme self harm. Mediation is a bore, and they just don’t get or understand its value.
Once we are aware of their function and motivation we can intelligently influence them via environment, food, social life, conversations, sleep, sex, pleasure, challenge and so on.
To pull us out of Tamasic way of being we need to do Rajasic practices, eat rajasic food and hang out with rajasic people. Expect practice to be quite dynamic this week.