Pratipakshad

Namaste all
just waiting for sandhya to return after her dance practice.. then thought of typing a mail to you.. apologize if it runs a bit long..
After the retreat, and through it, some students have asked me about the concept of pratipaksha. Let me try to elucidate this subject a little bit through this mail.

• Pratipaksha Iiterally means ‘opposite side or team’.
• The context being that our consciousness is like a field, where vrttis of basically two types keep on emerging- one, the tamasic ones taking us to material,sensorial, ego- self entanglement, and the other, the sattvic ones, which can free us from material entanglement and give us wisdom, peace etc.
• So, like the foot ball analogy which i mailed sometime back, we have to observe and see which is normally winning in our consciousness, and whichever team we give our active intention and attention to, that team normally has a chance to win or dominate.
• However it is not as simple as it sounds.
• Because we dont know what exactly is bothering us in the first place, to know its opposite quality is a bit tricky.
• This is where regular svadhyaya can help along with some knowledge.

Let me narrate one personal incident.

As is my wont on at least 2-3 mornings a week, I went to the gym today. I normally just go about at a glacial pace of around 2 km per hour on the tread mill, compared to the other galloping girls there, then pick up some cute 5 pound dumbells, twirl it for a while hoping that it will do good to my wrists, and then head for the car.
Sometimes it is a bit embarassing to see some of my own students there, throwing around humongous plates as if they were playing frisby, and especially so when they smile pitifully at my light weights. Of course i quickly show my wrist to them in defence.
Anyway, today an elderly frail lady took up the treadmill just next to me. With some trepidation i saw that she set the speed straight to 8 km, and then i again got that pitiful look.  ‘Dont look at that and focus on your breath’, i heard buddhi saying, and so i breath watched. Then suddenly the lady cleared her throat and said ‘excuse me’! As i looked at her inquisitively, slightly worried whether she will ask me about my treadmill speed, she asked ‘ are you manoj, the yoga teacher’. I said ‘yes, that is one way people see me’. Then she said, ‘ i am hearing some rumours about you. can i clear it with you?’. I noticed a spontaneous breath retention which happened
Then without waiting for my approval, she said, ‘ i hear you run yoga teacher courses’, to which i first exhaled, and then nodded. She continued,’ i hear that you are very strict in the course.. like people have to be vegetarian, wake up at 6 etc’. I again nodded. ‘ Dont you think all this is very old fashioned? a yoga course need not have all this. people want to just de stress and stretch. such kind of demands put off people… do you know there are many teachers training course… and she went on.
I  suddenly smelt smoke.. hot smoke. Soon realized it was not the treadmill, but was from myself.. could literally feel my consciousness smoldering like a volcano ready to explode..
i also found myself first carefully scanning the gym.. to make sure there are no witnesses around in case i decide to… ok, ahimsa, quickly i let go of that thought…
‘anger’ my mental naming practice clearly announced.. time for pratipaksha practice.. but try as much as i did i could not immediately switch to maitri thoughts towards this old stranger lady.
Then i turned to the body to see how it was reacting.. there was a tendecny to get frozen.. wanted to stop the treadmill and give a lecture  to the lady.. so, here i saw an opportunity to practice opposite patterns..
from 2 km per hour i cranked the speed up to 12 km per hour.. that should change my current breath and body pattern.. and went at it.. one good thing was that the treadmill and my feet made such noise that the lady’s still continuing banter could not be heard.. after around 4 mts, i had to get out of the machine.
The burn in the consciousness was gone.. but now the knees and ankles were burning..
Anyway, by that time, i was quite at ease.. just told the lady that different schools follow different traditions, smiled in genuine compassion, and limped away
so even by bringing opposite qualities in the body, can quickly free you from the grip of kleshas
Later continued to observe vrttis, and i could clearly see that asmita (the pure I) lost its purity, as it was clinging on to an identity due to which it mutated to become ahamkara (ego).
i could see that it is this bondage of awareness with the identity of ‘I’, the experienced teacher,  this self-identity, which is actually not-self (anatma) which suffered the affliction of dvesha (illwill, anger etc).
Once the body released, i could then go on to cultivate pratipaksha or opposite tendency by letting go of the big teacher identity rather than clinging to it and reacting from it ..  and after that dvesha could be easily offset by maitri..
such ladies are so cute.. so endearing..
namaste..