Design of the psyche

A perplexing and very daunting challenge for yogis is the study of the design of the psyche. A big question which some ponder, is: Who or what designed it?

The issue of if the designer was Nature, or a personGod, is hotly contested among some yogis but after the argument is relaxed, that issue fades because the challenge remains, which is: How can one alter the design?

Speaking about it using obvious features, means that one began as an embryo which was itself predesigned by Nature or by an unseen personGod or by the influence of both Nature and God. But it certainly was not the entity who created the embryo.

Usually, it is in the adult stage of a body, that the person begins to realize that the body and its psyche operates in a way, which that someone would not have designed. While there are features of the body and psyche which are approved by the person.

How can the person adjust or change the psyche?

More important, why is the person blamed for the way the psyche operates?

Why is someone held accountable for the urges which the psyche produces all on its own?

For instance, someone who was a theistic yogi had a contentious argument with another ascetic. The theistic one claimed that his guru was God incarnate. The other yogi who was an atheistic contested that. He said, “If your guru is God, he had better not evacuate waste from his body. That is a foul activity which God would not tolerate. With God there is enough power to stop that unwanted habit of the body. Does your guru evacuate stool or not? I would accept him as God if he does not.”

This argument illustrates a point, that one has a psyche which one cannot control or which one can control in a small measure. All liberation processes should include the information that the psyche was predesigned by some personal or impersonal agency. The person concerned must work with the already-created design.

Some aspects of the psyche cannot be changed by the person. Some can be suppressed for a time. Some go into dormancy and resume at another time. Most operations in the psyche are involuntary. For instance, breathing on the physical level is involuntary. One cannot change that feature of design.

Sensual quest is involuntary, which means that one is compelled to pursue and procure specific types of sense objects. Some slight alteration may be installed but the main design cannot be changed.

A simple feature like the appearance of a certain color will give a specific response in the psyche. Even if one trains the psyche not to sprout that response, there is an underlying predesign response to that color, which remains in the psyche, and which arises repeatedly, even if one does not want the psyche to operate in that responsive way.