Mental Registry in Yoga

Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutras, advised that memory should be snuffed out during the effort for yoga which has eight parts of which samadhi is the highest. Memory, he listed, as one of the chittavrittis, the mental and emotional features which are contrary to the accomplishment which is yoga.

In one practice of mind control, the yogi dismisses or ignores the memories which arise. That method does not remove the memories. It may however cause them to sink into the subconscious chamber of the mind. From there, it may arise again and assail the yogi.

A yogi may challenge a memory which arises when it is not requested by the self. In that challenge, the yogi will become aware of the power of the memory, where it may show and continue developing, regardless of the yogi’s desire for it.

Memories should be inspected as to their incidence, and the power of focus which was lodged into them when they originally formed. The registry of a memory happens with a certain strength of focus. That strong focus causes the memory to have a hypnotic grasp on the attention of the self. If the self tries to release itself from viewing the memory, the self finds that it is unable to do so. It feels compelled to observed the memory in great detail. It may even cause the self to acts physically to reinforce the original incidence.

Eventually a yogi will understand that it is not a matter of dismissing or ignoring a memory, but rather to closely monitor how the psyche accepts sense data. He must also review how the mind rates events, regarding what it applies a high rating to, and what it barely maintains contact with.

If an event has a very small register because there was little focus when it occurred, it will in the future carry a weak memory imprint, which could be dismissed easily by the yogi.

This is in contrast to a branding register of some event, which the senses regarded with great interest, and which later burst in the mind’s imagination faculty in an impressive way, where the self could not resist the display, and was forced to indulge in it, even though the yogi knew that such an involvement was destructive of the yoga processes.