Reality Escape

It is incumbent upon every living being to escape those aspects of reality which it does not like and to enhance and seek to continue those which it finds to be desirable. Many do this by engaging the imagination faculty which itself is outlawed by Patanjali in his second sutra about the cessation of the gyrations of the mind.

योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः॥२॥


yogaḥcittavṛtti nirodhaḥ

yogaḥ – the skill of yoga; cittavṛtti = citta – mento-emotional energy + vṛtti – vibrational mode; nirodhaḥ – cessation, restraint, non-operation.

The skill of yoga is demonstrated by the conscious non-operation of the vibrational modes of the mento-emotional energy.

Some persons use media, sound and video, to help in escaping from the contents of the mind. They focus on still or moving images which enthrall and keep the mind occupied so that it does not indulge its undesirable memorabilia.

Why then is there such a hustle to escape from the reality of what is already in the mind?

Why did Patanjali dumb-down one of the essential means of escape which is the imagination, a neat psychology technology which a human can use to quickly imagine his or her way out of distasteful unwanted ideas and memories?