The Gunas

Reading from Wednesday, October 28, 2015 yoga class

From the book, "Philosophy and Principles of Sequencing" by Mark Stephens

The three gunas are rajas, tamas, and sattva.  The gunas act as signposts, guides that indicate where you are and where you are inspired to be.

Driven by desire, rajas revolves around the feeling of needing or losing something, even to the point of becoming obsessed by it.  Rajas is the power of energy, action, movement and change.  Rajas is associated with the fire element.  Rajas stimulates you to act in the world with excitement and passion, the mind always filled with anxiety or expectation about how things might turn out.  When in balance, rajasic energy is what allows us to get out of bed in the morning and to move through the day feeling fully energized.  Yet if excessive, it is also what can keep us from falling asleep at night or finding contentment in our daily lives.

Tamas reflects a confused mind that leads to indecision, lethargy, and inaction.  This is the feeling of not knowing what you are feeling or what you want or need.  Caught in this tendency, your behavior can become self-destructive or harmful to others.  Yet tamas also allow us to calm down, relax, and restore our energy through rest and sleep.  It is associated with the earth element.  Tamas is the power of darkness, heavy, cold, damp and humid weather.

Sattva describes a calm and clear state of mind, a sense of being complete and fulfilled.  Filled with this sense of clarity and tranquility, one is kinder and more thoughtful toward oneself and others.  With sattvic energy, we can act in the world with ease because our mental balance is not dependent on something external.  Sattva is associated with the air element.  Sattva is harmony, balance, light and intelligence.

Taken together, the three gunas are always present to some degree in everyone's life, forming each person's attitude, nature, and potential.  Rather than judging these tendencies as good or bad, we can look upon them for insight into how we feel within ourselves and how we interact with others in our lives.  The gunas a constantly in flux.

David Frawley uses the metaphor of an oil lamp for grasping the essential interplay of the gunas.  The heavy basin containing the oil rests stably on the ground, seemingly inert in its tamasic nature.  The oil, with properties of movement or flow, symbolizes the rajasic tendency.  The wick, made of clean white cotton, symbolizes sattva.  The interplay of these elements produces the flame.  A healthy balance in life involves all three, with one or the other dominant at the appropriate time.  Without tamas, we would never sleep.  Without rajas, we would never move.  Without sattva, we would never calmly shine forth in the world.

During a yoga class, if you practice half-heartedly, or inattentively or mindlessly you are tamasic; if you practice not to be outdone by the person next to you or to a point past what your body is telling you that is rajas; you come to class in a calm mood, follow the teacher's cues, your attention shifts inwardly to how the pose feels inwardly and your mind is pleased and relaxed, that is sattva.