The Practice of Attempted Elimination of Unwanted Vital Movements Through Purposeful Indulgence, Part 1

There is a theory, current in various spiritual paths, as well as in various attempts to overcome certain unwanted behaviours in the ordinary life, that by purposeful indulgence, through ‘experience’ (anubhava), the individual can overcome the undesired impulse, craving or desire. The idea is that such indulgence will exhaust the tendency, and thus, allow the individual to ‘move on’ from that drive. The over-indulgence can create a form of distaste or rejection, eventually a detachment from the impulse, vairagya. There are reported cases of individuals who reject things after feeling glutted or satiated. This only works, however, if it leads to a true renunciation and not just a temporary feeling at the time of satiation, to see the impulse revive once the energy rebuilds itself in the being. The Buddha became satiated with the luxury and satisfaction of desires he experienced as a young, pampered prince. After he saw the suffering that people experienced he contrasted that with his own situation, realised that his life was being artificially cushioned and walled off from the truth of human existence, and at that point, his life of satiation gave way to true rejection and non-attachment.

An offshoot of this approach of over-indulgence is what may be called a type of ‘inoculation’ whereby someone is introduced to something that could become addictive in such a way as to make them feel sick and associate that item with the sickness, thus, steering them away from doing that in the future. We see this with parents who aid a young person in smoking or alcohol with the view to ‘over-indulgence’ the first time. In some cases such inoculation has been seen to be effective, but in many cases, after the first experience, peer pressure may lead the individual to try again and then they overcome the first artificially created bad experience and actually become enmeshed in that behaviour.

For individuals pressured by vital drives and impulses that they find hard to master, indulgence is usually not the solution, as it strenghens the grooves already built into the system and makes it easier, not harder, to continue indulge. What may be an occasional inconvenience, if indulged, may actually become a deeply embedded repetitive demand of the vital being. The vital has its own methods of convincing the mind to support the satisfaction of its desires, and this is one of the routes it may take to accomplish that. Under the guise of ‘dealing with’ a particular drive or impulse, it is secretly enjoying and strengthening it.

Less dangerous methods include the practices of Jnana Yoga such as vichara, discrimination and application of the higher understanding to control a vital impulse. This method may be overwhelmed if the vital drive is strong, deeply embedded and insistent, and requires then a constant application of the higher will to eventually bring it under management. Another is to take the impulse and substitute for it an alte
ative more aligned with the objective the seeker has before him. For example, if an impulse to eat a snack comes up, the individual may recognise that he should instead take up his daily exercise routine, or sit for meditation, or focus on something of interest to him. This concept of substitution can be utilized by the higher aspiration and will to address any desire, drive or craving that comes up, with an appropriate alte
ative chosen.

In his short novel Siddharta, Hermann Hesse described a seeker who had not worked out all of the vital drives from his nature and could not therefore fully adopt the attitude of non-attachment. He returns to the city after some attempts at taking up the ascetic life of the renunciate in the forest. There he is enmeshed in the life of sexual allurement, creation of wealth, creating a family and along the way falls into various forms of indulgence in drink and gambling as he immerses himself in the ordinary pursuits of life. Eventually he experiences a sense of distaste for all of this and his earlier spiritual leanings bring him to the point of renouncing that life and finding peace and fulfillment through listening to the silent lessons of the river and the example of a simple ferryman. In this case, the question of working out unfulfilled drives and desires meant returning to the ordinary life for a time, but eventually the spiritual drive brought him to a place of contentment and realisation.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “The system of getting rid of things by anubhava can also be a dangerous one; for on this way one can easily become more entangled instead of arriving at freedom. This method has behind it two well-known psychological motives. One, the motive of purposeful exhaustion, is valid only in some cases, especially when some natural tendency has too strong a hold or too strong a drive in it to be got rid of by vichara or by the process of rejection and the substitution of the true movement in its place; when that happens in excess, the sadhak has sometimes even to go back to the ordinary action of the ordinary life, get the true experience of it with a new mind and will behind and then return to the spiritual life with the obstacle eliminated or else ready for elimination. But this method of purposive indulgence is always dangerous, though sometimes inevitable. It succeeds only when there is a very strong will in the being towards realisation; for then indulgence brings a strong dissatisfaction and reaction, vairagya, and the will towards perfection can be carried down into the recalcitrant part of the nature.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pp. 94-95