Hari OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
Saadhana-chatushtaya. The four rules of practice. You have read about these here, before. (See label in the sidebar.) The thing, though, is that these are the workaday tools of practice. Having read them, now use them! Over these four posts of February, then, you will be prompted to make the s-c a part of your daily life, that they become second nature to you and do not remain as just concepts written in words upon a page, but activities within your every thought, word and deed.
VAIRAAGYA
Detachment. This can seem cold. Perhaps a better term would be non-attachment. However, the first description and second description actually look quite different. What is allowed for with vairaagya is that we have already attached. It is the general state of the human condition, from the day we are born. We first attach to our mothers, then the wider family, then our extended family, then friends. As we do this, we are given 'stuff'. Things, objects of the world as we perceive it through our senses. The senses are what attach us and anchor us firmly in the external and distract us from our internal selves.
With practicing vairaagya, we may be able to attain a state where we can move about in the world but no longer get attached to anything; then we can be said to be in a state of non-attachment. It is still vairaagya but practiced at the highest level. We will then be in the world but not of it.
Your saadhana this week, then, is to notice your attachments. With the use of viveka, you should start to see what attachments are purely spurious and unwarranted, driven by our desires and greeds**. You should also begin to assess new input with a greater degree of judgement as to whether it is something you should invest anything of yourself in. Gradually, gently, knock off the weakest and most distant attachments - perhaps some that have not properly taken hold but show a potential of becoming chains to your spirit. Work your way inward.
** this is the point where saadhakas will often make Sankalpa - pledge - to release certain things. The obvious things are coffee, chocolate, wine and so on. Good enough places to start, but it is not simply about eliminating these things from one's diet, it is about sitting with oneself and looking at the vaasana which was the cause of the attachment to these things. Taste and desire for more of the same are obvious, the why for you is not so clear. This is where contemplation now plays its part. In this way, build your saadhana.
