Swirling what?

It seems our yoga teachers love to throw out Sanksrit words whenever they can. I guess to sound exotic and all knowledgeable or something. (Just kidding!)

Anyway, chitta can be translated as “mind stuff” or “of the mind.” The word vritti in this context means “modification”, especially in regards to the patterns and tendencies we have. So chitta vrittis can be translated as “mental modifications.” Vritti also has other translations in the literature (here), such as “vortex”, or, “circular activity with no beginning or end.” If you’ve ever tried to practice meditation, you’ll observe thoughts boiling up out of nowhere, swirling round and around. One goal of yoga is to try to tame these swirling patterns, or at least become detached from them — to subdue and attenuate their effects on us.

A year ago I took up a cycling challenge that I had eagerly signed up for, only to have second thoughts (and third and fourth and … well, you get the idea), the day before the big event. Instead of getting much needed sleep the night prior to the ride, I tossed and turned with feverish nightmares. My chitta vrittis were swirling around with great abandon.

In the study of yoga we learn that the patterns and tendencies of our mind, the vrittris, cloud and obscure the true nature of things. That couldn’t have been more true on that restless night.

The irony of it all, is that the very thing I was worried about — the source, or vortex, of my swirling vrittis — not only did not come to pass the next day, it was completely turned on its head. A great lesson was presented to me then.

There are days I wonder if any of this lesson has sunk in. Ha!

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Update: Since this was first posted, I changed some of the Sanskrit here to more correct usage and meaning, and subsequently changed the body of text accordingly. I’m always eager to put up a post, but in this case, it was a bit hasty. Ya learn something new evra-day.