How to Trust our Buddhi or Inner Wisdom
All this full. All that is full.
From fullness, fullness comes.
When fullness is taken from fullness,
Fullness still remains.
–The Upanishads
As leaves start to transition from green to yellow, brown, and red, eventually falling to the ground, this can stir something within us to make changes like nature shifting with the new season. And we might find ourselves anxious about these changes or conflicts around or within us.
Conflicts can make it difficult to maintain a serene piece of mind and it seems everywhere we look conflict is all around us now. Conflict as a nation, conflict as an individual, conflict at work, conflict at home – it can all disturb our peace and happiness.
Some think of those happy and calm people living without conflict as a rarity, or those pursuing a spiritual path as living in a bubble. But in a stressful time of seasonal change, political change, and continued drastic changes to our normal way of living, our nervous systems and bodies need grounding and that’s what our practice can give us. And it’s specifically in these times that we need to remember our bodies (including your brain) have what they need to come back into balance. We just need to listen a little more closely.
In some Eastern religions, Buddhi means intelligence- the kind of basic wisdom existing in all of us and helping us be smart in making our own decisions. The highest and most important aspect of this intellect is its ability to grasp and understand the truth with discriminating intelligence to our reactions to the outside world.
It is however not just power of judgment. It is also perception, comprehension, understanding, rationality, wisdom, discrimination, mindfulness, mental presence, all working together to keep us attuned to the world around us and deal with it wisely, appropriately and effectively to the best of our expectations, beliefs, intentions and attention.
Many people focus their minds on relative truth and become caught in the transient comings and goings of the temporary world which is understandable. We’ve become attached and grasping to that instability of what was, instead of riding the waves of life. We often suffer by trying to make solid what is fluid and viewing things that are always changing in a permanent state.
In yoga, chitta is the content of our mind that can come and go like waves based on emotions or thoughts and Pantajali, an old school yoga author of the Yoga Sutras, teaches us by quieting the mind we can find our mental peace. It’s that simple and difficult, too.
Patanjali gives some advice as to how to accomplish this not through just meditation, breathing, and physical postures, but also to be happy for those who are happy, compassionate for those who are unhappy, delighted for those who are virtuous and indifferent to those who are wicked.
The practice of a Three-Part Breath (Dirga Pranayama) is one of the most calming, grounding breathing exercises you can do. It really works to help focus your attention on the present moment, quiet the mind, and get in tune with the sensations of your physical body
Find a quiet space where you won’t be interrupted
Set a timer for 3 minutes and sit comfortably in your chair.
Begin by observing the natural inhalation and exhalation of your breath and if you find yourself distracted by the activity in your mind, try not to engage in the thoughts. Just notice them and then let them go, bringing your attention back to your breathing.
Begin to inhale and exhale deeply through the nose.
On each inhale, fill the belly up with your breath. Expand the belly with air like a balloon.
On each exhale, expel all the air out from the belly through your nose. Draw your navel back towards your spine to make sure that the belly is empty of air.
Repeat this deep belly breathing for about five breaths. This is part one.
On the next inhale, fill the belly up with air. Then when the belly is full, draw in a little more breath and let that air expand into the rib cage causing the ribs to widen apart.
On the exhale, let the air go first from the rib cage, letting the ribs slide closer together, and then from the belly, drawing the navel back towards the spine.
Repeat this deep breathing into the belly and rib cage for about five breaths. This is part two.
On the next inhale, fill the belly and rib cage up with air. Then sip in just a little more air and let it fill the upper chest, all the way up to the collarbone, causing the area around the heart (or heart center) expand and rise.
On the exhale, let the breath go first from the upper chest, allowing the heart center to sink back down, then from the rib cage, letting the ribs slide closer together. Finally, let the air go from the belly, drawing the navel back towards the spine.
Continue at your own pace, eventually coming to let the three parts of the breath happen smoothly without pausing.
Continue for about 10 breaths or until your timer goes off — see how you feel.