Fragrance

Fragrance: 

in yogic philosophy the term is vasana and it loosely translates to fragrance or garment, something that clings to the essence of a person. I like thinking of it as a fragrance, a particular odor of personality released through interactions with others, with life really, our deepest tendency of thought brought to surface and offered to the world. A vasana is a subtle pattern of thought and action that we display by habit, it's our past impressions rehearsed so often that they're now released as a fragrance to the present moment. They tell people who we are, or at least as our past behavior indicates. 

the analogy is often an orange, that when one is squeezed all that's ever released is juice and pulp, the very stuff that makes an orange unique from other fruits. We will only get orange juice from an orange, and every fruit is particular as to what it gives. The vasana of fruit is very simple. Ours is a bit more complicated, a lifetime of accumulated experiences, habits, energetic patterns that now shape our present behavior. Yogic seers might even say that vasanas can be traced through multiple lifetimes all the way to our reactions now. Regardless, they are deeply ingrained, almost beyond our notice in their display, and we simply call them our tendencies, how we respond to situations that life offers. 

we believe the fragrance of habit is who we are. 

except it's not.

a vasana is actually much deeper than mere habit, so deeply ingrained that it clings through lifetimes, an aura of our distinction, and we are recognized on a subtle level by this odor. But it's never who we really are, no impression is ever the essence of a subject, and what we truly are is complete essence, a spaciousness that forever remains the fragrance of infinite love. What we are is capacity for these tendencies to exist, they occur within and through us, yet our essence is always untouched. We are actually free from vasanas - we just don't realize it. 

and the key to realization is simply awareness, gentle observation of who we are and the tendencies that play through us. Change occurs by observation, not by willpower or concentration, but by recognizing the witness to every experience, an aware presence that remains no matter how a situation changes. Our essence holds no judgement, it's beyond the accumulation of habits and karma, only playing host to our present behavior. There is no memory here, not at the core of who we are, we are free from vasanas, untouched by karma, being the capacity for these very things to even be displayed. 

it's perhaps better said that we are not free from - but simply free.

our fragrance is always of love.

without condition. 

~

Peace, Eric