In the last article we discussed focus of mind and how to bring your concentration to whatever activity you are doing and be mindful of it. With such a focused mind controlling the senses becomes easier. In this article, we will look at how to control your senses.
Mahatma Gandhi said that the
“Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock”.
Bhagavad Gita, in Chapter 3, Verse 34, addresses the control of senses by warning us that the senses are under our control and not to let the senses control us.
Control of Senses: Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3 Verse 34
इन्द्रियस्येन्द्रियस्यार्थे राग-द्वेषौ व्यवस्थितौ । तयोर् न वशम् आगच्छेत् तौ ह्य् अस्य परिपन्थिनौ ॥ ३४ ॥
indriyasyendriyasyārthe rāga-dveṣau vyavasthitau | tayor na vaśam āgacchet tau hy asya paripanthinau || 3.34 ||
The senses naturally experience attachment and aversion to the sense objects. But do not be controlled by them, for they are your foes. (3.34)
Story of the jar of desires that can never be filled
In the tales and parables of Swami Ramakrishna, there is a story of a King’s barber who one day while resting under a tree is offered seven jars full of gold by a spirit. The spirit says that he will find the seven jars filled with gold when he goes home. When the barber goes home he is excited to see seven jars. He opens each of them and to his delight the first six of them are full with gold coins. When he opens the seventh jar the jar is only half full.
The barber is very disappointed at first and then decides to fill the seventh jar with gold. He sells all his material possessions to convert them into gold. Yet the seventh jar is not full. He cuts down his expenses, works harder to accumulate more wealth. No matter what he does, his desire to fill the seventh jar is unfulfilled. He becomes more miserable every day. One day the King noticing his sad barber asks him what had happened to him. The barber relates the story of the seven jars of gold and how he has been trying to fill the seventh jar with gold.
The King laughs at this and says, “You fool! That seventh jar is the jar of desire! It will never get full. A person who cannot keep his desires under his control will never get satisfied even if all the gold, diamonds, land, food, clothes, cars, mansions, electronics etc. of the whole world are gifted to him!”. The King asks the barber to return the seven jars to the spirit. The barber does this and is once again peaceful and content.
How do we control our senses?
The story of the barber illustrates the challenge of exercising control of our desires. Achieving self-control is a challenging task. Behavioral economics has studies the issue of self-control quite exhaustively. Dan Ariely in his TEDx Duke talk on self-control discusses two specific techniques for self-control - reward substitution and self-control contracts.
Let’s say that as part of our New Year resolution we have sworn to not eat chocolate. Of course, when someone offers the best Swiss chocolate we try to control, but eventually give in. One reason for this loss-of-self-control is the fact that having a chocolate now gives us immediate and certain satisfaction, while resisting the temptation might help us sometime in the distant future by reducing the risk of becoming diabetic. Given a trade-off between certain and immediate reward versus an uncertain future reward the brain chooses the former. Reward substitution is a technique by which we can come up with an immediate, but less ‘harmful’ reward now to ‘fool’ the brain into exercising self-control. For example, we may decide to watch a movie as a reward for not having the chocolate.
Figure 1: Examples of Reward Substitution
Another technique for controlling our senses is to develop a self-control contract. Social contracts, where you declare to your friends that for every chocolate you eat you will donate $10 to the campaign funds of the party you hate can definitely curb your urge to eat the chocolates.
In both these cases, we are interrupting the unconscious impulsive behavior of System 1 control of our brain with a conscious deliberate behavior of System 2. This allows the brain the time to deliberate and take a rational decision as opposed to an emotional decision as illustrated by the diagram below.
Figure 2: System 1 and System 2 controls
This impulsive unconscious behavior is what has been referred to in Gita and other upanishads as vasanas or underlying tendencies to act in a certain way. These vasanas are the seeds of our desires, which then lead us to act, derive the reward (or fruit) of our action, which once again reinforces the vasanas. Gita discusses how to break this vicious cycle and convert it into a virtuous cycle. Substituting selfish and material rewards with unselfish and social work will reinforce our tendencies to do good and be of benefit to society.
Figure 2: The Virtuous and Vicious Cycle of Vasanas
Key Takeaways
Control of senses
- Likes and dislikes
- Senses experience likes and dislikes (pleasure or pain not in the sense object)
- Control the senses – don’t be controlled by them
How do you exercise self-control?
- Reward substitution
- Self-control contracts
Exercise for the week
Select one of the senses to control and:
- How can you do reward substitution?
- What self-control contract can you create?
Practice self-control of one of your senses using reward substitution