In our culture we learn to suppress our emotions. We do this out of pride, out of shame or out of pain, but essentially out of fear. When we do this, the emotion doesn't 'go away'. According to Tantra, it get's stored in the body as a saṃskāra, ready to surface again when it is triggered.

Just one way you can observe this in action, is when we 'overreact'. I'm sure you've witnessed that so called overreaction? Either first hand or in someone else? It's that moment where the reaction seems out of context with the situation. However, there are NO over reactions. Most often what we perceive as an over reaction is actually a response to a past experience -  That time you felt hurt, or insulted, or humiliated and what is perceived as an over reaction, is in fact a triggering of a past experience.

I make you aware of this so that you can understand what is occurring next time this happens to you. Or, to acknowledge it if you see this behaviour in someone else. A common response to someones perceived over reaction is 'get a grip' or 'man up'. This is in no way helpful, and usually just adds more fuel to their fire. A more helpful response would be to understand that person is experiencing pain and to offer them compassion. That can sometimes be difficult if your saṃskāras are also being triggered.

Saṃskāras are not simply some mystical Eastern theory. To help you see it through a Western lens, our version of a saṃskāra is called trauma. Samskaras and trauma are slightly different but this analogy gives you a Western framework to help you understand.

In Tantra, there is the practice of emotional digestion. Just like how we digest food, in the practice of emotional digestion, saṃskāra are digested and passed through the body and dissolved. In this Sunday's online class, we will learn just one of the methods of emotional digestion.