Podcast Ep. 22 ~ Beyond Suffering - Eastern Wisdom Traditions as Maps to Mental Wellness

Welcome to this episode of Big Shakti’s podcast, which gives you the keys to illuminate your inner landscape using Eastern wisdom for mental transformation.

Are you struggling with feelings of being trapped in cycles of mental and emotional suffering without understanding why?

Do you sense there's untapped potential within you, yet can't seem to access it?

This illuminating lecture may hold the key to your transformation.

In this podcast episode, we discuss how ancient Indian philosophical systems—Sāmkhya, Vedānta, Yoga, and Tantra—serve as powerful maps of consciousness, maps of wholeness, that can revolutionize your approach to mental health and personal growth.

The episode describes why most people remain unconscious of their inner world and how this lack of self-awareness creates the greatest obstacle to healing. You will learn how these timeless wisdom traditions break down overwhelming mental challenges into manageable components and provide structured pathways to recognize your true nature beyond suffering.

This lecture reveals why many people find it easier to identify with their limitations than their strengths, trapped in what Jung called the "dark shadow" while resisting their "golden shadow" of inherent wisdom, creativity, and resilience.

Through the lens of Eastern philosophy, you'll understand how transformation occurs not by eliminating your darker aspects, but by reclaiming your disowned strengths.

You'll gain insight into:

• How Sāmkhya provides the vertical structure of existence, revealing the organization of your mind
• Why Vedānta's five koshas (sheaths) offer crucial depth perception for targeted healing
• The practical wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita for everyday mental wellbeing
• How Patanjali's Yoga creates a methodical path toward inner liberation
• Tantra's powerful energetic techniques for tangible transformation

This episode introduces our comprehensive Yoga of Mental Health Workshop Series, a four-part exploration integrating ancient yogic wisdom with modern psychological insights. Each workshop includes teaching lectures, guided meditations, and interactive Q&A sessions and comes with a CPE certificate upon completion. All participants receive 24/7 online access to recordings and resources after each live event.

Begin your journey from darkness to light, from unconsciousness to self-awareness, and discover the extraordinary healing potential that has always existed within you.

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Podcast transcript

Beyond Suffering - Eastern Wisdom Traditions as Maps to Mental Wellness

 One of the biggest problems we face as healers is that most people are completely unaware of their inner world, of the various positive and negative forces in conflict within them, and how to manage this conflict. They lack self-awareness and are asleep to the mind and to the self, and to the different parts of the mind and how each of the different parts of the mind operates and supports each other when they're healthy or blocks each other when they're dysfunctional. And, we are not trained on what we can do to harmonize and optimize our inner potential. This lack of self-awareness and unconsciousness about our own mental landscape is perhaps the greatest obstacle to healing.

It's important to understand that we can't manage what we can't perceive or name. Without this knowledge, we'll remain trapped in cycles of reactivity rather than response. And that's why we are running a series of mental health workshops that focus on Eastern systems of healing and enlightenment.

Maps of wholeness

They provide maps of wholeness and techniques that enable us to perceive and name the various components, elements, and forces that make up the mind and how the mind fits into the totality of who we are.

Lack of self-awareness leads to suffering

People suffer without understanding why and how they're suffering. They live in a state of ignorance called tamas in Sanskrit, and they feel powerless against invisible forces within themselves. This is why studying the Indian philosophies of yoga, tantra, Vedānta, and Sāmkhya is so essential. The knowledge and techniques contained within the ancient wisdom traditions enable profound healing and awakening to our inner potential by cultivating self-awareness and following maps of wholeness and techniques that are passed down to us.

Do you feel trapped?

Not only are the majority of people who pursue therapy for mental and emotional distress caught up in unconscious, harmful internal conflicts, but they're also disconnected from and unaware of their inherent positive attributes, capabilities, and inner resources. They find themselves trapped in deeply ingrained, self-perpetuating cycles of negative thoughts, feelings, and behavioral patterns.

These limiting beliefs and emotional schemas often originate from past experiences, traumas, or learned coping mechanisms that no longer serve them, and as a result, they feel stuck or disempowered and unable to access the innate wisdom, resilience, and potential that lies dormant within them.

The therapeutic journey

The therapeutic journey then becomes a process of awakening to our true nature, unearthing and nurturing the positive qualities that have been obscured by suffering and learning to break free from the confines of old, detrimental patterns. And by shining a light on our strengths, abilities, and the fundamental goodness at our core, therapy can help us reclaim our power, cultivate self-awareness, and chart a path towards healing, growth, and a more fulfilling life.

Self-awareness is the Key

So self-awareness is the key to mental health. Ignorance of our true nature and inner potential is what keeps many people trapped in mental and emotional suffering and prevents them from moving forward. When we are not self-aware and are not identified with our authentic self, we identify with our limitations rather than with our capacities. We focus on our wounds rather than our innate wisdom. We remain fixated on what's wrong, instead of activating what's right. We forget that dormant within us lie extraordinary potentials for healing, clarity, and growth. And we fail to recognize that our true nature is one of wholeness, not brokenness.

So one of the most striking paradoxes in psychotherapy is that people often find it far more difficult to acknowledge and embrace their strengths than their weaknesses, particularly the positive qualities they've relegated to what Carl Jung called the Golden Shadow. While clients readily identify with their limitations, their darker impulses and wounds, and their dark shadows, they frequently resist or dismiss evidence of their inherent wisdom, creativity, and resilience.

This reflects a profound psychological inversion. We become identified with our suffering while denying the possibility of our potential greatness. Unconsciously, many people believe they're doomed and that healing is impossible, and this can be a difficult obstacle to overcome.

This resistance to claiming our strengths isn't mere modesty. It represents a kind of deeper defensive structure.

Acknowledging strengths

Acknowledging our capacity means confronting the painful question of why we haven't used them and accepting responsibility for our growth. To overcome this, yoga therapy and various systems of depth or transpersonal psychology present a liberating truth.

We cannot simply eliminate or fix the darker aspects of ourselves through direct confrontation. Rather, transformation occurs organically when we first reclaim the disowned strengths and positive qualities from our shadow, from the golden shadow.

As these empowered aspects of self are integrated, they naturally illuminate and transmute the darker elements, not through rejection but through the expansion of consciousness that makes room for all parts of ourselves to serve a higher purpose.

The ancient wisdom traditions understood this process of embracing our humanity, our light, and our dark aspects. They teach us how to awaken the light within, which enables us to compassionately embrace and transform our darkness, not the other way around.

We take the light of consciousness and we place it within the darkness of the wound, and that is how transformation takes place.

The four key philosophical traditions - Sāmkhya, Vedānta, yoga, and tantra

In our mental health workshop series, we focus on four key philosophical systems that act as maps of consciousness: Sāmkhya, Vedānta, yoga, and tantra. And we also refer to the great Indian text, the Bhāgavad Gītā, in Workshop two.

The ancient wisdom traditions passed down to us by great sages, yogis, and seers enable us to transform overwhelming symptoms into manageable components. Mental health challenges often feel overwhelming and chaotic, and these philosophies break this chaos down into understandable patterns and enable us to use systems or techniques that create order within that chaos.

These philosophical systems serve as illuminating guides to the complex landscape of our inner experience. By studying these four distinct philosophies, these four maps of wholeness, we can unlock a wealth of practical benefits for our mental well-being and personal growth.

Each philosophical framework offers a unique and essential lens through which we can better comprehend and navigate the intricacies of our minds. When we integrate these perspectives, they synergize to form a comprehensive and powerful map. This map not only helps us identify and address sources of suffering, but also points the way back to the hidden treasures and untapped potential that reside within all of us.

Self-knowledge and transformative wisdom

Delving into these philosophies equips us with profound self-knowledge and transformative wisdom. They light our path as we courageously explore the depths of our psyche. With their guidance, we can cultivate greater self-awareness, emotional resilience, and a more harmonious relationship with ourselves and the world around us.

These ancient yet perennially relevant systems of thought are not mere intellectual abstractions. They are dynamic and practical tools that, when earnestly applied, can profoundly reshape our inner lives. They invite us on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment, helping us transmute suffering into self-understanding and realize our fullest potential as conscious, compassionate beings.

By embracing the insights of these philosophical traditions, we embark on a transformative quest to heal, grow, and flourish. They illuminate the way to a more expansive and enriching life experience, unearthing the hidden gems of wisdom, peace, and purposeful living that are waiting to be discovered within the depths of our being.

Sāmkhya

Sāmkhya gives us the structure. It provides a vertical map of existence, which includes 25 elements, or tattwas. One of these elements is consciousness.

Sāmkhya tells us how we connect consciousness to matter and reveals the structure and components of the mind that are usually invisible to us. It explains how the mind is organized into the four mental organs, the chitta, buddhi, ahamkāra, and manas, the individual consciousness or memory, the higher intuitive mind, the lower thinking mind, and the ego structure, and how they're supposed to function together.

Understanding this structure lets us identify which parts of our minds are out of balance or disconnected. It reveals not only the structure of the mind, but also the pure consciousness that is our fundamental nature. Consciousness is the light by which we become conscious of our mind and its components and all the other amazing things in us.

Vedānta

Vedānta gives us depth perception. It offers the horizontal dimension, describing the depth of reality through the five koshas, the sheaths.

It teaches us to recognize the layers of our being that we typically cannot differentiate. By understanding the five koshas, we can recognize which layers of our being need attention. Are we disconnected from our emotions in the manomaya kosha? Is our healing energy depleted in the pranamaya kosha?

This knowledge helps us target our healing efforts precisely where needed. More than this, it illuminates the psychic sheath, which is equivalent to our soul, and the bliss sheath, which is equivalent to our spirit. Both of these sheaths light the core of our being, beneath layers of conditioning and just waiting to be discovered.

The Bhāgavad Gītā

The Bhāgavad Gītā illuminates the practical application of Indian philosophical wisdom in everyday life. It transforms ancient teachings into a living blueprint for meaningful action in the world. It shows that by addressing our attachment to external objects and the psychological suffering it creates, we can improve our mental well-being.

It reveals how dwelling on objects leads to attachment, desire, and anger when desires are unfulfilled, eventually leading to mental confusion.

The  Bhāgavad Gītā explains a modern psychological truth that discusses healthy attachment and unhealthy attachment from the position of the inner child. This new psychological viewpoint says that unhealthy attachment stems from an unhappy inner child who depends on external objects for fulfillment. A void that can never be permanently filled.

In contrast, the happy inner child finds joy within and moves easily between experiences without clinging. So, through practices like meditation, self-awareness, and transmuting desire into spiritual aspiration, the Gita provides a practical path towards steady wisdom, a state of mental equilibrium and equanimity that is unshaken by life's fluctuations.

It's a very advanced state—a very desirable state. This is where our desires should be. And this journey lies with these modern psychological approaches to healing the inner child, both traditions recognizing that true fulfillment comes from within rather than from external acquisition.

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras give us the methodology. They illuminate the eightfold path for liberation. They provide a clear step-by-step path through the eight limbs, showing exactly how to progress from external practices to the deepest states of meditation, creating a systematic approach to healing and self-realization.

Unfortunately, its techniques are far too advanced for most seekers. However, it points the way for us to remove the obstacles and realize our true Self. So we use that as a template while we apply the techniques from yoga tantra that are most accessible for us today. Tantra or yoga Tantra, which is a combination of Patanjali's yoga and the modern systems of tantra, gives us practical techniques, the most practical system for providing energetic techniques for transformation.

Tantra offers specific, powerful methods to work with energy, such as mantras, visualizations, chakra practices, and so on, that can produce tangible results in transforming mental patterns. It provides spiritual technologies to discover and work with energies that we otherwise would not know exist, energies that exist within what we call the subtle body.

They exist in us and in the cosmos, which is why Tantra enables us to experience a higher reality. We tune ourselves, we tune the energy in us to the energy of the cosmos, and it provides methods to awaken the dormant energy of Kundalini that contains our highest capacities.

A roadmap for self-healing and enlightenment 

So these philosophies create a roadmap for progress.

They outline a clear developmental trajectory, show us where we are in our journey, and indicate what the next steps should be. They help us recognize when we are making progress and prevent us from getting stuck in one phase of development. They are pathways to wholeness and enlightenment.

Enlightenment is really a stage of wholeness. The philosophies sort of serve as mirrors that reflect back the state of our individual journey as egoic beings and our true face, not just our current struggles, but our eternal nature. By looking at the maps, we can see where we are on that map.

In terms of dealing with mental suffering, the ancient wisdom of these philosophies offers us a profound and comforting perspective on the journey towards healing and self-discovery. They remind us that although suffering is an inevitable part of the human experience, it is not without purpose or meaning. Rather, our struggles and challenges can be seen as essential catalysts for growth, guiding us towards a deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.

These teachings tell us that genuine healing and spiritual evolution are not about striving to become something fundamentally different or acquiring qualities that we lack. Instead, the path to wholeness is a process of unveiling and remembering the innate wisdom, compassion, and resilience that already exists within us.

It's a gradual shedding of the layers of conditioning, of fear and false beliefs that obscure our true nature. Through this lens, we come to understand that the journey of healing is a pilgrimage from the darkness of ignorance and unconsciousness to the light of self-awareness and self-realization. It is a courageous venture into the depths of our being, where we confront our shadows, embrace our vulnerabilities, and ultimately discover the unshakeable strength and radiance that have always been present, waiting to be recognized and embodied.

And by reframing our perception of suffering and growth in this way, these ancient philosophies offer us a roadmap for navigating life's challenges with greater wisdom, compassion, and resilience.

They invite us to trust in the transformative power of knowledge, techniques, and experiences to find meaning and purpose in our struggles and to have faith in the unfolding of our unique journey towards wholeness and self-realization.

If you want to learn more about this approach, check out our Yoga of Mental Health workshops.

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