4.8 Manifestation of impressions (samskaras)

4.8 The subconscious impressions (samskaras) lie dormant until the conditions are appropriate for their manifestation. These impressions influence personality traits and tendencies (vasanas).

Remember that actions motivated by the five afflictions (kleshas 2.3) will influence your birth, lifespan, and quality of life (2.12), and will result in pleasant and unpleasant experiences (2.13). Recognize also that anything that you do, you get good at, including what you do with virtuous or selfish motives, and regardless of your actions being conscious or unconscious. Whatever you do, especially anything that is charged with emotion, leaves an impression that gets stored in your subconscious. If you think about something that caused you great joy or pain, it will bring forth memories and sensations that are stored in you but are timeless. The intensity of the sensations can move you, no matter how far back in time the event may have happened. Something that caused you emotional pain in your childhood may still be stored in you after many years, triggering responses and influencing how you perceive, interpret and behave in your life. In fact, all actions related to your sense of identity perpetuate further actions and reactions that will, in turn, influence your choices and preferences.

Is it possible that some events in your life manifest as the result of impressions left by your personal history?
If you notice some patterns repeating in your life, even when you have tried to change your behavior, is it possible that some unresolved previous impression may be influencing your decisions?
How are your motivations influencing your perspective and choices?
How are your past actions forming who you are or who you think you should be?
Is your personality a form of conditioning?

As usual, one more way of exploring the meaning of this sutra is by chanting it.
You can choose to chant it in its traditional form with some of the words coming together:

4.8 tataḥ tadvipākānuguṇānāmevābhivyaktiḥ vāsanānām
ततः तद्विपाकानुगुणानामेवाभिव्यक्तिः वासनानाम् ॥८॥

Another option is to chant each word in the sutra individually:

• tataḥ
• tat
• vipāka
• anuguṇānām
• eva
• abhivyaktiḥ
• vāsanānām

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This is an excerpt from the book Unravel the thread: Applying the ancient wisdom of yoga to live a happy life

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