Qualities of Life

by Alan L. Pritz

When people think about quality of life, they typically consider things like income levels and possessions. This isn't completely off base since financial abundance and material acquisitions are relatively important features in a comfortable, non-survival lifestyle. If you're one who doesn't feel money is important, try living without it for a while. You'll quickly learn otherwise! That said, the greatest benefit of prosperity is freedom from fiscal concern plus the ability to help others in need.

But this rather one-dimensional connotation misses the mark from a spiritual viewpoint. Not because it focuses on stuff, but because it's so limited. From this perspective, we're well off if we have plenty, poor if we don't. How sad that we understand so little and tragic that people measure themselves based on cash flow. There was a time, and here I probably sound like 'grandpa', when economic and self worth were not confused. Pride and dignity were not products of bank accounts. Current culture, however, idolizes the rich and famous with entertainers and sport stars as icons of modern success. I say again, utter nonsense! Financial well being requires resources to meet economic needs, but life quality involves so much more.

Looking deeply at life reveals complex layers and subtle traits that imbue all creation. By understanding these attributes one learns how to live in a manner that promotes optimal existence both here and in the hereafter. This is the real way to build a quality life.

Background:

From a yogic view, Spirit in its transcendent aspect is undiluted cosmic consciousness, a state of absolute unity with no taint of vibratory disturbance. To create from this infinite unity, Spirit evoked endless waves from its Formless Ocean of Being. Nature is the grand result of this process and is imbued with three dynamics called gunas. Literally meaning, "a strand of a cord or rope", gunas are certain qualities that infuse all things. They bind essence to form which in turn perpetuates the drama of creation, reincarnation, etc. The soul, being divine and formless, is free from such travails. However, when identified with the body/mind as ego, it falls under its sway. After sufficient spiritual evolution we learn how to get untangled from these fetters and attain Emancipation.

About The Universal Qualities:

The three gunas are called Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Of these, Sattva or purity is the highest. As noble goodness, it yields enlightenment and health. Rajas is passion-filled activity that gives rise to desire and attachment. Tamas is dark inertia, producing sloth, neglect of duty, and general delusion. While each trait can, and often does co-exist with others, individuals typically have one predominant quality. For those who mindfully seek to improve their lives, the obvious course of action is to cultivate positive sattvic qualities and eliminate dark ones. There is no valor in embracing the dark other than to convert it to light or get rid of it.

Sattvic people enjoy pure, harmonious things and act accordingly in thought, word, and deed. By subtle magnetic principles they're drawn to similar people, activities, work, and even diet. Attached to virtue and the happiness it brings, they are naturally inclined to seek God, a process that prompts final purification and ultimate Liberation.

The rajasic mindset is bent on worldly performance with pronounced attachment to and longing for material acquisitions and ego recognition. This perpetuates a cycle of rebirths owing to the promulgation of desires, most of which stay unfulfilled at the time of death. The majority of humankind abides in this mental sphere but fortunately has continual opportunity to rise above it.

Tamasic individuals are mentally numb from sensory overindulgence and consuming ignorance. Drowning in sensuality, pride, laziness, and Godless living, they easily tire of virtuous struggle, abandon worthy pursuits, lack personal or social responsibility, and sink ever more deeply into mired states of inactivity and evil.

How To Improve:

As mentioned early on, each of these qualities is an attribute of cosmic creation that binds essence to form. The good news is that no matter how bright or dark, everyone can improve their quality of life.

• Tamas is a very precarious state and if not careful, individuals engulfed by it can keep declining due to the power of bad habits. The key to their self improvement lay in keeping good company, seeking uplifting environments, developing self-control, and beginning to think more about others and God.
• Rajasic types stimulated by activity yet plagued by incessant worries are nevertheless mentally keen. Chastened from life's knocks, they improve through learning to work selflessly, cultivating evenmindness in spite of turmoil, and by increasingly directing their attention to the spiritual-eye center or 6th chakra.
• Sattva traits, no matter how ennobling, are still golden fetters. For Sattvic people to attain complete Salvation they must eliminate all vestigial ego attachments, even to virtue and goodness. Giving the fruits of actions to Spirit, seeking to please the Divine in all things, and recognizing God as the Sole Doer facilitates this.

Using a dream analogy, the takeaway from this is we're eternal souls, not fleshly mortals. When unaware of our true nature, we become subject to the affects of dreams. Becoming lucid, we realize ourselves as merely experiencing a dream state. Accordingly we can then disregard the dream universe laws and fly, pass through walls, breath water, whatever we want. Why? Because we know ourselves as the Dreamer. Meditation gradually awakens us from the sleep of universal delusion by fostering reunion with Spirit. This awakened recall of our Divine status through Self-Realization facilitates the ultimate quality of life.