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.Less traumatic but pro-longed unpleasant experiences may also cause people to become caughtin certain patterns of behavior.Despite the strength of such patterns, Rasa Sadhana enables us toactivate our capacity to change them.It has been demonstrated that, forexample, with enough time and effort even heroin addicts have beenable to restore their natural ability to produce endorphins.Setting ObjectivesDepending on your biochemistry, personal preferences, and temporaryproblems or opportunities, you may choose which Rasa to exercise.It isgenerally not advisable to try to master two Rasas at the same time.It isbetter to concentrate on one Rasa until you are satisfied with the result,then start on another one, while maintaining the first sadhana, or not.Attempting to master a less agreeable Rasa such as Anger, Fear,Sadness, or Disgust by mastering the opposite agreeable Rasa is not avery good method.In general it is advisable to first fast from the less agreeable Rasas and then increase Rasa mastery by working with theagreeable Rasas.Fasting on one of the agreeable Rasas is more difficult because it is not always possible or acceptable to society for a person toremain in one particular Rasa, such as when somebody expresses noth-ing but Wonder, no matter what happens.It is less likely for people toexpect a person to remain in one of the disagreeable Rasas, so society ismore naturally supportive of sadhanas that seek to master them.Rasa Sadhana 121Among the less agreeable Rasas, Disgust is usually the best oneto tackle first, because it is the only Rasa that never makes sense andhas the worst effect on our emotional well-being and on our biochem-istry.When one completely avoids being dissatisfied with oneself andwith one's destiny or karma, life becomes a lot more enjoyable.Disgustusually generates Fear, so it is difficult to master Fear without master-ing Disgust.After mastering Disgust, the sadhana of Anger is a logicalchoice, followed by sadhanas of Sadness and Fear.Nevertheless, thosechoices are quite personal.Rasa Sadhana should be undertaken for anyRasa that causes problems.Once we achieve control over our less desirable emotions, theywill no longer disturb our natural tendencies toward more agreeablefeelings.Then Love, Joy, Wonder, Calmness, Courage, and Compas-sion will arise very naturally.When we are no longer annoyed by thedisagreeable Rasas, we automatically perform some kind of sadhanathat includes all agreeable Rasas.While that is the most agreeableapproach to life itself, it still remains important to work on each of themindividually.Instead of fasting from a particular type of emotion that we needto avoid, we then start fasting on a specific emotion that we want toenhance.Even if the sadhana lasts only for an hour, it teaches us how tokeep that Rasa steady and pure.A person who has truly mastered theagreeable emotions can effortlessly shift to them according to need.Whilepositive thinking can be beneficial, it is largely an intellectual game thathappens on the surface of the mind and thus has limited impact.Withthe mastery gained by Rasa Sadhana on the agreeable Rasas, however,positive feelings radiate from all levels of our being, changing the entireenvironment around us, up to the very stuff this universe is made of: tothe point where even molecules and atoms start vibrating on the samelevel and miracles can happen.A prolonged Sadhana of Calmness is very difficult for a householder,except perhaps on vacation.Nevertheless, regularly performing Calm-ness exercises is essential for the practice of any Rasa Sadhana.Suchexercises need only take from a quarter of an hour to an hour or more.122 W O R K I N G W I T H O U R RASASCalmness is ever an option if we wish to counter any Rasa.No Rasa canstay when Calmness starts to dominate, because Calmness is ni-rasa,without Rasa.For other agreeable Rasas, the choice is really very personal, asexplained in chapter 14.Setting the RulesIt is important to clearly establish the rules of a particular sadhana, becauseotherwise the sadhana can be very destructive to one's self-confidence.It is best to avoid talking about sadhana to others, as sadhana requiresCourage and talking about one's Courage destroys self-confidence (seechapter 10).In some cases, not talking about the sadhana can be a partof the rules, because if others know about it, it might become too easyor too difficult to maintain the rules.In Anger Sadhana for example,talking about it to others might cause them to try to test you or, on theother hand, to become particularly soft on you.The main rule to set is the duration of the sadhana.It is advisableto keep it short in the beginning and gradually increase the duration.Itshould be a challenge that you feel able to meet.Rasa Sadhana is oftenmore difficult than expected because emotions tend to come and go asthey please and it is important not to fail.If you finish with a sadhana ofone day, you may start the next one for another day or a week, prefer-ably leaving one "normal" day in between.A sadhana of twenty-eightdays is a minimum to achieve some real mastery of a Rasa.It is best tostart a long-term sadhana in the ascending Moon cycle.Other rules relate to the particular Rasa, as explained in Part 2of this book [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]