Notice what is perfuming your mind
Review a day’s inputs — conversations, media, places — as the scents your mind is absorbing.
Por qué funciona
Alongside seeds, Yogācāra uses the metaphor of perfuming (vāsanā): just as cloth exposed to perfume acquires its scent, the mind is conditioned by what it is exposed to, and the scent can also be removed. Lusthaus lists three classical kinds of perfuming — linguistic and conceptual habits, habits of grasping at self, and habits that shape future life situations. Treating your inputs as perfuming makes conditioning something you can notice and partly choose, rather than something that happens out of sight.
Cómo hacerlo
- At the end of one day, list your main inputs: people you talked with, what you read or watched, places you spent time.
- Beside each, note the scent it left — what mood, phrase or way of seeing stayed with you afterwards.
- Mark which of the three kinds it mostly was: words and concepts, the sense of self, or the shape of your life choices.
- Choose one input to have more of and one to have less of tomorrow, as an experiment rather than a rule.
Evidencia
The perfuming metaphor and its three classical kinds are described in Lusthaus’s overview of Yogācāra. The review is a modern written application of the metaphor; there is no study of it. (anecdotal)
The doctrine concerns karmic conditioning across lifetimes as well as within one; this practice uses only its most everyday sense.
Fuentes
- Lusthaus, D. What is and isn’t Yogācāra. Yogācāra Buddhism Research Association (A. Charles Muller, ed.).
- Lusthaus, D. (2014). Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch’eng Wei-shih Lun. London: Routledge (first published 2002 by RoutledgeCurzon).
Error común
Turning the review into strict input control that avoids anything uncomfortable — the tradition’s concern is with what conditions the mind toward grasping, which is not the same as what is unpleasant.
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Más prácticas para Yogācāra: The Eight Consciousnesses, Seeds and the Three Natures
- Trace a reaction back to the habit seed it sprouted from
When a familiar reaction fires, follow it back to the habit it expresses — and see that it was ready before the situation arrived.
- Catch the quiet “me” that manas adds to an experience
Notice the background question “what does this mean for me?” that colours ordinary moments before you have thought anything.
- Water the wholesome seeds on purpose
Deliberately give attention and conditions to the seeds of joy, patience and kindness you want to grow.
- Recognise and embrace a difficult seed when it surfaces
When anger or sorrow comes up, recognise it as a seed that has sprouted, hold it with attention, and look into it rather than feeding or fighting it.
- See a perception as something the mind has built
Take one strong impression — “she is cold,” “this place is hostile” — and notice how much of it your mind supplied.
- Separate a sense consciousness from the mind’s commentary
In one ordinary moment, notice where plain seeing or hearing ends and the mind’s naming and judging begins.
- Review one situation through the three natures
Look at a single situation three ways: as you imagined it, as it arose from causes, and as it is without the projection.
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- La Postura del Testigo
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- Metacognición: Saber Lo Que Realmente Sabes
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