Karma - The Mechanism: Stage 01 Mithyaktva

1 - We experience the first stage of development (mithyaktva)

as a state in which we are deeply absorbed by our convictions, emotions, our activities and by the events the world confronts us with.

Though we might think we fully control our life, any closer and deeper look reveals a drastically different picture:

• How often do we feel victimized by events we are hardly able to bear, let alone control?
• How often do we experience that any stability we worked so hard to achieve either breaks down in the end, - or solidifies our life so thoroughly that nothing is capable of moving us any more?
• How often are we really satisfied by the situation we are in or by the things we do and feel - and for how long does our satisfaction usually last?
• How often do our emotions tumble us from highest happiness to deepest misery (and vice versa) in one single second without us having much influence on this process?
• How often is our attention arbitrarily drifting from object to object like a butterfly in the wind?
• How often do we become so deeply involved in one particular concept, emotion or event that we hardly notice the world outside this dense envelope.

We might feel perfectly normal and clear in this environment, but this is only due to the fact that we know no alternate state that may introduce us to a different and more satisfying pattern of life. We live in a dense emotional cocoon we are hardly ever aware of. Though friends sometimes alert us to this condition, we have no idea how to get out of this almost hypnotic state. None of the goals we pursue on this level leads systematically to the experience of higher stages.

It is a state of delusion and flawed ideas how the world functions. All convictions, belief systems, viewpoints and opinions we found our life on retain us on this level - irrespective if we acquired them by our own efforts or accepted them from others. Even when presented with truth, we either are incapable of recognizing it or take it for false.

We certainly can find our way out of this stage. Yet for this we need to introduce new components into our life that open opportunities^[1] for growth. Otherwise it lasts eternally.

When we leave this stage (even if only for brief moments of insights), we proceed directly to the fourth stage (avirata-samyaktva) without experiencing gunasthana two and three