Samskara

Samskara (Sanskrit: संस्कार saṃskāra m.) Preparation, preparation, processing; purification, adornment, adornment; unconscious spiritual impression from the present and previous life that continues to have an effect in the present; consecration, sacrament, sacred rite, rite of passage. "Sam" means together, "Kara" means action, cause, doing - Samskara is therefore the totality of causes that underlie our behaviour. In yoga philosophy, samskara stands for imprint, impression or after-effect and is generally understood psychologically as a pattern or mental tendency and seen as our karmic inheritance. 

Vritti (eddy current, thought wave) arises in the ocean of the mind. It works there for a time. Then it sinks below the threshold of normal consciousness. From the surface of the mind, where it has been present for some time, the thought wave sinks deeper into the region of the unconscious (chitta). There, vritti continues to work out a subliminal impression and becomes a samskara (impression). A conscious action - whether cognitive, emotional or wishful - underlies a hidden (avyakta), subtle (sukshma) form below the boundary of the conscious. This is called samskara. 

The samskaras (impressions) are stored in the subconscious or unconscious (chitta). The samskaras are located in the cerebellum or hindbrain. You can remember all past experiences by accessing the storehouse of samskaras in the unconscious. An experience on the sensory level sinks into the depths of the unconscious and becomes a samskara (impression); a particular experience leaves a particular samskara. The memory of that particular experience arises exclusively from that particular samskara.

YW

Samskara causes sankalpa (thoughts), and sankalpa causes samskaras, just as a seed is the cause of a tree and the tree is the cause of a seed. There is a cause-effect cycle (Bija Vriksha Nyaya). This cycle of vritti and samskara is beginningless (anadi), but has an end when one attains Divine Knowledge and liberation. Those dissolve into Prakriti (Laya). They cease to have an effect on the Jivanmukta. The samskaras are burnt through samadhi. Only then are you liberated from birth and death.

YW

WORK & YOGA 

The cosmic energy (prana) that pervades the interior in various channels is forced to use other channels during worldly activity and in this way becomes more gross. Only in meditation, prana becomes more subtle again and is able to ascend. Therefore Integral Yoga includes karma yoga, working in a meditative way.

Samskara is also called "residual capacity". When all vrittis and thoughts cease, the framework of the mind remains, along with the samskaras. This is called the potential mind. Vedanta calls this antahkarana matra.

Samyana over the samskaras brings about a direct knowledge of this remaining capacity of the mind. A yogi directly experiences something of his previous lives by experiencing the samskaras. Such knowledge is difficult to acquire in universities. Only a yogi can pass on this knowledge to aspirants.

The nature of your wishes and dreams depends on the nature of your samskaras. If you have good samskaras, you will have good desires and good thoughts, and vice versa. If you find it difficult to perform all actions in a state of mind of nishkama (free from desires), carry a desire for liberation in all your actions.

Even through a little systematic practice (Yogabhyasa and Vedanta Sadhana) you can destroy your mentality, your negative samskaras. You can save yourself from several subsequent births. After three years of practice you can free yourself from birth and death. You will become a sannyasin. Why not in this life? Why don't you shorten the suffering of death, births and the resulting suffering?

YW

Death of the samskaras leads to moksha 

Thoughts and samskaras of actions, pleasures and thinking haunt you even after your death until you attain moksha. These are various upadhis that accompany you after your death. 

In different incarnations, you create different forms of samskaras. The permanent upadhis that accompany you after your death are the five jnana indriyas, five karma indriyas, five pranas, four-divided mind and the karana sharira, which is the support or adhara for the linga sharira or astral body. 

It is the death of these samskaras, the death of the karana sharira, that leads to final liberation. When the samskaras are extinguished, the knowledge of Brahman shines through itself in its own splendour. 

The goal of a sadhaka is to burn all samskaras through samadhi. Sadhana consists of brushing away all samskaras. The yogi lives without samskaras. They are extinguished by sadhana. Undoubtedly, the power of samskaras remains only in the antahkarana and doesn't affect one anymore.

YW

A battle against the samskaras can usually not be won. They must be dissolved through observation and awareness. 

Our digestive fire, agni will burn away all impurities, if it is strong enough. Otherwise vegetarian diet, 5 and 3 mukhi rudraksha, shankaprakshalana, fire wash, pashimotanasana, bhastrika, uddhyana bandha and other practices strengthen agni. Zeolite removes toxins on a physical level. Ayurvedic or homöopathic remedies may be helpful sometimes.

“Bliss is something very natural. If you stop creating misery, you are blissful; it is not something that has to be invented by you. It is the same energy that becomes misery. Don't invest it in misery at all. Don't put your energy into jealousy, into hatred, into anger, into possessiveness. Withdraw it from all those stupid things.

If you withdraw your energy from all stupid investments, you are so full of energy, throbbing with energy, dancing with energy, you cannot contain it. You have to dance; you have to rejoice! You have to love; you have to laugh. It starts overflowing.” 

Osho