L R U H S A W I A
“Little red umbrellas help shelter awfully wet Italian armies”?
“Large radishes undergo horrendous slicing and will irk anyone”?
Oh yeah, what about
Love,Radiance,Unity…
Ha ha, only kidding.
“Little red umbrellas help shelter awfully wet Italian armies”?
I like that one.
I wouldn’t necessarily recommend mnemonics at the time of the samayamas themselves though. The main reason is that the mnemonic would set up thought-currents of its own. But maybe it works fine for you…
An alternative, if forgetting them at the time of practice, is to simply read them from a sheet. But alternatively, even better would be to write them on cards, one per card, so you can go through the cards one by one, laying down, or putting to the back of the deck, the card with the samayama last used, to expose the next. The cards will work almost like prayer beads then, and you’ll only need to read the ones you don’t remember, which will in a short time be none, and you can dispense with the cards. Of course, reading the cards would create a certain amount of interruption, but it is only for the learning stage.
I suppose you might be suggesting just using the mnemonic to learn the sequence. That could never hurt.
But it doesn’t take long until they come very easily in the intended order in samyamas anyway, provided you have been practicing them for a short while. Have you ever noticed, if you have an album of certain songs that you have played often, after one song is played you are totally getting ready for the next and may be starting the tune in your head? I find that my next sutra comes in in my samayama practice in a similar way.
That was great to hear about the connection with wine-tasting. It makes total sense.
-David
Yeah, I thought of that. But, on the other hand, grabbing for my glasses and fishing around for the paper with the terms listed (which is what I’ve been doing) ain’t great, either. There IS an advantage to that, however: if I had them memorized and knew which samyama’s coming next, that could subtly exert pressure in my mind. So in that regard, it maybe IS best to read them off the paper.
Maybe I could get my next door neighbor, Mrs. Fleischman, to drop in every minute or so dressed to evoke each samyama. E.g. with a light bulb over her head for radiance, etc. It could do wonders for apartment building togetherness.
Here’s one that won’t harsh the buzz: Love, Radiance, Unity Have Started An aWakening In The Air.