Our daily lives are crammed with numerous patterns of ignorance. We are bound by mechanical habits that incessantly repeat in our lives. Many are acquired from an early age, progressively stratified gaining rigidity and strength over time.

Our society often encourages many behavioural tendencies that strengthen conditioning. We are exposed to certain kinds of attitudes from a young age and we find it difficult to change or even challenge, the way we react in specific situations. Some of these are seemingly harmless, but others can be toxic to body-mind of not just one person, but many others who happen to come across such hard-set patterns of ignorance.

An example is the cyclic pattern of anger, guilt, frustration. We know it is bad to lose our temper, or to react automatically to triggers. Getting aggressive, angry or violent is not in our best interest. We have been carried away, by the overwhelming wave of rage, and have acted unreasonably multiple times before. We understand, that this always leads to feelings of frustration, helplessness, and remorse. We judge and blame ourselves for losing control, for slipping once more, after having decided several times before, not to fall into that trap.

We collect ourselves, gather all our patience and calmly rearrange the bricks of our lofty ideals, only until the next random trigger makes us forget everything and throws us right into the centre of a hot fiery outburst once more!

All the decisions made in the cool understanding of the futility of a lost temper just before, are scattered and engulfed instantaneously, by the eruption of the fierce irresistible anger! All hopes of peace and harmony turn to ashes in a flash, all noble intentions and serene resolutions become glowing hot embers of fuming exasperation and powerless regret, within moments!

The patterns of ignorance are intense and aggressive.

We are helplessly caught in the device of our conditioned responses, hard-wired reactions, and self-centred impulses controlling the movements of our body-mind. While we nonchalantly witness all of this happening at some level, we are unable to intrude and stop the overpowering force of our temper while it erupts. We are unwitting victims trapped in the mighty clutches of the habitual patterns of ignorance.

We may have all the noble intentions and a strong determination intellectually, but we still often get caught in such impulsive reactions. These are deeply rooted in our personally and socially conditioned body-mind, often nourished by our feelings of insecurity and fear. These feelings in turn stem from our beliefs to be separate isolated entities, who have to secure our survival and wellbeing, by fighting against everyone else around us. We try to control what we can, to feel safe.

There are countless habits, unconscious reactions, repetitive psychological and behavioural tendencies arising from the misplaced identification of our real Self. We often forget, that we are not really isolated, we are an integral part of the whole, deeply connected and interdependent with everything else around us.

The more we can act with this holistic understanding-  that we are not separate but intimately linked with everything else, the less likely we are to view the world through shades of fear. We will then be more likely, to meet life with a cheerful confidence, optimism and an open awareness. This perhaps is the beginning towards attaining our freedom.

These patterns of ignorance, multiply and spread. We make mistakes, regret, feel miserable, judge ourselves, indulge in self-loathing. We resolve to do better next time, try, then falter and fall again. We repeat this vicious cycle over and over again. We know this sequence well, we have been through this on numerous occasions. This is such a massive waste of time and energy!

We know that we are supposed to learn from our mistakes and move on. But in practice, it is not so easy. If it were, we would not be repeating the same harmful patterns and would have evolved quickly, to our ideal perfect versions. Instead, we evolve very slowly if at all, often we just learn to live with our imperfect flawed selves, slightly better over time.

Making a mistake is an act of ignorance, often unconscious, resulting from our being less vigilant, due to losing the thread of an alert awareness- perhaps in the heat of a moment of passion. But we need to learn, how not to drag this one mistake into a longer chain of ignorance, with many more added links!

Once we have realized that we just made a mistake, it is already done, the best course is not to wallow in the negativity beyond that. If we have fallen, we should notice it, get right back up, and immediately start moving on the right path again.

We should skip over the associated negative reactions and gloomy responses triggered by this one mistake. Jump the que of further ignorance to bypass all misery, until the next mistake is committed. At least we save some time and heartache in between the inevitable falls!

Every moment is a new opportunity to get back on the path again. We do not need to indulge in regrets, brood in self-loathing, or dwell on all our past failures. Judging ourselves for the mistakes we have made is perpetuating the time spent on engagement with ignorance, it is a waste of our resources.

Instead, we should instantly drop everything unnecessary, throw out all the waste, purge completely anything that originates from our minor misdemeanor and expands further negativity. Being precise and ruthless, like a surgeon- cutting out all the nonessential thoughts, emotions, words and actions arising out of illusions, propagating more ignorance- trying to remain only with the essentials.

Awareness, happiness, love, joy, beauty, kindness, truth, and wisdom! Every moment is a new opportunity to live from, with and as awareness.

Knowingly being present in complete awareness to meet every moment, is the only way to be free, from the strong grip of the habitual repetitive patterns of ignorance.