Why habits die hard

[1]

Amrit Sadhana [1]

When I was in college, we had a professor who taught English literature. He hailed from south India, a pious man who wore a religious mark on the forehead. His lectures were exciting; he had many interesting insights into English words.
Once he told us why a habit becomes second nature. He said, no matter how much you try to get rid of it, it persists. And because it is difficult to drop, the word habit is spelt the way it is.

Then he wrote “habit” on the blackboard. First he erased “h”, so it became “a bit”; then he erased “a” and it became “bit”, then the “b” was rubbed off, and yet something remained — “it”. With a triumphant look on his chubby face, he said, “See, it’s so difficult to completely drop ‘habit’!”
We were really intrigued by this presentation. I still remember the applause he received. Everybody could empathise with it because changing habits was indeed a big battle for everyone. At the time when we are in college our main concern was to cultivate the habit of getting up early in the morning and studying; keeping our notes systematically, not littering the study table –– things like that. But habits proved to be stronger than our resolutions.
Look back at your life: you are repeating the same behaviour, the same gesture year after year because habits are convenient to live with. Chores like brushing your teeth, taking a shower, eating, are easier if they are done mechanically. They can be completed in a short span of time and one need not pay too much attention. The mind can go on thinking while the body works unhindered. This kind of mechanical living makes people efficient machines.
In a way it is helpful because if we start analysing and understanding every signal that we receive from our senses we will go crazy. It’s estimated that out of every 11,000 signals we receive from our senses, our brain consciously processes only 40. It means we are deprived of thousands of sensory perceptions because of our mechanical living.
But a habit is also a great imprisonment. As long as you live according to its pattern, life goes on smoothly, but the moment you want to drop it you realise its tight hold over you. Try to change a simple habit like having a particular brand of tea in the morning, or reading a certain newspaper at a certain time, and you will know! Without your knowledge things become part of your unconscious mind. You will feel uncomfortable if you don’t get these things at a set time. This is bondage. You are dependent on the tea or the newspaper.
Since childhood we are taught to inculcate good habits and stay away from the bad ones. Drinking is bad and not drinking is good, smoking is bad and not smoking is good, and so on. But ask an enlightened soul like Osho, and he will say, habit itself is bad, that there are no good or bad habits.
“Any habit that becomes a dominating force over you is a sin. One should live more in freedom. One should be able to do things not according to habits but according to the situations. Life is continuously changing — it is a flux — and habits are stagnant. The more you are surrounded by habits, the more you are closed to life. You are not open, you don’t have windows. You don’t have any communication with life; you go on repeating your habits. They don’t fit; they are not the right response to the situation, to the moment... So remember: I am against all kinds of habits. Good or bad is not the point; there is no good habit as such, there is no bad habit as such. Habits are all bad because habit means something unconscious has become a dominating factor in your life, has become decisive. You are no more the deciding factor.”
If we go on living mechanically, life will become boring as it has become for the modern man. Depression, frustration and boredom are the most modern diseases which are growing because of the mechanical way of living. If you really want to make life exciting, kindle the flame of awareness within. Meditate every day so that the awareness grows; the more it grows the more you come out of your frozen habits. You become more flexible, more alive, ready to respond to the new challenges in life. This is called conscious living.

— Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.