Sāṃkhya philosophy really appealed to me with it’s abstract, metaphysical "origin story”. There are no trees, no serpents and no evidence of omnipotent bearded men in Sāṃkhya.
I struggled to find images that represented the two primary elements puruṣa (consciousness) and prakṛti (matter). I knew that to represent consciousness I imagined blinking eyes in the darkness. However the form of puruṣa’s co-creator prakṛti was elusive.
On my porch in the morning before my teacher training class, I was suddenly aware of two yellow eyes fixed on me through gaps in the fence. The neighbour’s cat was silently watching me.
I realised that a cat’s gaze has the qualities of the puruṣa consciousness: calm, focussed, non-judgemental, just alert. Then I wondered what is the ‘matter' to which this cat puruṣa becomes entangled with? Easy, a ball of string.
Freedom in Sāṃkhya is realising you are puruṣa and all else is prakṛti. A ball of string represents prakṛti to me since it’s fun to play with but ultimately can be distracting!
