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The Three General Forms of Response to the Touches of Nature · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Endurance can be trained and developed.
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  There are entire philosophical programs that have developed to
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  systematically help an individual face the pressures
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  and circumstances of the world with a sense of equality and
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  equanimity. Some of these disciplines rely
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  on acclimating the body to handle increasing stress.
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  One well known escape artist from the 20th century used to
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  immerse himself in a bathtub of ice in order to prepare his body
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  for extremely cold water during his performances.
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  Others do systematic training to harden their bodies and prepare
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  them for various extreme conditions.
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  But endurance is not just about the physical body and its
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  reactions. It also has to do with both the
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  vital beings reactions and the mind's responses to situations,
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  circumstances, events and various forms of pressure or
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  stress. There are many strategies that
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  have been tried, including accustoming oneself to treat
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  positive, negative and neutral touches equally without becoming
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  excited or depressed. Some strategies try to reduce
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  the influence of vital desire overall so that those things
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  that would be normally attractive become less
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  important, while those things that would be the subject of
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  repulsion or concern are treated as of little or no importance.
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  There are others who simply try to minimize and avoid all such
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  touch as possible and thereby not have to work at achieving
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  equality or equanimity under pressure.
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  This strategy is however shown to have its drawbacks if the
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  individual ever has cause to enter into active life, as the
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  springs of reaction remain in seed form and can come roaring
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  to life when given the right circumstances.
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  Some recognize that these are all simply waves of vibration,
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  and in some cases it is the intensity of the wave that
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  creates the difficulty, the inability to withstand or hold
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  it without shrinking or breaking in some way.
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  In these cases the approach is either to work on widening the
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  being to be able to handle a greater intensity, or
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  strengthening the being so that it can handle more.
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  The physical, vital and mental reactions are also very much
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  influenced by the three gunas or qualities of nature, which keep
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  changing all the time within each individual, so that now one
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  is in the ascendant and at another time another one is in
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  the ascendant. This implies that the same
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  individual, confronted with two somewhat similar circumstances
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  may respond differently depending on the guna which is
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  at that moment driving his actions and reactions, Sri
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  Aurobindo observes. Quote The principle of endurance
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  relies on the strength of the spirit within us to bear all the
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  contacts, impacts, suggestions of this phenomenal nature that
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  besiege us on every side without being overborne by them and
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  compelled to bear their emotional, sensational, dynamic,
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  intellectual reactions. The outer mind and the lower
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  nature has not this strength. Its strength is that of a
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  limited force of consciousness, which has to do the best it can
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  with all that comes in upon it or besieges it from the greater.
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  We're all of consciousness and energy which environs it on this
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  plane of existence. That it can maintain itself at
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  all and affirm its individual being in the universe is due
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  indeed to the strength of the spirit within it.
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  But it cannot bring forward the whole of that strength or the
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  Infinity of that force to meet the attacks of life.
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  If it could, it would be at once the equal and master of its
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  world. In fact, it has to manage as it
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  can. It meets certain impacts and is
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  able to assimilate, equate or master them partially or
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  completely, for a time or wholly.
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  And then it has in that degree the emotional and sensational
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  reactions of joy, pleasure, satisfaction, liking, love, et
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  cetera, or the intellectual and mental reactions of acceptance,
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  approval, understanding, knowledge, preference.
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  And on these its will ceases with attraction, desire, the
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  attempt to prolong, to repeat, to create, to possess, to make
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  them the pleasurable habits of its life.
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  Other impacts it meets, but finds them too strong for it, or
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  too dissimilar and discordant, or too weak to give it
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  satisfaction. These are things which it cannot
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  bear, or cannot equate with itself, or cannot assimilate.
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  And it is obliged to give to them reactions of grief, pain,
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  discomfort, dissatisfaction, disliking, disapproval,
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  rejection, inability to understand or know, refusal of
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  admission against them. It seeks to protect itself, to
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  escape from them, to avoid or minimize their recurrence.
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  It has with regard to them movements of fear, anger,
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  shrinking, horror, aversion, disgust, shame, would gladly be
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  delivered from them, but it cannot get away from them, for
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  it is bound to, and even invites the causes and therefore the
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  results. For these impacts are part of
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  life tangled up with the things we desire, and the inability to
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  deal with them is part of the imperfection of our nature.
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  Other impacts again, the normal mind succeeds in holding at Bay
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  or neutralizing, and to these it has a natural reaction of
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  indifference, insensibility, or tolerance, which is neither
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  positive acceptance and enjoyment nor rejection or
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  suffering. To things, persons, happenings,
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  ideas, workings, whatever presents itself to the mind,
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  there are always these three kinds of reaction.
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  At the same time, in spite of their generality, there is
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  nothing absolute about them. They form a scheme for a
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  habitual scale which is not precisely the same for all or
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  even for the same mind at different times or in different
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  conditions. The same impact may arouse in it
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  at one time and another, the pleasurable or positive, the
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  adverse or negative or the indifferent or neutral
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  reactions. End Quote Reference Srioro Bindu
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  and the Mother Powers within, Chapter 7 Attitude, pages 68 to
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  70.