The human body is a very complicated mechanism evolved through millions of years of evolution starting from the earliest micro organisms. All the earlier evolutionary stages have contributed to fine tune the organs to function together in a highly cohesive manner. This human body and all its functions however does not function independently but are controlled by a small mass of matter called brain - the nerve center of all actions. In spite of all the scientific development we have not been able to decipher it fully. But it also houses the most important function that makes the humans stand apart from all other species. What we have achieved till today has only been possible due to the judicious and innovative use of it. What we have done to make this world a dangerous place is also because of it. All the wonders of the world were created because of this wonder.
The mind
The mind is the only precursor to all our actions. How we act, what we do, are all analysed and decided by the mind. It is this wonderful mind that acts and it is the body that reacts. Each and everything, small or big that we do, have its source in the mind. The mind decides whether we do a certain thing or not. The mind analyses each and every situation we face and provides the decision. It is the mind that plans what we plan to do the next moment, the next day or the next year. It is the mind that tells us what is good and bad for us. It tells us what is safe and what is dangerous for us. It decides what we eat, where we go, how we do a thing, whom to love and whom to hate. It makes us jump from an aircraft with a parachute, go underwater, fear a cockroach or a snake. It gives the imagination to make, on the one hand the atom bomb and on the other hand vaccines for all the deadly diseases. It decides whether to be a Gandhi or Hitler or be just the common man. From the time we open our eyes in the morning till the time we open our eyes in the morning it is functioning nonstop. It is continuously analysing situations, crunching data and foreseeing the best possible way out. It tells us to avoid a pothole in the road, it decides when it is safe to cross a road, it decides when to leave home to reach the office and the shopping mall in time and it decides whether to have coke or orange juice. It is behind all the mundane and important tasks that we perform. How we interpret everything depends on it.
In short, we are what our mind makes us. We feel alive because the mind tells us that we are alive. Using the mind is such a natural process that we seldom think over what we are thinking. We just use our mind to think and act as our mind decides- no questions asked.
The world as we see today is all because of our mind. Today’s world situation is an ample proof that the mind is being used in all the wrong ways. The mind is the ultimate remote control that runs us. From the age old times when people were hunters and gatherers the mind had taught them how to hunt for food, how to light a fire, how to find shelter, how to protect themselves from the wild animals and harsh weather. Slowly the mind taught them to grow food, form small communities, domesticate animals, built thatched huts. Then the mind gave them the feel of power, to fight with other communities for more land, cattle heads, and crops. The natural progression has been for the dominant tribes to subdue the weaker, fight for more possessions. These led to development of small kingdoms, further leading to larger and larger groups of people coming together under a ruler for larger gains. Using all means, fair and unfair, to grow. The industrial revolution pushed us to further the greed and dominant powers went on a spree to control the resources and people around the world. To the utter disregard for human dignity we used every possible means to further our so called noble causes. To turn the savages to the civilized, we ourselves behaved like savages.
If we analyse this process, we will find that in the beginning the mind only wanted the basic needs. But with time as the brain further developed the requirements and demands of the mind grew. The mind motivated us to invent our requirements starting from the wheel to the rocket. The whole process of our social, economic, scientific and political development has been the creation of our mind. In the process of this evolution we have done some very good things and some very bad things. Slowly our mind got so consummated by the hunger for power and money that the mind blinded us from understanding what is good and what is bad for us. The mind now forces us to subjugate, fight and kill for hoarding natural resources. The mind forces us to have a blinds eye towards the exploitation of resources of this world that will ultimately threaten the existence of mankind here. The mind creates such insecurity at the individual level, community level, racial level, country level that we cannot trust each other. The mind tells us that, this is me and that is you and that we are different.
And every human being ever lived on this planet has been a part of it.
The mind is dependent on the five senses. These five senses are like antennas which provide information to the mind to take decisions. These five senses are the basis of our desires. The mind deciphers the difference between a slap and a tender touch. It differentiates between a loud noise and a beautiful music. It understands the difference between a pungent smell of a rotting corpse and the fragrance of a rose. It differentiates between the sight of an approaching tiger and a harmless pet. It knows the hot and spicy taste of chillies and the taste of sugar. The mind has the tendency to appease itself with the best of the each sense. The mind will always provoke us to get the best of the five senses and therefore all our efforts are directed towards attempting to please our senses. We like to sleep on soft beds, to hear good music, to enjoy the scent of flowers, to see a beautiful scenery, to have good food. These pleasures of senses make us work hard to gain them. But the mind does not get satisfied by what it gets and always asks for more. Like by seeing others riches we tend to feel jealous and want more, so do the mind create dissatisfaction after it gets satisfied with what it has got. This forces us to want more and the ball keeps rolling. The sensory pleasures are the traps which our mind uses to force us to go for them, even blinds us from what is right and wrong. Now, these sensory pleasures are to be possessed by money. So money becomes the prime consideration of our existence. The more we get it, the more we want it. Likewise we go for getting more power. With power, we use it to dominate others and there resources so that we that we can convert it into money and use it again to produce things for our sensory pleasures. Power gives us the satisfaction that we control others, by depriving others of their basic requirements.
So the question arises – if the mind is so powerful an instrument, then how to regulate it? How to make it work for the collective gain of all? How to bring it out of the vicious circle of our selfish thinking?
Firstly we need to watch what we are thinking. Mind is so predominant that we do not see what we are thinking. In fact the mind tries to create obstacles to stop us from seeing what we are thinking. When we watch what we are thinking we tend to go deeper into our thought process and force us to question our thought process. It taps into the basic qualities of human being to weigh our thoughts, and in this aspect the mind looses. So the mind does not want to give us the opportunity to watch what it is thinking. It will create obstacles by making you question about the necessity to go deeper. It surrounds you with sensory pleasures to make you feel the futility of going deeper. The mind makes our life so busy that we do not get the time and inclination to go deeper. Even our family members and society will detest and look down upon us in the beginning, if we try to go deeper. As the end of that depth, as the culmination of this journey is not known, the mind creates an unknown fear to stop us from trudging on this road. We question ourselves – if we go deeper and find nothing then the efforts of this whole life is lost, we could have rather lived a normal life and enjoyed its benefits. That’s why very few have the courage and the desire to travel down this road. But those who have journeyed with the right spirit and guidance have returned with the real truth. Then these persons whom we doubted become the guiding stars in our life. It is they whom we call the self realized and God realized spiritual masters.
Now to watch what we are thinking we need to quieten the mind. With too much clamour inside the mind, we cannot watch its thoughts. The cacophony of too many thoughts blocks the process of watching. Most of the thoughts which go on in our mind are actually superfluous. We have not learnt to quieten the mind, so we fill up every gap in our thought process with something to think. The mind is a continuous process and it continuously requires a feeding of thoughts. To quieten the mind we have to drop the vibration of thoughts and be still. So the first thing we can do is make our body still and sit in a comfortable position. Then we have to start the process of watching. We will see that when we sit quietly and draw our attention towards our thoughts, we find two entities working. One is the thought which we are very much used to and then we find something which is behind or beyond our thought. We find the watcher who is watching the thoughts. If we sit quietly and quieten our mind a little bit only and try, we will find this watcher. This watcher, you may call it by any name- the soul, the consciousness or whatever you like. You will find that the thoughts are like floating clouds and you are watching them from a higher plane. Or you will feel as if thoughts are like floating pieces of logs in a river and you are watching it from the banks. This practice will give you a rude shock. You will find your mind is stuffed with so much thinking that you will feel as a slave of your mind. You will realize that most of what you are thinking is unnecessary and you have no control over it. It will make you realise why you are thinking so much. You will gain awareness.
Once you have identified the clatter of your mind, now is the time to quieten the mind and create gaps in the thought process. The gaps in the continuous chain of thoughts will provide a window to another dimension that we call self realization. It is through theses gaps that spiritual masters have glanced into, to find what is normally called the light of spiritual enlightenment. It is these gaps which provide an insight to the impermanence of life and the source of true happiness. People who have found these gaps and enlarged these gaps of the mind have reached the point of no return. The core of all religious teaching is to find these gaps. Various religions have devised various ways to find these gaps which have been turned into rituals. People have embraced these rituals to their hearts and have forgotten about the gaps. People have lost their direction in the myriad maze of these rituals and have turned it into reason to fight among each other. They have forgotten that these rituals are but a guide to find the gaps, and not the gap itself. They have confused the rituals to be the destination than the journey whereas it is the other way around.
Various meditation techniques of Indian, Chinese, Japanese origin etc are available to quieten the mind. Anyone can be selected as per one’s temperament to start meditation. Most of them are based on controlling the breath, watching the breath, keeping the mind focused on the ‘now’ or the ‘present’. Focusing the mind on the ‘present’ means to remove all thoughts of the past and future and remain in the awareness of the present, to be attentive on what we are doing in the present. Most of our thoughts revolve around what we did in the past and what we want to do in the future. Seldom is our thought focused in the present. If we are able to keep the mind focused in the present then the mind becomes quiet. The primary focus is to take the attention away from the mind. Even in prayers the attention is focused on an idol or symbol so that the mind quietens. As a common man, don’t fall prey to the jargons of meditation- keep it simple- know that your primary aim is to quieten the mind. When the speed of our thought process slows down, the mind becomes quiet, stable, still. In the beginning it takes time to slow down the thoughts. That’s why it requires regular practice. Slowly with practice a time will come when the mind will start to quieten easily. When we progress in stabilizing the mind, it also has an outer effect. Our personality changes, we develop a peaceful aura around us. We become calm, patient, non reactive, non violent. We tend to get attracted towards such personality. Wisdom sets in. We become ‘cool’. Slowly we should increase the time of meditation without compromising the quality. There is no point sitting in meditation for long duration with the mind floating around. If you are not able to focus your mind get up and after sometimes sit again. Once you are able to quieten your mind at free will, the next step begins. Once the thought process slows down considerably, then you will be able to break the thought process. It means you can find the gap between two consecutive thoughts. The gap is the space where one thought ends and the next thought starts. At first these gaps will be very small and fleeting. It will take patience and perseverance. Then the duration of these gaps will increase. Once you are able to reach these gaps then you have achieved what you wanted. The experience cannot be explained, it can only be experienced. You will understand the impermanence of life and the unity of all. It will make you see life in the right perspective.
The mind creates an illusory field of desires and happiness based on the senses. But for us it seems as real as we are surrounded by it round the clock. This real/illusory field surrounding us is the curtain that is veiling us from seeing us what supreme joy is awaiting us. We get entangled in it so completely that we do not want to get out of it- for us this is worth living and dying for. We cling to it with our dear life. That’s why very few take to this path – the rest being falsely satisfied where they are. Among them most leave the path en route facing obstacles, longer time, declining dedication and faith. Only the fewest of the few reach. This is not to demoralise you but to make you aware of the potholes en route and gear up accordingly.
To be mindless is the point. It doesn’t mean you become something crazy or mad. It is just that you are in control of your mind and not the other way around. For those who have renounced social life, they can whole heartedly and full time pursue it. But as a family member with so many social obligations and responsibility, it becomes difficult to travel on this path. As a family member you will succeed only if you have a burning desire, patience and commitment. Here the role of a Guru gets important. The right Guru will show you the way, help you remove the obstacles in the way, guide you when it will seem that you are not progressing. So be very particular in selecting a Guru because the Guru will be your guiding star in your journey. But even if you do not find a Guru, don’t be disheartened, just follow the way. It may so happen that you may not reach the final destination but a little progress made in this field will surely make you a better person, a better family member, a better citizen and a better human being. This is a burning requirement at this point of time and this is the only solution to the mess we are in now.
Excellent detailed post