Nature of mind II
As I mentioned in my previous post, our mind is always producing thoughts. It is in its nature to constantly generate huge number of thoughts. Researchers estimate that our mind generates around 50 000 – 80 000 thoughts per day, or a couple of thousands per hour. This process almost never stops, and all these thoughts have been emerging in your head as long as you can remember yourself. This pattern has become natural part of your life and many people are even not aware of it.
Imagine you have never heard about cinema and you do not know how it works. So, you come into a cinema auditorium, little late, so that the movie has already started. When you watch the movie, you will not realize that all you see is actually a projection of a series of pictures on a white screen. It will not be possible for you to distinguish the picture and the screen. Only when the movie is over, and the projector is switched off, only then you will be able to observe the white screen. This is also how our mind works in real life. Our real Self is buried under never-ending flux of projections. And we usually interpret these projections as our real Self. We think that all these thoughts define ourselves, and as soon as we get a thought that does not fit to our standards and self-image, we label it as shameful, sinful, unpleasant, inappropriate and so on and either fight it or avoid it, hide it. Sometimes we even think that we are evil, bad, wrong person since our mind generates such “inappropriate” thoughts. However, it is important to realize, that the mind has all possible thoughts. All possible thoughts are or can be thought in your head. I’ve heard once somebody compared mind as a fly. Sometimes it sits on honey, sometimes it finds manure very attractive. And it is in nature of mind to generate all possible types of thoughts. Do not fight with your mind, nor hide from it. This is a natural process, that has been going on in your head since you were born, and will most probably continue until you die. Good mental health implies understanding your mind’s activities and ability to distinguish between chaotic mind processes and your real Self.
Many think that their mental state is wrong, and you have to heal or repair it by analyzing it and trying to sort out different types of thoughts. In my opinion, it is a wrong concept. It is not possible to somehow “repair” your mind. If the tool is broken, you cannot repair it with the very same tool. You need another tool or method to “repair” it. Analyzing it will not help a lot. And taking into consideration huge productivity of our mind, trying to analyze some thoughts out of 50 000 occurring every day in hope to clear your mind and achieve peace, seems to be an almost impossible task.
You need another approach in order to be able to “repair” your mind. There are several methods that can help to build gradually sense of separation between the chaotic mind and the real Self. Any approach requires systematic and long work, which eventually will bring results in form of clear mind and harmony. You can hear every now and then that it is possible to achieve a sudden enlightenment. I wonder, what are the premises of such sudden enlightenment. If you have been unaware of your mental mechanisms major part of your life, if you are not connected to real Self, if chaotic mind dominates you, how can you hope that clarity and harmony suddenly will come into your mind. As if you were mindlessly overeating all your life you cannot expect that you lose the weight suddenly. Only through systematic work, changes in your lifestyle, nutrition, and mental pattern you can achieve weight loss. Same with mental changes. Your brain was trained to a certain pattern during many years of your life. It is naïve to think that your brain can change overnight. Only through systematic, long work you can rebuild your brain and introduce new patterns into your mental mechanisms. So do not deceive yourself, there is no miracle method that will bring you peace of mind. Only taking ownership over your life, working hard and systematically will bring you fruits of peace and harmony.
Comments