Friday, June 01, 2012

Mind Works - I


Here is how the mind works.

Random thoughts --> Thoughts with attention --> Recurring thought patterns --> Emotions-- >  Desire --> Action --> Behavior --> Habits --> Karmic entanglement.

To create/break any habit, it is important to see the linkage between thought pattern and emotion.

We have no control over how we feel (neurotransmitters are autonomous. They follow their own bio-rhythmic cycle of highs and lows) . Eg. Love, compassion, generosity, anger, sadness. No one can say, what we shall be feeling in the next ten minutes.

Feelings are linked closer to Godhood - At best indescribable (feeling) experience.

Examples:: "Love just happens!", Gut feel, The Hindi word "Bhaav".

However, when we add the thoughts to the feelings, they become emotions.

Emotions can be defined, communicated, sorted, analyzed and stored in the ego-mind complex. There is always a target for emotions. They are not free standing like Feelings.

Example:. I love my parents. I am angry towards corruption. I am sad because I lost my i-phone.


Feelings are more subtler and beyond the grasp of the ego-mind complex and stimulus. Kind of self generated. The mind can not alter the way we feel.


However, we can alter the way we emote to stimuli. 

The mind has great control over re-creating emotions at its will. It affects the body as well.

Example: We may be in a great mood. But we may watch a horror movie, and come out of the theater with elevated BP, nervous system wrecked with cortisol (stress hormone) and a compromised immune system. All self created by the Will of the mind.

Seeds for diseases are sown through the mind that get manifested later, with more abuse.




Exercise 1: Think about someone, some place, some food. You will observe that the emotion also comes tagged along with it. If the memory is strong enough, we can re-create the same mood and emotions as well.

The sense organs do not have memory on their own. They are always in the Now. Sensations at the body do not lead or lag. They happen in real time and vanish in real time, as well. 


We just can not hold on to any sensation - pleasure or pain. They come and go in their own accord. This should answer, why we have a craving for sensations. 


Exercise 2: I am sure most of us would have played a ball game. - Cricket, Basketball, tennis, Table tennis etc. Have you observed? For optimum game performance, the coach asks to quieten the mind and concentrate on the game. i.e. without any thoughts and BE IN THE NOW!!

Exercise 3: I am sure most of us can trace the ball hitting a wall and returning back and track the entire movement with the eyes and catch the ball without even thinking twice. Now, try to jog the memory to a distant past or distant future, alternately and quickly. The mind would collapse on its own! Worst case, it may create a phantom head ache. It will take immense practice to do that.

Whenever there is an emotion, (positive or negative, let's not qualify)  the mind is either in the past or in the future. There is always a memory or a projection, behind every emotion.



Exercise 4: Remember  two incidents - one good and one bad, that happened around 5 - 8 years of age. Make an effort to jog the memory (how much ever it is faded) and live through it.

You may be surprised to know that the emotions are still sharper, stronger and it is possible to live through it, almost the same way it occurred then.

So, what does it mean? The emotions are only hidden underneath the layers and layers of memory and they have not gone anywhere else! They have not lost the potency.

Over a period of time, the mind-ego complex becomes a haunted house of old, junk memories that do not find an exit to get released.

The haunts often interrupt the "Mind in the Present" and give rise to phobia, anxieties and set-mind-patterns of destruction. An altered perception of reality - most often the incorrect interpretation of the reality.

The body does not know the difference what is real and what is mind-induced!! The body responds to the mind in the same way, it reacts to the real world and gradually the body is also a victim of the mind. Result: Psycho-somatic illnesses.


Hence, it is important to watch our mind and what we are bringing from the subtle sub-conscious world to the physical world.  How do we do that? How do we heal the mind?


(Contd)


பழக்கம் 

மறப்பேன் என சூளுரைத்து
கால் சுற்றிய பாம்பை
கட்டவிழ்க்க
தவித்துப் புலம்பி
நித்தம் நிதம்
போராடிப் போராடி

திடும் என  ஒரு நாள்
எந்த முயற்சியும் இல்லாதது போல்
முடிச்சு அவிழ்ந்தது.
பாம்பும் நகர்ந்தது.

பல நாள் நிம்மதியின்பின்
அயர்ந்து உறங்கும்
ஓர் இரவின் அதிகாலைக் கனவில்
கிளர்ந்தெழுந்து
பழக்க உருவில் படம் எடுத்தது
ஞாபக நாகம்.

சிவ சிவா  என
பரம சிவனைப் பார்த்தால்
பரம சிவன் கழுத்திலும் நாகம்!

Background:

Snakes are used as a metaphor for recurring thought patterns.







Nidharsanam

நின்ற இடம்
நடந்த இடம்
உலகம் மறந்து
சிரித்திருந்த இடம்.

இன்று
உலகம் மட்டும்
சிரிக்கிறது.

நான் தனியே நடக்கிறேன்
துக்கத்தை துணையாய் கொண்டு.

எங்கு காணினும் உன் முகம்
குரல், வாசம் அருகாமை.

நிதர்சனம் முகத்தில் அறைகிறது
நீ இல்லை என்று.

தொண்டை அடைத்து
நெஞ்சில் வலித்தாலும்
ஓட்ட வைத்த புன்னகையுடன்
உன் நினைவுகள் ஏந்துவேன்.

குழந்தையைப்
தோளில் போட்டுத் தாலாட்டி
தூங்கப் பண்ணுவது போல்
மெதுவே மெதுவே
என் துக்கம் துறப்பேன்.

உன்னையும் மறப்பேன்.


நிதர்சனம்
மறுபடியும்
முகத்தில் அறைகிறது.
 -- விஷ்வா (2003-04)