Mind Works 3

(Continued from Mind Works 2) 

Ok. Now, that I know how my sub-conscious mind works, how do I reduce my suffering? How do I release the pressure out of my subconscious design? How do I get back the joy; happiness? How do I restore my peace?

The ultimate objective of any living being is to live in peace and in harmony with its own natural state of existence.

It is humans, who have complicated our own lives and complicate others as well.

Bottom line is, as children below 3 years we smiled more, we were joyous, had the sparkle in our eyes and in a state of bliss.

As we grow, we have forgotten the art of being happy. We have forgotten the key to unlock the door to inner happiness.

We constantly seek out happiness externally. Seeking happiness externally leads to addictions of all kinds (more on this later) perennially trapping us in the cycle of exploitation.

To restore peace, we need to seek the source of the problem and address.

We need to unlearn.

Fact 1: In the moments of ecstasy, extreme happiness and intense experiences there is no thought. Mind stops. Even the ego collapses.

Corollary: The capacity to absorb an experience by the mind is limited. Mind keeps interfering with the experience, by bringing in the past and future. 

Net result: loss of richness of the experience, while the mind saps the energy of the Self by oscillating between past to future endlessly.

When the experience is intense enough the mind is over ridden. Such, experiences transcends mind/thoughts directly.

But how? How do I transcend the mind? Where does the thought come from?

We need to go even deeper, perhaps to the bottom most part of the kettle.

The point where the liquid is in contact with the kettle. The point where the liquid absorbs the energy and cavitation happens; bubbles form almost simultaneously. The source of the transformation of the liquid.

That is the area of unconscious mind - a completely uncharted territory for a normal individual.

Yet, we have the derived experience of the unconscious mind almost every day. BTW, almost all of the content in this blog, has been experienced by almost all of us.

Unconscious mind is the source of feelings. There is no answer why we feel so in a particular way, for any particular incident.

Most of us have the wrong notion that the emotions control feelings. Mood disorders are not an outcome of what we think or the way we think.

Want proof? Ask a person in depression. He/she will have a direct experience of how mood affects their life, irrespective of their social status and external condition of their life.

It is a common scene to see a socially well off person with an agitated state of mind, riding in a chauffeur driven car where as, a person with hand to mouth existence, seems to be feeling on top of the world. Its a world of feelings at work.

Feelings are beyond the grasp of conscious and subconscious thought processes. The way you feel at any given time, can not be predicted, altered by thought processes.

 Feelings are cyclical. They seem to have a pattern on their own.

Feelings are the gateway to the treasure trove to understanding self.

I will start with the end point objective - The source of the primary experience; the existential experience – the experience of ‘I’ or the self awareness.

Every living being – how much ever small or big, smart or dumb have the experience of the ‘I’ thought, all the time.

It is from the self awareness, all other thoughts and experience happens.

There is no world, without the sense of I. Every thing exists in relation to I.

If ‘I’ don’t exist, the world does not exist. It is that simple.

If does not exist, do you really care, if the world existed or not?

In fact, we create the world around us, starting with the seed of the ‘I’ thought/experience.

When we sleep, we slip from wakefulness (where all five senses operate, mind operates and of course there is the I) to dreamful state (all five senses are shut; mind operates and there is I)

In our deep dreamless sleep – when all the five senses are shut, mind is inactive and still there is only I).

If we don’t have that sense of ‘I’ during deep sleep, there is a likelihood of waking up as somebody else. (Tom going to sleep and waking up as Jerry).  Since such conversions of Tom to Jerry doesn’t happen, we can assume that our identity is preserved through the ‘I’ awareness, even during deep sleep.

Analogically similar to the Earth socket in an electrical circuit - Helps the neural circuit stay grounded.

I am sure, whatever I have spoken till now, every one has experienced and experiencing every day and night. (Insomniacs please excuse).

To digress, here are few experiences to observe:

During deep sleep, do you have the sense of the world? Are there problems? Are there health issues? Are there any issue with anyone at all!

We experience the proof every night that all the problems in the world are mind created, and nothing else.

Want more examples? How vividly are we able to dream where as in reality we can be on an entirely different plane of existence - dreaming of sunshine in Hawaii while sleeping in Alaska; a beggar dreaming of relishing a 8 course meal at the Waldorf.

That is the power of the mind. Anything is possible.

And mind is capable of imagining problems beyond proportions. Mind can throw up anxiety attacks; amplify issues; put on an endless spiral of negative and harmful thoughts/emotions.

Exercise 1: Next time when you dream, do you ever see your own face? All the references of self, mine are all only a referential or through the feeling of I.

Exercise 2: How old is your ‘I’? Does it age, ever?

To address life’s problems, we need to go back to the root thought ‘I’ and see if it exists there.

Because that is the only reality beyond which there is nothing!

To rectify our problems, we need to experience the I, as I itself.

I am not going narrate what happens when one experiences the source, I. No more fodder for thought.

I will write only few pointers to reach the I.

How?

1. Cultivate the power of concentration – not to get distracted with thought trains from interfering. Meditating on a sound, mantra or on an object, image, person helps.

With the power of concentration, one can penetrate the layers and layers of mind to reach the self; reach the I ness, and experience it directly.

2. Cultivate the feeling of love. I am not confusing with the word love that denotes loving someone or something. 

Love and fear are the two basic feelings on which the entire ego complex gets constructed.

It is best to hold on to the feeling of love - whenever your heart feels so; as pure love itself - as gratitude; as thankfulness; as a natural feeling of being taken care of in life; as a natural feeling of being protected; being supported.

Love does miracles. It is THE Greatest force in earth and beyond.

(To be continued)