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Sri Humananda
"The basic mistake, the great error, the fundamental first sin, as they say, is deh ko mai manna (considering the body as "I"). It is due to this adhyasa (wrong identification) that you identify yourself with your upadhis, with your likes and dislikes, your prejudices and vices, your lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride and jealousy. You identify yourself with these things and therefore you are one with them. They completely catch hold of you. You are in their power."
(Sri Swami Chidananda)
Mind - Neither Friend Nor Foe
OM Shanti…
In a recent discussion with a fairly well-versed seeker of Self, the subject of "mind" came up, with the seeker lamenting the power of the mind over all her actions, and how her mind seems to form such a central entity of consciousness in her life and how difficult it is to separate oneself from ones mind.
As yogis we know that you are not your mind. Your mind is merely a tool, or more precisely, a tool that forms part of You, much like your hands and arms and feet. These things, including your mind, are parts of You and are there for your use. The false identification of the Self with the mind is a central precept in yoga, and is seen as the most elementary error and therefore, the cause of all suffering.
Yet for many of us, our minds seem to occupy such a large part of our consciousness. We are almost always aware of our minds and what is in them at any given time. Somehow though, there is a subtle identification that occurs within us, and this identification makes us experience our mind as our Selves, and a fundamental and critical error has occurred. Reality becomes illusion.
After this error has been made, we tend to experience our minds as the entity we call ourselves. We have become our minds. Happy thoughts make us happy, sad thoughts make us sad, and missing the elementary fact that our minds are our tools for our use, we act out the method supporting this knowledge of ours, yet we misunderstand it. So we steer our minds to think of things that make us happy, and we avoid thoughts that make us uncomfortable and sad. We direct our minds towards and away from certain thoughts, but we still suffer nonetheless, and the various psychologies are born.
What we have missed, even in our practice of this, is that there is an entity directing the mind. The mind cannot direct itself. You tell your mind what to think, and steer it away from thoughts you do not want it to think about. At times it feels as though we have no control over what we think, and at times this is true. The more we identify the Self with the mind, the less control we will seem to have over the direction of our thoughts, because we have forgotten that the mind is not us, that we own it, and can control it. But what is this mind-directing entity?
The Scriptures state that the entity higher than mind is intellect. It is your intellect that steers the mind like a charioteer with its five great and powerful horses all harnessed to the chariot. The horses are the senses, and the charioteer is the intellect.
The same principle applies to your intellect. It is a tool for you to use. It is not You, but yours. How does it decide where to steer to? Well, it depends upon the direction from which it is influenced. If it is influenced from the (lower) mind, it will steer according to the ways of the mind, but if it is steered by the Self, it knows that the mind and its senses are its tools for use. And what is the use? To steer away from illusion and towards Reality. So the Self steers the intellect, which steers the mind, which steers the senses, which steer the body. If this order is not followed, illusion and subsequent suffering ensues.
Mostly, as humans, we allow the body to steer the senses and the senses to steer the mind, and the intellect is some faintly recognized entity that we are sometimes aware of, and the Self is completely hidden from us. This way is the way of illusion. And we choose to follow this path because of our likes and dislikes, which are creations of the mind itself, and are based upon our egos, which are also creations of the mind. The mind has but one goal; to be acknowledged by consciousness and thereby secure its survival.
So how do we reverse this consciousness flow direction from the Self to the mind, instead of from the body to the mind? Well, there are many ways. For here and for now I will lean on Jnana (knowledge), and suggest this simple argument: You know you are not your body, you are not your senses, and you are not your mind. You know of a thing called your intellect and that also this intellect is not you, since your intellect is granted its power by another entity, and that entity is your Self. When you are searching for your Self, you know that your mind is not It, but only a part.
For us humans though, the sticky place in this hierarchy is the place of the mind, and it becomes sticky simply because we identify so strongly with it that we actually define ourselves by our minds as our minds, if not in theory, then in the actual practice and experience. When we do that, we create, via the mind, likes and dislikes, and we breed and feed an ego. But ego, likes and dislikes, wishes and dreams and fantasies and thoughts of the past and future are all creations of the mind. They do not exist outside of mind.
But the mind is not your enemy. If you treat it as such, you will stand in opposition to a part of yourself. It is similar to saying "I don't like my hair" or "my thighs are too fat", and developing an opposition to parts of your body. Your identification with your mind is the error. It produces a duality from which, very soon opposition between the parts arise, and then you become at war with yourself instead of recognizing the Oneness of You with all its parts as a whole. And further, you also come to see yourself as separate from all other beings, and soon you become in opposition to them, and soon there is war between peoples. Yoga suggests another Way.
So what can we do? The answer from yoga, always supremely simplistic, is to watch the mind. Don't get overly involved. Enjoy the mind, but don't buy into it. And the only realistic way to practice this is to stay in the present moment since the mind functions only on the principles of past and future. In the Now there is no mind consciousness, although the mind never really ceases its activity. It is only a matter of whether we lend it our consciousness or not. All things exist in the Now and can be enjoyed there. The quality of the experience of joy in the Now is by far superior to any of the alternatives, for it contains all, and not only separate parts. It is an experience of a Whole. And that Whole is You.
Also, the mind should not be made into a friend, or at worst, a trusted or intimate friend. It operates on principles not in the Now and so can produce only illusion. It is of a devious and selfish nature. Just watch the mind. It can be very interesting and entertaining, magnificent even, if one does not identify with it. It is only your mind, a part of You, but it is not You.
Watching the mind means not buying into the movies it creates. They are only movies, and mediocre and quite silly ones for the most part. Sure, at times it can produce some great classics and fantastic drama or horror, and then it is difficult not to buy into it all, but it is still only a movie.
When the movie is over only the blank screen remains behind it. Be the unaffected screen, not the movie. The screen remains. The movies come and go. Have the movies of the mind merely reflect off You. This is what is meant by the Upanishads as "enjoying the inner".
Humans are intricately woven together into a whole consisting of many parts. The mind is a part we get involved with way too much. So much so that we become as we think, and then we ultimately believe that the mind is the Self.
The more you treat the mind as a part of you for your use, and the less you treat it as You, the easier it will become to actually steer the mind from the Self via the intellect, rather than from the body via the senses. The latter direction only causes great pain and suffering and is based upon illusion and the former will lead to an enjoyment of the inner and the Whole.
Staying in the Now is attained to by relaxing. That is a reason yogis meditate. Thoughts and the mind and the identification of Self with the mind causes tension and stress, and all suffering. Sit back, relax, breathe. Soften the stare, loosen the knots in the throat and belly. Stay in the Now and watch the mind. Enjoy it, and know who You are.
Namaste.
More Selected Writings
Sri Humananda ©
Dwapara 307 (2007)
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