Enslaved by the mind

Rumi says, “If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.”

In one of his poems, Charles Bukowski writes, “Nobody can save you but yourself. You will be put again and again into nearly impossible situations. Do you want to be like that? A faceless, mindless, heartless being, do you want to experience death before death? Nobody can save you but yourself and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won but if anything is worth winning then this is it. Think about it, thing about saving yourself”.

If you are unhappy with your life, you are thinking with your mind before taking decisions. No doctor in the world can save you from this condition because you are treading a path that leads to unhappiness and restlessness. Let me tell you how.

In his book, The Power of Now, German-Canadian writer Eckhart Tolle writes, “Mind is a powerful thing if used properly, but it can be very destructive when misused. If it is more aptly said, it’s not that you misuse your mind, you usually don’t use it at all, and rather it uses you. This is the error. You think that your identity is your mind. It is your illusion. Actually, the thing called mind has captured you. It’s true that like most people, l tend to think, I use my mind to achieve many things and accomplish my goals. If just because you solve a riddle or build an atomic bomb doesn’t mean, you are using your mind. Just as dogs like to chew on bones, similarly, the mind likes to solve problems. That is why it solves the riddles, build an atomic bomb, even if you have no interest it. Come on tell me if you can get freedom from your mind whenever you want. Have you found its off button? It means to stop thinking completely. No, I can’t do it or maybe occasionally for a moment or two. So, the mind is using you, you have unconsciously attached your identity to it. You don’t even know that you have become his slave. It’s almost as if you unknowingly become possessed by someone and start claiming the person you possess as your own. The beginning of freedom knows that you are not the master that is, thinking mind. The moment you begin to see the thinker in your mind, a higher level of consciousness is awakened in you. Then you begin to realize that there is a great realm of intelligence beyond thoughts, and thought is a small aspect of intelligence. You also feel that all the things that matter like beauty, love, creations, happiness and inner peace, etc are born beyond the mind and with this realization your journey of conscious awakening begins.”

Who am I? How can I discover myself? And how can I be happy? These questions have been troubling man since day one. The same questions made man aware of philosophy and psychology. Then the man entered the second stage of how change in thoughts and ideas becomes possible.

William James, the founder of modern psychology, discovered after years of research that, “the greatest discovery of this century is the fact that we can change our lives by changing our thought and attitudes.” When Greek philosopher Metrocles was asked what was the most difficult thing in the world, he answered: self-knowledge. This is also core of Buddha’s teachings. Through awareness of our thoughts, emotions and environment, we discover the inner light. We see and understand things according to our mind and then take decisions, and insist that we are taking great decisions and living great lives, even if those decisions are wrong. But when unhappiness, restlessness, anxiety and disease become our destiny, we are left bewildered and start blaming the whole world. All this happens because those decisions are taken by our mind and not by our heart.

We never realise that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond our thinking. Life is the name of countless small decisions. Peace or restlessness, happiness or unhappiness is the result of those decisions. When you don’t know yourself, when you don’t discover yourself, then someone else is taking decisions of your life, not you. So how can those decisions be right for you? If you want to be happy, clam and healthy, then think from your heart because your heart is you’re most loyal and sincere companion who will never let you take wrong decisions.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2023.

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