Er. Rabinder Shekher
According to Buddhist scripture, “Our life is the creation of our mind,” Buddhist philosophy developed an entire science of training the unruly mind to help anyone overcome its constant fluctuations to achieve stillness, and eventually, enlightenment. But even if it’s not enlightenment you’re after, developing a good relationship with your mind is critical to building a life that is successful on your own terms.
Unless you learn to be the master of your mind, you will never find the peace of mind that you so dearly want. The mind is an amazing tool, but just like with any tool you need to learn to use it. The mind is a great servant but a horrible master. Many come to think that their mind is something they cannot control, but with proper discipline you will prove to yourself that this is untrue. I have used FIR in the picture which has deep rooted meanings. “F ” means how Frequently you lose control over your mind, “I ” means Intensity of temper which over rules your mind and “R “is the recoup from temper, so the mind is always ruled by FIR.
There is one law of the mind; this law is that whatever you pay attention to is what you become conscious of. So if you never really pay any attention to how your mind works, you will never have conscious control over it. Once you begin to try and understand and pay attention to your mind, you come to see its positive and negative tendencies. You come to realize that your identity is not your thoughts and mind, your true nature is beyond that. You realize that you are pure consciousness and not what your consciousness had identified itself with (thoughts and mind). This is why people who are not aware of this, their life experience are determined by the quality of thoughts they have. People who are not conscious of their thoughts will just keep recycling the same internal dialogue. If you constantly have thoughts of worry and anxiety, your mind will be robbed of its vital energy. Let’s do an experiment, keep your hands in front of you and ask the other listeners to follow you and ask them to clap on the count of five, Count one-two -three and clap, you will find all the listeners shall clap on three only as their mind is mot mastered to five but to your actions. Another, see a man applying hard push to an object which is not moving with the force, he applies more force and your actions repeat with him, because your mind is set with his actions.
It is very interesting that the quality of your Mind Is Determined by The Quality of your Thoughts. You must learn to consciously choose which thoughts you allow into your mind. On average we have 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts that run through our mind. If you really pay attention you will see that about 95% of those thoughts are thoughts that you had from the past. All these thoughts make you depressed and the thoughts of future make you anxious and thus you run in hypertension. At the age of 50-60, these negative or positive thoughts make you depressed or anxious for the rest of life. Once you have mastery of mind, these all thoughts will not appear in the mind as such you feel ecstasy. Take an example, man invented mobile phone and very intelligently developed “SILENT MODE” in the mobile phone. In this mode, all phone calls and messages are received by the phone but it doesn’t disturb you, so likewise your brain also needs silent mode to activate. In all circumstances your free will boils down to what you choose to pay attention to. Learn to watch at all times where your mind is placing its attention. If you find that it is not conducive to your growth, change it. The more you do this, the stronger your will power will become. You will have the power to direct your mind towards your intention. When you know your personal intent, it helps you stay centred and lets you know when you are not centred.
Here I quote one very interesting story about Akbar and Birbal. Once Birbal told Akbar that He is more powerful than Alah. Akabar was astonished and asked Birbal to clarify. Birbal very intelligently said that he can award”Capital Punishment”to any culprit in his kingdom but doubted whether Alah can! This is mind mastering. We can do of what we think. There are many people who are physically fit but can’t ride a lift. This is all due to mind set.
The way you think stems from habit, so your mental mastery will come from the conditioning you give it. No matter what happens in your life, you alone have the power to choose how you respond to it. Learn to form the mental habit of looking for the positive in every experience you have. This will develop the habit that will allow you to overcome challenges and support your inner growth. Just remember that in life there are no mistakes only lessons. Learn not to judge situations as either good or bad, but just as a learning experience. If you truly learn from it you will not commit the same thing you label as a mistake. If you keep committing the same mistake you will know you have really not learned from the experience. You are still allowing your old ways of thinking dictate how you act in a given situation.
The way you think stems from habit, so your mental mastery will come from the conditioning you give it. No matter what happens in your life, you alone have the power to choose how you respond to it. Learn to form the mental habit of looking for the positive in every experience you have. This will develop the habit that will allow you to overcome challenges and support your inner growth. Just remember that in life there are no mistakes only lessons.
Make it a habit to mediate once in the morning and before going to sleep. Mediation will help you develop a calm mind and develop silent mode in your body. It will help you become a witness to your inner world. It will help you to dis identify yourself from your thoughts and mind and allow you to question all your thoughts. Practice these techniques without fail for one month; one month should be enough to make it a habit. If you skip a day, start all over. Making this commitment to yourself will yield amazing results. Once you are able to direct where you place your minds attention through your free will, you will be able to concentrate all your energies on one task at a time, until you see it to completion. Through your mental habit of opposition thinking you will be able to maintain a positive mindset. It will direct your attitude and ultimately how you respond to situations and decisions that shape your life. Through your magnetic visualization each time you summon a positive thought, in your mind’s eye you will see it in its entirety and keep you focused on your target.
So the secret of your happiness is to find what you truly love to do and then direct your mind’s focused concentrated energy to its attainment. I am sure you see how important it is to learn how to master your mind. Once you are able to direct your mind you are able to direct the path you take in life. Now sit in calm, your eyes closed, relaxed and tranquil, listen to your heart and yourself, forget the world. You are elevated, relaxed and pious. Thus it is mind mastering. It is possible but up to you.
You might have read The Geeta many times. This time when you read, don’t just read, read comparing the horses of chariot of Arjuna as your mind which is free to move in any direction, controlled by Sri Krishna, none other than you and and Arjuna ready to fight, yes your body ready to accept any challenge. You can really master your mind. We are fundamentally interdependent with other people and our environment. Each moment between birth and death, the body undergoes innumerable transformations, with the mind the theatre of countless emotional and conceptual experiences. “Experience” is simply the content of mental flow. Yet we assign permanence, uniqueness and autonomy to the self. Such self-importance and ego-grasping form the root of suffering. Awareness gives you your life back. You can then decide what to do with it.
(The author is a Chartered Engineer)
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