The natural outcome of awakening out of identification with the mind is to allow for the development of a “mature” mind. In the absence of awareness it’s not possible for the mind to develop an all-round maturity. So waking up from being lost in the mind is the first step, but eventually it’s about bringing awareness back to the mind and allowing the wisdom of your being to touch the immaturities, delusions, wrong-vision and hang-ups of the mind, till it reaches a state of deep maturity. A mature mind allows a smoother experience of life, it also allows for the expression of your true potential as this human form. In the absence of such a maturity in the mind, you will always be driven by fear and hence it’s not really possible for your natural potential to come forth in full expression in your reality.
You will know when your mind reaches a stable state of maturity, there will be no doubt in your being about it because it will feel like something just fell into place, like an end of inner conflict. Here are a few characteristics of a mature mind
It’s fully aware of the present reality – there is no sense of “denial” in a mature mind. It’s willing to see reality as it is, without trying to escape from the feelings/thoughts – there is a full acceptance of the reality of the situation as it is, if there is fear the fear is allowed, if there is sadness the sadness is allowed, if there is anger the anger is allowed, if there is confusion the confusion is allowed – nothing is denied, and there is no energy wasted in trying to resist what arises naturally within (in truth there is no fear of fear, it’s allowed). This power of conscious allowing is always lacking in an immature mind and it quickly wants to latch onto an “escapist” strategy.
It’s not craving entertainment – A hallmark of an immature mind is its constant tendency to want to distract itself in entertainment, which usually manifests as forms of greed, over-indulgence, addiction and depravity. The entertainments can be in any form – food, drinks, drugs, sex, shopping, hobbies, TV, internet, work, mysticism, religion, social events, denial-based spirituality etc Entertainment can be a means of enjoying your waking hours, but if it becomes your “craving” you are just a prisoner to it, with no real sense of wisdom. It’s easy to get addicted to entertainment because it allows the mind to deny its reality for a while and get some temporary relief. A mature mind enjoys entertainment but can easily sustain itself without it, it’s not “restless” and it can find alignment with the most ordinary moments.
It’s not swayed by negative influence – A mature mind finds guidance within itself and trusts its connection with its life-stream. It’s not possible for an outside negative influence to alter its conviction in its inner guidance. A mature mind will retain its wisdom in the face of negativity from the outside, and never moves into “reactive” responses. It’s also true that the vibe of wholeness present in a mature mind ensures that it does not attract strongly negative realities (in a personal sense). But being a part of human consciousness, it’s privy to the negativity of the outside and but is not influenced by its pull. This maturity allows for creative solutions, and wisdom-based actions, to come forth rather than “reactive actions” that perpetuate the very problem that it’s trying to solve.
It’s aligned with its physical nature – There are no “hang ups” in a mature mind. It’s fully comfortable with all its dimensions, aspects and natures. It knows itself, as it is and has no confusion about its natural make-up. There is no sense of guilt, shame or denial of the various drives and inclinations present in it owing to its “physical” nature. It’s has an understanding of its limitations, its proclivities, talents, sexuality, aptitude, personal preferences and interests.
It understands the principle of creation – A mature mind is fully aware that creation in this reality is based on “attraction” and it understands that alignment with its life-stream allows for a “positive vibration” which allows the manifestation of a reality of well-being. It understands that it can manifest its desired realities through alignment with its life-stream, and hence does not depend on “struggle oriented” approaches to manifest realities. It understands that the actions taken from an energy of lack/fear/hatred manifest reflections of the same, and hence is not trying to “force” a manifestation through struggle. It’s always at ease with itself and aligns with actions that come from an inner inspiration and is never inclined to moving from a place of fear.
It’s not dependent on the “outside” for happiness – A hallmark of a mature mind is that it finds wholeness in its “being”, and is never dependent on outside elements for it. It enjoys the outside world, enjoys relationships of every form that its makes in the outside world (be it with people or possessions), and enjoys its physicality, but is not clinging to any of it for its wholeness. It has no delusion that something or someone would make it feel whole permanently, it understands that the source of wholeness is in our “being” and not in the fleeting world of physical reality. It’s oriented towards aligning with its life-stream, and follows the actions that come from this place of joy/wholeness – it’s not doing anything to please the outside or to meet someone’s expectations of it. This movement of alignment automatically allows for an “unforced” responsibility, and discipline, that seems to happen very naturally.
It understands the oneness of life – An awakened mind knows the “oneness” of everything, that everything is basically this “one being” or “one consciousness”, the one space of energy manifesting into various forms by “vibrational condensation”. It knows it’s not inferior or superior to anything or any force. It’s not fearful of any judgment from life because it knows itself to be life, it understands that there is no separation in life, it knows that there is no death because its stream of awareness (its life-stream) will continue eternally into new experiences (you can read the post what happens after death for more insight on this), and that there is no judging entity sitting “up there” judging its actions. It understands that it’s here from an intention in its life-stream to express/experience physicality in a unique way and is fully open to exploring all aspects of it, without any fear or guilt for being joy-oriented. There is a “free energy” about it, and it’s not holding anyone to its expectations or emotional dependence.
It has a deep trust in the well-being of its life-stream – At any moment, a mature mind is not swayed by doubts, there is always an inherent knowing that it can trust its life-stream to bring forth a positive result to any life situation that it’s in. It’s never questioning the intelligence of life, and it totally understands that it’s not possible for it to know the “bigger picture” and hence it fully trusts intelligence of its life-stream to take it towards its desired reality without worrying about “figuring things out” relentlessly. In this openness, solutions come more easily, ideas/insights/understanding come forth with ease and inspiration/energy for the right action is always forth coming. I always refer to this state of living as “effortless existence” because there is always an inherent flow to your life in this place.
This is the state of mind that comes through as you keep dissolving the negative momentum from a place of awareness. This descent of awareness becomes the ground that allows the emergence of a mature mind.
Dear Sen
What’s your view on Karma and reincarnation?
Jay
The usual context in which the term “karma” (which means action) is used is basically to suggest that your “actions define what you attract into your reality”, it also goes on to imply that “your actions in this lifetime will influence what you will become in the next life time, so if you did “bad” actions you will end up being born in bad circumstances, and if you did “good” actions you will be born in nice surrounding”. The underlying assumption is that there is someone “up there” who is has defined what “good” and “bad” actions are and is keeping a tab on you, recording your actions to judge you later when you die. Anyone who is willing to understand the principle of creation, and the nature of the conscious energy that we are, would know that the whole concept of Karma is not aligned with the truth that its your “vibration” that attracts your reality and not your “actions”, also it is rooted in a fear-based thinking model – where you are made to feel “cautious”, and fearfully guilty, about your actions. And to imagine that you will carry the negativity of your present lifetime into any other life-time is again not based on a scientific understanding of the natural vibration of your life-stream – once the body dies, the stream of awareness that was focused on this body is all that’s left and this stream of awareness (which I also call the life-stream) is pure positive, aligned with the wholeness of life (the only negative that’s ever created is through negative thinking which being physical) and its decisions to reincarnate into a new experience of physicality are completely coming from this place of pure positive/wholeness.
It’s not your actions that create your reality, it’s your “vibration”. An action which is taken from a place of fear/hatred/lack attracts the reflections of the same in your personal reality, in “this” physical lifetime and that too only if you don’t shift your vibration. As soon as you are willing to shift your vibration into alignment with joy/love/peace the reality that you attract starts becoming rooted in well-being and positivity (irrespective of your past vibration and actions). So it’s not your “karma” that attracts your reality, it’s purely your vibration, or the “state of being” in which you are rooted. A vibration rooted in joy always attracts a reality that reflects joy, and your actions also come from this place and hence are imbued with the vibration of joy. So instead of focusing on changing your actions, the real focus should be on changing your vibration and allowing actions to then come from this place of alignment.
so true.
Sir
The negative and fear based thoughts are always coming into my mind. Though i’m trying to let go these fear based thoughts yet i’m unable to find any success. Whenever i do something important, fear based thoughts are coming into my mind. Fear based thoughts like something bad happen to me and to someone who is close to me. After that i got tensed, upset and feel guilty of thinking such negative thoughts. Please sir help me to find some solution to eradicate these fear based thoughts.
As long as you fear the mind’s negative thoughts, you will continue to fuel them indirectly. You would need to stop fearing the mind, and its thought, and stay as a space of awareness “allowing” the mind its free movement. If you try to “get rid” of the negative thoughts they will continue to stay because you are fueling them through your fear of them. But if you simply allow the thoughts to be there, and stay aware of them in an open manner, they will slowly start losing their hold on you and start dissolving. The pointer is to stop fearing the fear-based thoughts of the mind. You can read these posts for more insight on this
Dont fear fear
Fearless awareness
Thank you so much Sen. Your insights on everything are of enormous benefit. How do we change our vibration?
The first step is to bring an open awareness to the patterns of negativity running in your mind. By “open awareness”, I mean a space of observing without identification with the thoughts, like a detached watching. It may take a few weeks before you get some stability in your awareness to be able to really identify the negative patterns running in the mind. Once you find stability in your space of awareness, you can stop fueling the mind’s negativity because you are not longer fully identified with it. This allows the dissolution of negative momentum in the mind and it starts changing your vibration to be more rooted in wholeness/joy/peace. You can read this post – allowing mind to slow down for more insight on this.
Thanks so much Sen.
this is THE BEST article i’ve read in years! So true,so simple.
Thanks sir for the reply. I read both the articles and really the articles are very good and eye opner. I definetely follow these articles and let go all the negative and fear based thoughts.
Hi Sen,
I really appreciate your mature insight into the structure of the mind. I find myself constantly battling with Negative Influences and Physical Nature can you suggest ways I can ‘train’ myself or ways to recognise the triggers to overcome the debilitating influence these have on my everyday life?
Thanks, Zenith
Zenith, you can start with these posts – the practice of relaxed awareness, the space of being and the state of total allowing. The more understanding you gain about the mechanics of negativity, about the mind, about life and about the mechanics involved in coming to inner wholeness, the faster you move towards finding this freedom in your being. Take your time with first reading through the posts on this blog (in any order), and if you have any specific doubts/clarifications feel free to ask it in the comment section.
Dear Sen,
I have a question. I understand that I am not my mind and I know that is above all consciousness but being on the path of awareness and enlightenment, who understands all this? It is not still the mind who understands or knows ? I mean we understand with our minds what you or others are writing and we get to know deep down inside about our being, our awareness and our inner wisdom and stillness. It is like mind understanding a thing about the mind and about the self but the understanding is through mind? It is not a subjective understanding? What understanding is that? Because, in my case all these things about awareness were new to me and suddenly I’ve found out. Was like a shock in the beginning with a lot of energy moving inside me and I could feel the imbalance and than a slightly process of balance and a lot of things became easy, peaceful and acceptable. But I ask again: When somebody come into contact with all this it is not the mind that understands and interprets all? Or it is just an intermediate or an instrument? Through what channel we come into contact with this Truth about Being, Awareness and Enlightenment?
Anca, basically the word “mind” needs to be defined clearly, else there is a possibility of misunderstanding. The way I define mind is basically the “space of thought/thinking”. The brain has the capacity for thinking, your being/soul has the capacity for thinking and the life-space consisting of streams of consciousness (including the source consciousness) has the capacity for thinking. This whole cosmos is in the “mind” of God as they say, God being the source consciousness – and you (as an individual soul) are connected to this mind, of life, inherently, and you also have the capacity to think and have your own perspectives as a being (even without a physical body). When you are focused in a physical body, you encounter a thinking machine in the form of brain (as the organ), and you also encounter the body’s own intelligence as a machine including the intelligence of your heart as an organ. So in a physical body, your mind consists of your own thinking, your brain’s thinking, your heart’s thinking and the thinking coming from the life-space including your inner guidance coming from there. In fact you can also be influenced by thoughts outside you, from other beings including other humans if you match their wavelength – just like how an antennae picks up radio signals when tuned to a certain wavelength. So mind is a pretty vast thing, it’s the space of thoughts.
Of course, it’s you as the being who understands all this, it’s your being that needs to become “aware” and awaken to its truth. It’s only your interest that records it in the brain – the brain needs your interest to record something in it. But the brain can produce thoughts randomly and also you are privy to thoughts from the life-space, in the end you need to consciously align with your own understanding so that you are not unconsciously pulled around by negativity/delusion based thoughts.