It always seems as if the “mind” is the root cause of all suffering, but in truth it’s not, the mind is just the mind, and it’s doing what minds are supposed to do. The purpose of a mind is to keep you focused in the physical reality, that you are a part of. Without the mind, you will have no sense of time, and all events will seem disjointed (the way it happens in a dream you have at night). Appreciate the mind for what it is doing, and stop fighting it.
The root cause of suffering is the mindset of trying to “escape” or hide from reality. If your mind is noisy, it’s an indication that you are trying to “run away” from something. You are not listening to the mind because you want to live in denial. It never works this way; you can’t live in denial for long before it really makes you suffer. The mind is not making you suffer; it’s your tendency to “deny” the mind and escape it, that makes you suffer.
The mind is life’s aid in creation
The mind is a beautiful aspect of your being. If you really understand the mind, you will see how innocent it is, just like everything else in nature. The mind is no different from an innocent child trying to be happy. What’s wrong with wanting to be happy? Why are you denying the mind, or berating it for its desires?
Of course, you cannot really be free unless you realize that you are not the mind. As long as you make your “mind” personal, you will always judge it and never embrace it. People who are trapped in their mind, lead miserable lives, and end up doing things that get them in trouble, because there is no wisdom when the only avenue of intelligence is coming from the mind. True freedom is when you have transcended the influence of the mind, and so you can now enjoy the mind without being trapped in it.
Who you are is life itself and the mind is an aspect of you. The mind, and the body, are not personal. They are as they are. The body is simply a programmed machine, so is your mind. It’s like a computer. You will only be afraid of a computer when you think the computer is controlling you. In truth, the computer is not controlling you, it’s just doing what it is programmed to do. When you see that you are “free”, that you are not the computer, and that you have the choice to not be controlled by the computer, you will stay enjoying the computer.
Free beings enjoy their mind, they don’t ignore it
People who are truly liberated always come back to enjoy their mind, they don’t deny it. You transcend the mind’s influence so that you can come and enjoy it fully. First you must see that the mind has no power over you, that’s how you transcend the mind. Once you have transcended the mind, you see that mind is really innocent and is just an aspect of creation, so you come back and embrace it fully.
If you try to escape the mind (the Samsara), you will always find yourself suffering. Once you totally embrace the mind, you will see through it completely, and thus transcend its influence. After that, you become very playful and enjoy the mind without making anything personal. The mind’s purpose is to ask, to prefer, to desire, and it’s all innocent. When you make it personal it becomes suffering, when you know it as just a play, you don’t resist it; you enjoy it.
Life is here for your joy. The ultimate purpose of life is joy, there is no other meaning or agenda in life. The only reason life comes forth into physical expression is to “dance”, for the joy of it. The mind is a beautiful tool of creation because of its ability to imagine and prefer. It can become a problem if you lose yourself in it, but once you are conscious of who you are, you can enjoy the mind and give it the freedom to express itself. Life will give you everything that your mind desires, if you stop resisting your mind.
Hi Sen,
I have struggled with anxiety and intrusive, scary thoughts for some time now. Your blogs have been so enlightening to me. For the first time, I am able to clearly see that I am not my mind and that the thoughts it generates are not me. More importantly, the “me” that I have created is not even me! I slept like a baby last night after tapping into this truth. However, my body is so geared up to the sensation of fear, that I find it hard to sit with the scary thoughts. My mind tells me that if I let them manifest, they will get stuck and I will have so deal with them for a long time. Sometimes they are in the form of images. I know that this thinking is irrational! Can you provide me with specific techniques I can pratice to get me out of the fear state of facing scary thoughts and images? I have tried so many techniques and therapy for anxiety but this is the first thing that truly has given me hope. I want mental freedom and the ability to transcend my mind leaving fear and doubt behind. Thanks for sharing your gift!!!!
Celeste – All techniques are like “medicines”, they provide a temporary relief from the symptoms of an underlying problem. Unless you sort out, and dissolve, the underlying problem the symptoms will keep appearing. It’s a paradox, but true solution arises only when you stop depending on “temporary relief”. Most people are so addicted to “temporary relief” that they never allow themselves the opportunity to find a permanent cure. I am sure you must know a lot of people who get addicted to medicines and end up getting even more ill because of this addiction. So the first step is to understand the “futility” of looking for “temporary relief” and come to the place of wanting a permanent cure even it means moving through a small phase of discomfort initially. True freedom does not come from “temporary relief” techniques, but from a complete dissolution of the underlying “dysfunction” which is causing the problem in the first place.
The underlying dysfunction, as you have rightly identified, is the unconscious identification with the “mind”, imagining it to be “you” that is thinking. Actually its the “conditioning” that is thinking, and that’s why each mind has a certain repetitive pattern in the way it thinks. The mind is highly mechanical, it just follow a conditioned pattern, and hence it has no inherent intelligence or wisdom. To say the mind is intelligent is like saying a “computer” is intelligent – we all know that the computer is just “programmed” intelligence, there is nothing creative, no “wisdom”, in the computer.
The mind seems to have a “life” of its own, but in truth its nature is to be silent, and only used when a mechanical task needs to be performed or a memory needs to be activated. The reason the mind is so constantly active is because of “your” interest in it, because you are seeking identity from the mind. You are giving momentum to mind because you are unconsciously dependent on the mind to give you answers, to give you assurance, to give you solutions and to give you a sense of identity. Freedom arises when you realize that the poor mind is too limited to do all this for you, and thats why the mind is so fearful – after all you are placing so much responsibility on it – Its like asking a child to run an empire. The mind was never designed to sort out life, it’s only designed to do mechanical things like drive a car, solve a maths problem, remember an address, take note of time and such things. Wisdom comes from “you”, not the mind. Stop depending on the mind to solve life. Let go of it. Enter into “you”, the silence, the pure consciousness and awaken yourself. You are the creative intelligence, and once you awaken all the problems created by “mind identification” will dissolve – in other words your life will be free of dysfunctions.
You will be surprised to notice that there is no fear in the body. The body does not even fear death. The only fear there is, is in the mind’s interpretations of reality. Can you notice that all fear arises from the mind’s “interpretation” of a situation? Life does not carry any fear, it’s only the mind that creates fear through its “negative” or deluded thinking. An ignorant mind is always fearful, a conscious mind is free of fear. As Buddha said – “Ignorance is the root of all suffering”. Mind becomes conscious when consciousness, or who you are, wakes up. You can look at the mind identification as “sleeping” consciousness, or ignorant consciousness. You have to wake up this sleeping consciousness, by realizing your own true nature, by knowing who you really are. Stop depending on the mind for solving life, and let go of it. For a while its uncomfortable to not depend on the mind for solutions, and not derive your identity from it, but that’s the temporary discomfort every addict goes through before becoming free of the addiction. Are you ready to go through the “quitting” phase?
The only way to wake up from the trance of mind, is to start dis-identifying with it. It’s not a technique, it’s more of a curiosity or an “awakening”. From your words its clear that you had an awakening, since you saw that you are not the mind, and that you are not the “me” that the mind has cooked up (its just a story, a fiction). This awakening has profound significance and is an invitation to now start going deeper into this realization. Any technique you use will only make you more unconscious, because only the mind uses techniques. Who you are does not need techniques, who you are is highly intelligent, extremely creative, and all that’s is needed is that “you” start waking up from the trance of the mind. Keep seeing through the patterns of the mind, until you realize how mechanical the mind really is – you will never be suckered in by mind after that. When you are free of the mind’s pull, your wisdom and intelligence will start shining through and what you create will be a reality of abundance, based in joy, peace and love. This is the true nature of who you really are.
You got hooked to the mind unconsciously and now you have to become free of this addiction consciously. This is the return journey, back to “you”, the true being. Awaken and realize that who you are is the creator of this whole universe, you are the one being that watches through all the bodies, all the forms. Can you sense that you already know this in your heart?
Sen, I do sense I am on the verge of an awakening. I have suffered with anxiety for so long that it has become such a strong force in my life. I have been fooled into thinking I can not overcome this without some sort of technique that will remove or deeply suppress the symptoms. From your teaching I have learned that resistance is exactly what is causes things to persists. I have been looking at mindfulness as a way to overcome anxiety. Is this apart of what you are teaching? My “mind” is so fixated on finding a solution through technique. It is hard to see beyond it. Yes, I feel that the mind has developed an addiction to fear. The images, thoughts, and sensations that create anxiety have been my focus. I am perplexed as to how to identify patterns. Do I watch my thoughts? Some of the images are so scary, I am afraid to face them. Once again, my mind has create such an automatic response to any and everything in a fearful manner. I am soooooo ready to detox my consciousness and be at peace once and for all.
celeste – As long as you take the body to be “you”, there will always be a sense of judgement about the various movements in the body. You must first realize that who you are in essence is pure consciousness, that does not have any conditioning. Without this realization, all techniques will eventually become new “addictions” or relief strategies. Can you see the space in you that feels pure, and unconditioned, very silent but very awake at the same time. Just sit still for a while, and get a taste of this silent space, that in which the noise appears. The noise of the mind comes and goes, but this silent space of awareness is always here, always awake, always at peace.
As you become more and more grounded in this space, the mind starts losing its magnetic pull. This space starts coming more and more into the foreground as you stay in it. It feels like a “nothing” initially, it feels like a “dumb” silence initially, but as you spend more time in this space it starts showing you what it really is – an awake intelligence, that is very powerful and yet very loving, with no sense of superiority or inferiority. It’s who you are – pure consciousness.
Once you are grounded in this space, it’s much easier to watch the mind, than when you have no access to this space. You can find a grounding in this space by simply sensing the stillness, or the silence, that is in the background of all the noise. It’s a recognition more than a practice. This stillness is so vast, it can easily contain any amount of noise that the mind generates, but you need to recognize it by sensing it in the background. It helps to sit still, in a relaxed position. You can follow the steps I mentioned here – the only practice needed for liberation from mind’s pull
Whenever you feel scary images coming up in the mind, or when fearful thoughts start moving in the space of your mind, be conscious enough to relax your focus or attention. You can feel that the thoughts are trying to pull your attention (each thought is a form of consciousness and hence has the power of attraction). If you stay relaxed, your attention will never get fully focussed on a thought. Just let go of “holding” the thoughts, and relax. See that the thoughts cannot pull your attention if you don’t focus on them. Stop being “focussed” and be more relaxed. Trust in life, don’t believe your mind. Life is very benevolent and its a pure stream of well-being, it’s not what the mind makes it out to be. You cannot see the well-being of life as long as you believe the interpretations of the mind. There is no real truth in any thought, it’s just a thought nothing more. Life cannot be known through thoughts.
When thoughts don’t get the fuel of your focussed attention, they slow down in their momentum and eventually dissolve. As a negative thought dissolve it also dissolves the negative reality that it was creating. So your reality will start changing, negative elements will start moving out of it.
The discomfort that you feel in your body is simply caused by the energy movement of the thoughts. Just imagine that your body is releasing “negative” energy, and relax. Don’t panic at the “uncomfortable” feeling in your body as the negative energy associated with the thoughts starts leaving your energy field.
It’s helpful to have some space of your own, where you can be silent and alone for a while. Even one hour of sitting in a relaxed letting go can ground you in this space of stillness. Most people panic when the negative energy is just trying to leave the body and they try to hold on to it. Let the energy leave you. If you just relax, in a state of letting go, the negative energies (thoughts and attached emotions) will automatically start leaving your energy field, you don’t have to do anything. It’s like a rubber band, when you let it go it automatically comes back to its natural position.
You rightly used the term “detox” because thats what it is. Releasing negative energy from your energy field. What remains at the end is your pure nature, pure positive energy. When you “detox”, all that gets removed is that which was not good for you. Remember that as your inner energy field becomes detoxed, your external reality will also start changing. Embrace this change without any fear (it’s moving towards a natural, struggle free, abundant reality). The mind can interpret this “change” in a very negative way, don’t get suckered in by it. “Allow” and keep allowing. Negative energy automatically leaves if you just “relax” and let it go. I cannot emphasize more strongly the importance of “relaxing” and trusting this process.
The bottom line is to let go of needing to control life, and allow life to bring you the well-being that you deserve. The mind wants to be in control and that’s why it keeps asking for techniques or strategies in a bid to stay in the center. True liberation is when you become “empty” of techniques, just letting go and allowing life to happen the way it wants to happen. The mind fears this “absolute” surrender because it associates it with weakness, laziness or defeat. In truth, only when you surrender completely, and give up your strategies, do you allow true intelligence to start working.
Work more at understanding what life is, and how creation works, than just practicing some mechanized technique in the bid to control the mind. All these writings come from a place of freedom, and they deepen the understanding of what life is really about. It’s not about controlling mind or the body, but more about letting go of the negative energy or resistance that prevent the flow of life through you.
Don’t ask how do I let go, because my answer would be “let go of this question too”. Let go so deeply that you are no longer doubting what life brings you. Trust completely in the benevolence of life, stop believing the “old” conditioning of your mind to run your life. Letting go is not a technique, its an absolute surrender. Would you ask for a technique to fall down, when you jump off a cliff? When you jump off, you don’t need any technique because the gravity pulls you down effortlessly. In truth, this is type of “letting go” I am talking about.
Don’t be hard on yourself, it takes time before you reach a place of total letting go. Just relax and allow it to happen. It’s about becoming totally relaxed and effortless, because that’s how the end state will be. Everything natural is effortless. Always remember that techniques of any kind are useful for a while, but you must reach a place where you let go of all techniques and go into a relaxed surrender to life. Let go of effort, hard work and anything that feels like struggle. Do you trust life enough to become totally effortless and relaxed allowing life to bring you your’s heart desires? Remember that any effort is a sign that you don’t trust life but your conditioned mind. If such an complete trust is not yet present in you, then just keep reading, or listening, and deepen your understanding of the truth of life, the truth of creation. As you become more enlightened through understanding, it will be easier for you to let go and trust the movement of life.
Sen, I appreciate all the time you are taking to help me. It is opening my eyes to a completely different way of being and understanding. I have felt great peace and relief just from reading your comments. However, anxiety often produces morning symptoms such as adrenaline and increased feelings of panic. Some say its increased cortisol upon rising. I awoke feeling such fear and doubt. I am a Christian and fear set in that somehow I am doing something wrong by going into this place of enlightenment. I know this stems from my conditioning and I also feel I can love Jesus even more deeply in an enlightened state. I feel my consciousness trying to make the transition to let go but my mind and body are in a frenzy. Can I move into this place and still keep my God faith?
Celeste – I can sense an inherent tendency of your mind to cling to fear, which prevents you from enjoying the natural expression of who you are as this body. I can just tell you that Jesus never wanted “followers”, he simply wanted point out that everyone is God. He wanted people to see their true nature and be free. Jesus was God, so are you, there is no difference. Who you are is the one being, call it God, pure consciousness, Christ, or anything else you want. The words don’t matter so much. Jesus never said I am God pray to me, he always said “You are Gods”. Jesus realized his true nature and wanted that everyone should realize their true nature so that they can experience the “kingdom of heaven” here on earth.
You must understand the truth will strip away at all your fears until you are totally free of them. The truth burns through all the negative conditioning, to leave you feeling completely free of negativity. Your purpose in life to express your uniqueness, your true potential, unequivocally. This is not possible unless you are deeply free of all limiting thoughts.
This fear that you feel is just an indication of the transition which is happening within. Like I said before “just allow it”. I never said that the transition would be really pleasant. Sometimes there can be discomfort as the negative energies move out of the body. What is pleasant is the freedom on the other side, the joy of being that blossoms when there is no resistance within. As you move into this place, you will just release the resistances with you, nothing else. Don’t worry about your faith in God, none of that will really change if that’s how you like it. Like I said before, only the movements that cause you suffering are removed from within you as you let go.
I don’t usually decide what how much I am going to write in a reply. The words just flow in, in response to question, and I just allow the answer to come through. A deep feeling in me is to tell you “just relax”, this is not about “losing” anything but about “gaining” your freedom and joy. You will not lose anything that brings you joy and love, only that which creates suffering for you will be move out of your space. This is a highly positive movement. Don’t worry about your faith, if your heart desires to find joy in faith so it will be. Contrary to what the mind things, as you release the negative energies you just become more human.
It’s okay if your mind and body are in a frenzy. Can you let the feeling be, and not judge it as “bad”? What you are feeling is a very natural movement, don’t get worried about it. You see, something in you is dying, and that’s why there is so much anxiety in the mind. Rest assured that what is dying is that which was causing suffering, the “ego” movement is dying. Let it die, let it burn away. Ask the mind to just relax and trust that what’s happening is a very positive movement even if it does not “feel” good in the body right now.
You are so right Sen. It is so hard for me to relax to let go! I get in such a frenzy. I hate that I have been hardwired to worry and literally freak out when a transition occurs. I have been in the church all my life but never really walked into who I really am. People have asked me: :who are you?” And I really did not know. For the first time in life, I am awakened and recognize I am not the mind and body. I am truly light and I can unlock the way to let that imminent through my being all the time.
I go to a new church and the minister believes just like you! He has been telling me some of the same things but it is just clicking. I feel like the time I have spent gleaning from you was destined to happen as I am no longer satisfied with coping with fear and anxiety. I feel like I am at the edge of a cliff and I need to just jump but my feet are still trying to move.
I know I have no reason to question my faith as I feel even more connected to God than I have ever felt before.
If I can just transcend the scary thoughts I feel that I will gain more momentum. Everytime an image (which is usually vulgar and about my daughter) pops in my head, I fear it will stick forever…..it never does. The paradox is if I permit it to stay as long as it likes it will fade. There is such an overidentification with all thoughts and images in my mind. Ironically, I am a licensed therapist lol. I work with children of all ages. However, I feel that is why I often try to come up with a strategy to help myself.
Ultimately, I trust this process. No, it is not easy. I tried to relax and let all the thoughts in yesterday. SCARY. I really thank you. Words cannot express
Celeste – If you believe in lifetimes, I can tell that you choose this lifetime for awakening from the dream. Everything has been geared up since your childhood to take you to this point, and that’s why it feels like such a pull. Frankly, the awakened way of living is nothing as what the mind imagines it to be. It’s quite simply a “natural” state of being, where you just start expressing yourself as your true self. I can sense that there is no resistance operating in me, and that life simply moves this body based on inspiration. It’s an effortless state, a state of ease. I realize that what has ebbed away is the force of “me” that was holding onto thoughts and identities. This “me” force is also the one that holds onto fears, and projects fears. The very energy of the “me” force is based in fear. The whole process is simply about the ebbing away of the “me” force, that’s all. What remains is simply life force or live movement. You become like a feather that is effortlessly moved by the breeze of life. It may sound poetic but this is exactly the experience that happens when the “me” force ebbs away completely.
I don’t believe in time frames, because each person is different. But usually it takes a few months before the “me” force can ebb away completely (of course it can take years also, if one keeps holding on not knowing what’s happening). The whole process becomes faster if you can simply relax, and not make effort. When you make effort, or try to sort out things, that’s when resistance comes up and the process is delayed. I can’t over-emphasize the importance of just “relaxing” as much as you can. The “me” force is always efforting, working hard, trying to figure out everything. When the “me” force ebbs away there is ease, effortless existence and joy. The positive energy that shines through in the absence of the “me” force, attracts a highly positive reality in your life. A lot of changes will start happening in your life as the “me” force starts ebbing away even in small amounts.
It’s scary right now because the “me” is still around getting scared. When the sense of “me” starts dissolving it gets even more scared. I wish I could give you a bypass, but there is none. Everyone who awakens goes through this fear, there is no way around it. The only way to deal with this fear is to embrace it. It’s called jumping into the fire of fear and emerging on the other side as the fearless. There’s a beautiful saying in Zen – “the path to liberation is guarded by a gate keeper called fear, move past him and you are free”. When you know that there is no getting around the fear, you stop trying to avoid it, and just embrace. The paradox is that when you embrace the fear completely, it vanishes automatically (as you have experienced it yourself, if you permit it, it fades away).
The fear about your daughter is just your mind trying to “blackmail” you. The mind doesn’t want this “new” place because it inherently knows that it won’t be in control anymore, so it projects fears to keep you entangled in the mind. Here’s the simple secret – “just surrender to the mind, see what’s the best scare it can give you and accept it completely”. Nothing the mind fears is going to happen, but if you buy into the fear you will stay stuck. So accept that you are okay with the worst fears that the mind projects. Accepting something doesn’t mean that it will manifest, it’s just a bluff the mind plays. The mind is a “story teller”, it’s not as scary as you think, it’s just a good story teller, a drama queen is what the mind is (until its free).
Yes, even after knowing all this, it can still be fearful. Like I said there is no getting around it, you have to pass through the fear. You can’t fight it or suppress, but you have to actually embrace with all your being, like you would embrace a lover. Embrace the fear, as it comes up, and it will show you its other face, guess what it is – “love”. Fear is just another face of love, you realize this only when you embrace it. Like they say – “if you don’t fear fear, then there is nothing to fear”
i like the information but do need more to get past my fears and over come this depression i do know that i have seen changes over the past weeks that i have had to deal with my mine i call running away with me i am trying hard to get over this but at times my mine want stop when i need a rest from the fears and i seem to be losing it please tell me how to deal with this