The mind is not a problem when it comes to its “natural” state of being – it just feels calm and spacious, rather than feeling frantic and closed. When we are living in a state of low awareness, we tend to fuel, and ingrain, a lot of negativity in own mind unknowingly, through our unconscious focus, to the point where it gathers so much momentum that it starts feeling like a problem. When the mind gathers so much unnatural momentum we need to add the adjective of “over” to all its perceptions – over-sensitive, over-excited, over-dramatic, over-attached, over-bearing, over-whelming etc It’s this state of being “over” the natural that feels problematic, because now this momentum feels like a potent force that can pull you around, keeping you at its mercy. Then you become a slave to the mind, being afraid of it, driven around by its craving and fears.
At some point you realize that you don’t want to live such a helpless life where you feel like a prisoner to your own mind, but the mind seems to have so much momentum by then that you can’t seem to control it. When this momentum gets above board it’s normal to feel helpless to the point of taking chemicals/drugs to numb the brain, to get some sense of temporary relief. It’s also possible that this helplessness causes you to start trying to suppress the mind forcibly through the various spiritual techniques, be it chanting, suppressive meditation or other means of silencing the mind – all these can give temporary relief for sure, but ultimately you are still in fear of the mind, so there is no freedom.
Ask yourself what’s the energy behind “forced” suppression – it’s always hatred/fear. Anything you fear, you are shackled to it – so none of these techniques give you freedom, until you reach a point where you see through their futility. The same is true if you are dependent on some chemicals/drugs, because you know in your heart that it’s not a natural freedom, just a temporary relief mechanism.
Is mind really such a big deal?
Very few of us ever ask this question. We automatically assume that the mind is a “big deal”. We have so many esoteric labels floating around to label “mind problems” but ultimately these labels give even more power to negativity because now we have labeled the negativity and have labeled ourselves as having a disorder. I can understand when a person who has a low level of awareness, in that when he/she is totally lost in the mind, their only option is to use techniques or medications in a bid to keep the mind from being so over-whelming. However, if you have the capacity to be aware of the mind – if you can watch your mind in operation – that means you have the capacity to rectify the disorder purely through your awareness. I am not a doctor, neither am I a psychologist or psychiatrist, I am just someone who has a deep awareness of what a mind is like (which started with bringing an awareness to my own mind which was ridden with a high momentum of negativity) – and the way I see it, the mind ceases to be a big deal once you become stable in your awareness, and its disorders can be dissolved in this space of awareness.
The mind is not a big deal because it’s just a physical organ, a machine designed for physicality – and the only time this machine feels like it governs you is when you are lost in it. If you develop even the smallest space of awareness where you are not totally lost in the mind, you start developing the capacity to dissolve the mind’s negativity. When you develop a small space of awareness, I call it “waking up” from the mind’s trance. This space keeps growing slowly for a while and then at a fast pace until it becomes deeply stable, to the point where the mind no longer feels like a big deal – the mind is seen for what it is, just a machine designed for physical living. You enjoy it, you express/experience through it, but you are no longer at its mercy at any point.
You may say it’s easier said than done, but once you develop a space of awareness, where you can start watching the mind, this whole process is a done deal. This space of awareness, once it’s born, keeps growing on its own, every day – it’s not possible to go back to the trance of total mind-identification. It’s challenging initially to become aware of the disorder, of the negativity and the resistance – it can feel hopeless. But the very fact that you are now aware of the negativity means you now have the option to not be lost in it, and hence have the choice to no longer fuel it. Moreover, this space of awareness starts connecting with your inner guidance, and hence allows insights/understanding to come in, that help you dissolve the conflicts of the mind – thus your vibration starts becoming free of negativity.
The more you become aware of the mind movements the more you realize how trivial the mind is. The more you become aware of the emotional energy, gathered/accumulated in your body, that more you realize that it’s not as over-whelming as you thought it was – and you can start allowing it to be released instead of suppressing it. When you stop fearing the momentum of your mind, or the momentum of your emotional energy, you can start letting go of it and thus allow it to dissolve – as long as you fear it, you are shackled to it, and you keep recycling it.
Mind without momentum is not a problem
When the mind has a strong momentum, it can easily over-whelm you at any point – you are basically sitting at the mercy of its moods and circumstances. When you dissolve its momentum, by allowing it to ebb away, by staying as a space of awareness, the mind reaches its “normal” state which is totally non-problematic – it’s just a smooth movement, with no over-whelming intensity or vacillations. It will have its dimensions of joy, love, fear, hatred, boredom and sexuality, but none of them have an over-whelming intensity to create any imbalance in your vibration – you can allow/enjoy an expression of all these dimensions in the mind without any of them becoming a source of imbalance, neither are you at the mercy of any of these dimensions. It feels like true control but you come to this place by letting go of using control on the mind – the only way to true freedom is through a total allowing of the movement in your mind/feeling space, which can only be done in presence of a stable awareness.
When the mind loses its over-whelming momentum, and when you release the accumulated negative energy within, you feel a sense of clear mindedness and you also become attuned to your inner guidance. This causes you to live a life in sync with the pull of your life-stream, living out your natural expression while enjoying the experience of life on a day to day basis. Your inner wholeness is not at the mercy of the circumstances, neither are you at the mercy of any techniques – you have a resistance free movement and feel deeply involved with life, in connection with the wholeness, rather than feeling like an isolated point of existence.
Thank you, I’m trying to remind myself of this very often. But isn’t it over-sensitive mind when seeing and interpreting a certain energy in a negative way that other people see and feel in a positive way, and I mean even the ones who send that energy? What does it mean when we feel agitated by any little thing coming our way, any hint of judgement of our personality becomes a huge breakdown for us. Does it mean that we feel too attached to our mind that it becomes negative ?
Michael, when you are over-identified/attached to the mind it gathers momentum, to the point where it starts over-whelming you – even positive states of the mind can be over-whelming when it has a high momentum, like over-excitement which can block connection to your wisdom. There has to be some space of awareness in you which ensures you are not totally lost in the pull of the mind. This space is what brings field of wisdom and stability which allows for a positive experience of life.
Sen,
One more fabulous article.. I’ve a question:
Is there any point/scenario where situations could be ‘tricky’ for the mind to deal with? If so, what are those situations and how to deal with it?
For instance i can think of below scenario:
Even when you are in deep awareness, mind will be following a basic structure of life stream(eg: it could be relationships with your spouse/father/mother/siblings).
If in case there is any in consistence behavior in those basic structure, how mind would react for it? isn’t it a tricky situation for the mind?
Pls throw some light on this topic.
Thanks
Sat, awareness is not a state to be in, it’s a means to bring wisdom into your daily life by ensuring that you are not lost in reactive responses and have a space deeper than the egoic perspective alone. When you are totally dependent on the mind to deal with a situation, you will always feel confused, indecisive and isolated, because the mind on its own has a very limited perception/vision because it’s intelligence is most mechanical or derived from past conditioning/experiences. This is not about giving the mind strategies to deal with situations, but also bring in a new form of intelligence that works with the mind – this intelligence is born out of your awareness, or when you let go of being lost in the mind (being lost in an egoic perspective alone) and allow yourself to be moved by a deeper intelligence which comes from your life-stream. The mind on it own is always insecure and is looking for some strategy to handle life situations, to somehow find some permanent technique to handle it all, but the truth is that every situation needs a different wisdom, and this flexibility comes into your being when you are willing to let go of being totally mind-identified and rest in the space of your being (awareness) which connects you to the intelligence of your life-stream.
Can the mind be compared to a wolf in sheeps’ clothing constantly undermining you. Constantly looking for your weakest points so as to attack and take you down. It seem to masquerade as your friend warning you of dangers/hazards but is totally plotting your demise.It is so restrictive to life, so suffocating that you are always questioning, always anticipating danger so that you cannot truly relax. I think that by giving it a shape and a personality I can best identify the beast and thus know when not take as my friend or to believe. This animal has such cunning wit that you need to be on your toes but he is so predictable. he shows up when you least want him to, he trys it all on. Funny though when he doesn’t get a reaction he soon backs off…This is one I thought was my protector but was really my mortal enemy
Johnny, the one that’s trying to label the mind as the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and trying to fend itself against the mind, is also the mind – this just another mind game. The truth is that the mind, being a survival machine, is bound to have fears, also since it has the dimensions of joy, fear, love, hatred, boredom and sexuality, it’s bound to be multi-faceted. In truth if you don’t associate such extra-ordinary labels like “the mind is my mortal enemy” or the mind is cunning, you are much freer to observe the mind’s movements and see its physical nature. Freedom is not freedom from mind, but freedom to allow mind to have its movement while not being dominated/influenced by its perspective, but having a space within you that keeps you rooted in wisdom – the space of awareness. Why is the mind designed to be this way? Well, that’s how it is, the mind is the mind, there is no “why”, it gives a “flavor” to physical experience and life enjoys this flavor – if you are having a hard time with your mind it’s mostly because you are “fighting” it rather than allowing it fully in space of relaxed awareness, it’s not as cunning, neither is it your enemy, it has an innocence to it, and you can only see this innocence when you are not lost in it.
I would like to get more examples from daily life in your articles which will help to understand it thoroughly
Powerful!
Another inspiring writng Sen. Thank You.
I’m dealing with a ‘disorder’ which I know is from past experiences , my mind reacts to certain situations, causing my body to react in it’s physiological way, causing the discomfort which a ‘doctor’ prescribes medication for, which I feel…just puts a ‘mask’ over everything and is nowhere close to resolving the core issue.
I am following your wisdom and feel I am achieving positive results. The fear which overwhelmed me and appeared to control my life…..and was given the label of a ‘disorder’ is losing it’s power over me and the light at the end of the tunnel is shining brighter.
Hi Sen!
I read this in your blog and just wanted to know how to watch the mind?
if you can watch your mind in operation – that means you have the capacity to rectify the disorder purely through your awareness.
Parissa, when you were between 1-15 years old, your brain lacked a developed capacity to be aware of its thoughts and was mostly just living in a daze of conditioning, I call this the unconscious state, during this stage you don’t have much awareness. As an adult your brain has the capacity to be aware of its thoughts, unless this center is not developed in you (due to some brain condition). A lot of adults don’t utilize this capacity of awareness, and they continue living in a daze where they are totally lost in their thoughts, and feel a prisoner to the mind. You can utilize this power of awareness to become free of the influence of thoughts on you – all that’s needed is to bring a steady awareness to the thoughts of the mind, as if you were watching a TV. Allow the mind to have its thoughts, and just bring awareness to it now and then (it’s not possible to stay in awareness all the time) – the more awareness you bring to the mind, the more capable you are of seeing through your mind’s tactics and patterns. At one point, you will have enough stability in your awareness so as to simply watch the mind, and the emotions, without fearing it – this is when you start becoming free of the mind’s dominance and can thus come out of the hold of negativity on you.
Hi Sen,
Thanks for this wonderful site.
I am at present working on my awarenes but keep getting fear every time i read in various books ‘feel your feelings. I understand I’m confused as for the past 6-8 months I’ve had depression, therefore my feelings’ are to me ‘fear’ I’m going round in circles.
Where would I start .I want to get out of ‘suffering’
Thanks
Sandi, in the absence of a stable awareness, it’s normal to fear the mind’s movement. It’s like how you were afraid of the dark when you were a child, but as a grown up you don’t fear it, because as a grown up you have more awareness than a child. The fear is the catalyst that wakes you up, for you to develop deeper awareness – you can read this post “fear is the catalyst for awakening“. Once you have a stable awareness you are no longer in fear of fear.
Sometimes we get even good thoughts which are unwanted…..for eg….a song which u heard which made u feel good but refuses to go away…or good memories which make u feel good but then get stuck and refuse to go away…Even then the momentum of the brain is high…and its easy to get sucked in cause the things create positive vibrations..However too much of it is exhausting…U feel like u are in HIGH energy state all the time…..which is not what u want all the time…Constant euphoria is also exhausting..U want to stop thinking the good thoughts and concentrate on the present but your mind sucks you onto it….This happens to me in a cycle…Either my mind is stuck on something good or something negative…But its stuck all the time …Even if i want to stop thinking it doesnt happen
After several discussions with you i have been attempting meditation…Strangely i find it easier to meditate when i am in a negative phase …..I find it easier to relax and let go…However during my phase when my mind is constantly obsessing on a non fearful thought i find it difficult to relax and meditate…..Could you suggest as to how to go about this phase…..
The deal is that you have a high momentum in your brain, and it doesn’t matter what type of thoughts are generated, they are all going to be “run” on this same momentum and hence they create a sense of restlessness by the sheer rapidity of the movement. We don’t even realize how much momentum our brain has gathered until it across a threshold, and we end up with some “obsessive” thoughts – which are nothing but thoughts being repeated constantly, and at fast pace, owing to the high momentum of the brain. Even a song playing again and again in the brain (even when we have had enough of it) is a symptom of the high momentum the brain has gathered. So the bottom line is “reduce the momentum of the brain”, and all these issues get sorted out on their own. The only way to reduce the brain momentum is to unplug its “fuel” – the fuel for the brain’s momentum is your “attention” to it, by “attention” I mean your anchorage in it, your interest, your belief, your identification with it. If you can let go of your brain, even for a few minutes daily, it allows for the momentum to start ebbing away. To let go of brain, you need to be “aware” that you are lost in it, the stronger your awareness the less frequently you are totally lost in the brain. Awareness takes time to grown, but you’ve already started becoming aware and it will keep growing from here on. Every time you become aware that you are lost the brain, just allow yourself to let go of it for a few minutes.
When you let go of the brain it doesn’t mean that the brain will stop “repeating” the thoughts immediately, remember that it has a lot of momentum of its own from your past attention to it. Just allow the brain to have its momentum and just stay in a space of awareness without being lost it in, you will get better at doing this with time, don’t be too hard on yourself if you find yourself getting lost in the brain’s pull. When the momentum of the brain ebbs away, it becomes a “calm” space – I know it’s difficult for you to even imagine such a possibility right now when your brain has so much momentum, but rest assured this where you will reach as the its momentum ebbs away. Till then, just keep consciously letting go of the brain whenever you become aware of being lost in it.
With respect to the non-fearful thoughts, you need to understand that your awareness already does not have a lot of interest in them, so just stay aware of their movement in your brain – just see them being generated again and again as clearly as you, and this seeing will cause the brain to soon stop generating them.
So why do some brains have such high momentum? Just DNA or what is it indicative of ?
The brain gathers momentum from your “attention” to it, your attention is the “fuel” that causes the brain to gain momentum, amplifying its activity and reducing the space between thoughts. You’ve been a brain oriented person all along, mostly because you have a brain with a high IQ (for this you can say the genetics/dna is responsible), you awareness was mostly lost in the brain activity for so many years that it has gathered huge momentum, but you have the opportunity now to bring a balance by allowing your awareness to step out of the mind-space and rest in your being-space.
Sen, you keep mentioning a “space” of awareness, of being. What exactly is this space you talk about? Would you mind describing this space and how one can recognize when they are in it.
As you can see, you can be aware of your mind instead of being lost in it – this awareness is just like pure watching. You don’t have to try too hard to hold this awareness, you don’t have to work hard at being aware of each thought that arises, you can just relax your awareness and it will feel more spacious and thoughts/emotions can pass in this space without your clinging to any of them. It takes time before you can sense this stability in your awareness, just keep practicing staying aware of your mind.
ok, as I watch the thoughts, I also feel the emotion they come with. It is here that the emotion seems to energize the thoughts and keep it alive or even generating new thoughts. This gets particularly difficult when the thoughts have to do with stuff that’s going on in the moment.
Jim, the energy of emotions fuels the thoughts, and the thoughts fuel the emotions, and hence create a cycle. When your awareness is lost in this cycle there is no scope of this cycle ever breaking, and it keeps getting stronger, gaining momentum. The pointer is to just allow yourself to just stay as pure awareness, watching this cycle operate, without trying to over-analyse it or trying to sort it out – when you stay this way the stability of your awareness keeps increasing, and you also don’t fuel the cycle anymore because you are not lost in it, and slowly the momentum of this cycle will start ebbing away in force.
Sen, you say that should allow myself to just stay as “pure awareness.” What is this notion of pure awareness? Is it awareness without attachment or identification to anything? If so, then what am I? I only know myself through my past and present sense perceptions and experiences and the thoughts and feelings that arise from these perceptions. So when you suggest I allow myself to just “stay as pure awareness,” what exactly do you mean?
Thanks for your time and appreciate your input.
Jim, thoughts don’t make you exist, you exist and hence you have thoughts. Existence comes before thoughts. You can know you exist without needing to think about your past or future. In fact this is what “pure awareness” points to, the state of pure being without requiring the mind to give you ideas about who you are. This does not meant that you discard the mind, there is a place and value for your mind bases identity also. The pointer is to just bring a balance between your mind and your being. Since you have been lost in your mind for so long, you feel uncomfortable staying in the space of being, but soon it will feel more natural to you, and this space of being becomes the ground of stability from where you can enjoy/use the mind efficiently. A balance establishes itself where you are rooted in the space of being, and also available to the mind from this place of wisdom.
Sen, can you elaborate on the “space of silence” or “space of awareness”. This seems to be the essential aspect of being.
Jim, you may get some more insights on the space of awareness/being in this post – the cause of feeling meaningless in the sut-title “negative momentum dies away in the space of awareness”.
thank u very much Sen, u are really helping me.
In your response of Jim about emotions, are emotions a bad thing? I sense emotions without thought attached…like seeing beauty in the world, being touched by kindness or appreciating the dignity of a human being who is suffering. Sen, I have expressed my appreciation but you are truly a gift that I will continue to thank.
Kay, if someone says emotions is a bad thing, it’s like saying being physical is a bad thing. Emotions are a part of physicality, and they have a value in the experience/expression of physicality – actually, your thoughts and feelings create your experience of physicality. What’s negative is to be in the grip of emotions, a slave to emotions, where you are like a prisoner who has no real freedom outside the pull of mind (thoughts/feelings). Emotions can be honored and enjoyed deeply when one is not a prisoner to it.
What a great blog!
I read plenty of your blogs and especially the questions people had after each blog..Most of those questions/doubts indicated that – people are getting benefit in the Relaxed Awareness mode .But since they have been addicted to a negative/anxious/catastrophic/fearful .. patterns of thinking that THE reality of them now getting back to normal states is again arising fearful/anxious questions in their minds.Since they must have tried several medications/therapies etc to get rid of their problems(which they could never escape) , its hard for them to believe that something could be so effective that there most frightening thoughts are not as strong as they were earlier.
All i want to say to you Sen ..Thank You so very much for realizing us that all those fears were just “Thoughts” and not “Reality”.
The problem with me that even after understanding that the Thought i was fearful about was just thought I still used to fight it without analyzing that I am fueling it.
This fueling concept has just awakened me and now I have a better if not very good understanding of how my negative patterns work.They still do , but i make my self especially relaxed at those times which helps me understand that its negativity that’s trying to gain momentum.
But I want to ask you one thing – how long does it take for this momentum to fade away.?
Thanks .
Shiva, it depends on the accumulated load of emotional energy and the momentum built up in your mind, and how willing you are to allow the release (which depends on how much understanding you have of the process of letting go) it’s a personal deal. How long doesn’t even matter what’s important is to just understand how to move into a place of allowing the release – if I have to give a number I would say that it can take 4-6 months to start sensing the growth of inner stability when one is actively in a state of “allowing” the release.
Hi Sen, thanks to you, and I really mean it, I am consciously changing my life for what it feels like the first time.
I am becoming more aware, more wise, and I feel all the suppressed fears/insecurities that my unconscious mind clung to and believed in for so long are beginning to dissolve. It truly is amazing to see that kind of light.
I am wondering though, I still beat myself up when I make mistakes. I know that to others around me the mistakes I make are nothing to get upset or even feel bad about, but I have had intense fearful reactions in the past. Afterwards, because I reacted to my mistake so intensely, my mind asks why? How can I stop fearing the feelings that arise when I make mistakes? Or in other words, how can I reduce the mind-momentum these thoughts have on me? I try not to focus on the thoughts that pop in my head but sometimes it is very hard.
Thank you
Thanks for the insight Sen.
People generally say control your mind and emotions..Have a better understanding of yourself…or even -have a strong mental attitude…Be positive…are they wrong/right trying to seize control on mind and emotions??
Hi Sen,
I have a quick question for you.Can you actually witness non dual nature or is it just your belief which resonates with you in your current level of awareness?What i mean to say is,is it possible to just sit and perceive this non duality in actuality?Is it possible to see your self as a part of the whole? Because for me,this concept is more of knowledge gained via sources ,rather than an experience.Its just that I am curious,because then it would be a different world altogether!
Thanks.You are doing a great job!
Marcy, we are individual beings (duality) but part of the collective life (non-duality), it’s not one or other, it’s one and the other. It’s just that some people are very lost to their individuality, or sense of separation, causing them to create an imbalanced perception of life (leading to greed, imbalanced hatred, intolerance etc) whereas there are some people who are lost to the idea of non-duality and try to become “self-less” which is again another form of imbalance (what I would call an “imbalance of light nature”). Eventually it’s about balancing selfless-ness and selfish-ness, balance between your individuality and your sync with the collective. I don’t perceive “non-duality” in the form of some imagination of seeing everything melting into each other, neither am I interested in having these mystical experiences (which can be had under the influence of altered consciousness created through drug intake or even some forms of meditation) – rather non-duality for me simply a reality of life, as much as individuality is a reality of life. It’s like each cell in the body is an “individual cell” but it’s part of the “collective body” – a balanced cell is the one that understand that it has to take care of itself while also being in sync with the body’s requirements, the body provides nutrition to the cell and in turn the cell functions towards the body’s wellness. A cell which is too focused on itself can become cancerous, also a cell that’s not bothered with itself can become weak and dysfunctional. The only reason why one needs to understand the collective aspect of life (non-duality) is so that one can does not become hooked on the imbalance towards individuality/separation, the idea of non-duality should not become a means to suppress individuality.
When you say that non-duality for you is just knowledge and not a “personal experience”, I think it’s because you have some imagination of the way you need to experience non-duality (possibly coming from some spiritual idea of losing your sense of self and melting into everything et al, which is just an experience of “semi-consciousness”, which can be drug induced or induced by lowering your consciousness or self-awareness). You don’t need such experience to sense non-duality. Just like you don’t need to jump off a building to sense gravity – gravity is an obvious reality, the same way the collective nature of life is an obvious reality, for example, if you take a microscopic vision you will notice that there are no real boundaries between “matter” except energetic ones, a matter is simply life-energy in vibration – however, each matter is distinct in terms of energy, so it’s one life-energy but distinct forms of the same life-energy. It’s like the difference between ice and water, they are both the same “stuff”, but ice is water vibrating at a denser frequency – this is why non-duality is not a “belief” for me, it’s just an obvious, and logical, observation of life’s reality.
Hi Sen,
I am a new blog reader and have never found someone who has described what Ive gone through like you have. I have dealt with obsessive thoughts, anxiety, being lost in my mind (even fearing it at times) and have suppressed, ignored, built up a defense against certain thoughts, even dissociation with myself and my emotions to not deal with what was going on in my head. Im at a point in my life where Ive been trying to face this and not ignore and suppress anymore -which has been a whole different, unfamiliar, and a bit scary experience sometimes. Its nice to find a site where others are going through similar things. But I do a question. Ive been reading for a few weeks now and I’ve been practicing letting go, which has helped, but the past few days I felt a sense of numbness which I didnt freak out about much but it felt very weird and uncomfortable. I was very aware of it to the point of feeling self conscious because I felt like I was facing and coming to realize how suppressed a lot of my feelings are ( a realization that I am not happy about at all. It makes me feel heartless). What is your insight on this feeling ?
Valerie
Valerie, the journey of growth always goes through several points of “transition”, it’s the same with this journey of growth in awareness towards finding balance. As your awareness grows you are bound to touch upon all aspects of delusion and past-momentum of imbalance, and this movement can create several different states of mind based on where you are in terms of the “transition” – there can be phases of feeling numb, dis-oriented, meaningless, depressed, frustrated, excited etc, what’s needed is to not get identified with the phases rather to just see that these are just aspects of the release that’s happening. It’s important to understand that this journey is not about finding some state of pure light-nature (pure bliss etc), this is a journey towards finding balance, connecting with the reality of life (which is a mix of light and dark), and hence when the dark-nature aspects arise (like this feeling of numbness) you work towards opening up to this experience rather than going into some mode of “I just want to be happy” – happiness/joy is one aspect of life, it’s a light-nature aspect, but it’s not the only aspect of life.