Mind is Mess
If there is one thing we need to know, it is this – and know it well. We are so fond of our minds we practically worship them, and make no attempt to keep them under control. When we should constantly aware of where they are, and what they are doing.
As soon as I say this, however, I realize my words will be disregarded. People are saying “We already know that!” When they don’t know it at all.
To put this another way: our minds are our biggest advantage (they are what makes us human), but they also cause all our problems. I repeat: all our problems.
Still, I am sure, I am not getting through. People cannot imagine controlling their minds, and believe (with all their strength) they cannot be controlled, and they have to follow them wherever they go.
Their minds, they are convinced, are God – or the Devil, or both. Whatever they are, they are in control. And of course they are referring to their collective minds, as well as their individual ones – indeed, in the present state of affairs, they amount to much the same thing. The collective mind rules all.
At this point I need to make a crucial distinction between thinking and feeling. In English, the word feeling can refer to either sensations or emotions – and this makes for all kinds of problems. I am using it here to refer to emotions.
If you are really careful (and pay careful attention when you first wake up, for example) you will note that the two are independent of each other. All kinds of feelings (including some very strong ones) come and go without having any effect at all. They are just feelings.
But, if you watch carefully, you will start thinking – and this is when the mind become dangerous. Thinking, with all its strength, will insist on taking over. With practice, and it does take practice, you can remain in control, and get your mind to calm down, and not become hysterical.
But people will not do this – because being out-of-control is so pleasurable. The thinking process has a direct input to our pleasure centers and uses this connection continually to get what it wants.
The good news is that we are bigger than our thinking. If we weren’t, we would not still be here as a species. To put this another way, we still have our bodies, and they are wise: they know how to take care of themselves.
All we have to do is let them take over. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But in reality it is extremely difficult – and for most people just flat-out impossible.
Why? The answer will not surprise you: because their minds have become dysfunctional. Their internal wiring has been re-wired so that it doesn’t work. And in a way that cannot be fixed.
This last statement is a shocker. I would like nothing better than for it to be wrong. But as I continue watch what is going on, I continue to see that we are stuck. Our minds are a mess, and they have become us.
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