The Gift of Mind — Relish
“Smallest is the One to be ever seen…
Larger than the One has never been…”
So many things we saw about Mind. To the best of my ability and with this Gift of Mind I tried to introduce you to Mind. Mind, as an Energy.
We saw the stories of my friends who have been dwindling, suffering. Later on, listening to the Mind sparked us. We tried to see Mind through Meditation. Eventually, we tried to stop the chatter of Mind, all to only witness the impossible. We saw how focusing on the void is not possible. We learned what an effort it is if we want our Mind to do something and how effortlessly Mind makes us do anything it wants. Finally, we closed in the light of Knowledge that relates the Mind and Senses, how You, Mind, and Senses are close to Nature.
However not all the cases of Mind relate to suffering, this is only partial Knowledge. Let me share a different example.
A friend of mine in the degree college used to constantly draw sketches in the back of her books. One day I decided to ask her about what is it that she keeps doing constantly. She told me she likes to draw Mandala Art. She described to me the intricacy demonstrated with simple shapes liquidating her Mind into Art. She told me about her state of oneness with the strokes of Art making her distillate out of the present world. Learning more about the Mandala art, acquainted me with its spirituality and unique form of consciousness. Let me tell you that while drawing she was completely in a state beyond her Mind.
Over here she did not need to close her eyes, there was nothing like being a feeble target against infallible energy, over here there was not any force yet what was there was a state of Consciousness.
Maybe this is not audible.
Do you like driving? Or have you ever tried a long bicycle drive? During the moments of driving, all of your senses were into the state to monitor your position and of other people around you on the road. In this state, you are aware of the road on which you are driving. Obviously, you did not miss any signal or landed into any mess, at least not always. Remember that moment when you were driving peacefully, completely relaxed, and calm. Now try to experience, is it that nothing came to your Mind during the drive? Isn’t it that you were actually loving the moment that you were driving and your Mind was freely sharing itself with you? Isn’t it that you were able to experience the ripples of thoughts during the drive with which you were comfortable? Isn’t it that you were physically driving but at the level of Mind, you had a consciousness which spoke for itself? Isn’t it that there was no violence of emotions hitting you at the back of your Mind? Note that we are talking when you were driving relaxed and not when you were driving with some depression. About conflict, the story is a little different.
Okay, Let’s go now for a very, very normal experiment. To make things clearer, brighter. In fact, we can try two experiments.
Listen to a song that you don’t understand and do your daily routine work or else Listen to a song you don’t understand and try to sing that song. Don’t worry you don’t need to join a music school for that. You need to sing this for yourself and don’t even need to be loud. Only you being able to listen is enough. Trying with your headphones on and doing this experiment is one of the best ways to experience it. Make a note here, listening to a song that you don’t understand, essentially means that your song should be in a language you don’t know. Maybe a Sanskrit song or any Japanese song or any language which you don’t understand (and of little peaceful nature if you prefer).
You would notice that you will be able to do your work whilst listening to the song and a ripple of thought would still be there co-existing with you as if being an inseparable part of yours. The first experiment of doing your daily routine whilst listening to an unknown song would let you feel as if your Mind is switching its context between two things — the first is the song and the second is the work. It would bring you into an awareness of your Mind’s activities. There would be an occasional experience as if you are known to do three things at a time. First is your work, second is to experience the ripples of your Mind switching its context, and thirdly is knowing You as the enjoyer of these two activities. Like a school teacher going into different classrooms continuously.
While sincerely singing a song that you don’t understand having kept your headphones on, notice that there would be a state where you would be knowing that you are singing the song. Physically you will be singing the song, but at the same time, you would have this Mind who would surely bring some thought in you. Excusing your eyes from witnessing through the light of the world, the urge of surrounding yourself into the enlightenment of dark would simply close your eyelids. Maybe there you will see the thought of a task you were about to complete, thought about the missed phone call, or a thought wondering about what your loving wife would be planning for dinner. Surprisingly you are singing, still, these thoughts pop into your Mind. Realizing this fact, you would bring your Mind to focus on the song you are singing. As if there was some source beyond your Mind — A layer of ‘Self’ understanding the activities of this Mind. A loop of such events would continue as if an eternity. In this scenario when you tried and told your Mind to focus on the song, it actually focused on the song. As if the Mind is a piece of that Self. Otherwise please tell me, what can be anything else that can bring you to awareness regarding the activity of your Mind?
“The Showers of Rain go away… Leaving us with the trace of their Freshness…”
Seems like a gorgeous infinity, doesn’t it? Moreover, it was here that you were able to command your Mind. Ask yourself now, was that really difficult to let your Mind do what you want it to do? Wasn’t that way easier? The effortlessness lies in the key of harmony and not in the key of conflict. If you release yourself to face the wind instead of trying to be the wall stopping it, learning how the wind is, would be easier. A feather floats in the wind whereas a stone strong against the wind turns into a ventifact. Both of them are beauties, both of them hold uniqueness, it's your choice to make one of them as your ideal.
“Either be a Feather or be a Stone. Wind will impartially affect both.”
To come to my Mandala Artist friend, it was the kind of activity of Mandala art wherein she was able to have her Mind switching its contexts between various thoughts and a layer of Self bring her piece of Mind back to her strokes lastly resulting in a gorgeous piece of art which would soothe anyone, which would easily satisfy anyone, even a crying infant.
Now I believe I am sufficiently audible.
“Losing the Control && Inversion of Control happens simultaneously.”
To look carefully this is how You don’t need to Control your Mind and once you are out of that state, once you would stop singing or when the song is over or once are done with your long drive, doesn’t it seem to you as if you woke up from a deep peaceful slumber? As if you came across a state of peace… As if a hell of chaos around you left you untouched… As if you heard the Silence in the middle of Noise…
To really experience this, you need a space for yourself. A space beyond your kitchen where oil is spilled. Space might not be physical. Indeed, a hungry man cannot sleep… Even if a person sleeps hungry then it certainly means that this person has done something to either neglect/overcome his hunger or he is sleeping out of being weak physically. The Best of Indian scriptures explain very efficiently why Lord fulfills some external desires or necessities of any human why to an extent certain demands of a person would be fulfilled by Nature. Essentially this is to reduce his sufferings to make a road for him so that he would reach the real essence of Life. Similarly, if you really want to understand this, you need a place where external disturbances won’t affect you and if that place is physical, things will be easier.
“Doesn’t this reveal us with the Yin & Yang of Mind?
A Mind that could hurt you or hammer you, can also be an element of Consciousness. The Glass half empty reflected you without your element of Self. The Glass half-filled cherished with the element of your Self. It’s your set colors, the kind of brush merged with your whitespace empowering you to create your portrait. This is where the fact of no need to control shines than merely being said. In all the mentioned stories you will not need to Control your Mind like what we assumed to be the only way in the previous chapter.
Then how come my friends from the previous chapter should help themselves? Is it that my friends should meet our Mandala Artist? Is it my way the only ultimate mode to reach the absolute? Actually, we don’t know. We don’t know unless we try and see for ourselves rather than simply reading and leaving back. Only the union of understanding and the right kind of practice can lead one to such a state of Consciousness. The revelation to the layer of Self underneath the Mind, of which Mind happens to be a piece cannot merely happen by reading. It requires a mode of practice, by following the correct steps. I don’t want to say that I am any kind of bona fide Master to preach the talks of Mind. All I intended here is to spread small petals of knowledge based on experience. Maybe they will help someone.
So, what if you are internally affected by some problem? What if you are like my sensitive friend who was ignored in her professional world? Isn’t that an issue that really needed a solution? It really did, which is why her efforts to job search were important, eventually making the right thing happen. However, the point here to understand is that her attempt solved the problem in the level of physical Life, for that there is no point of philosophy. The only solution to get rid of hunger is to eat food. The only solution to get rid of poverty is to educate people to pursue the right kind of profession. Her attempt never even tried to look at a problem that existed inside her Mind which was hurting her. Probably in her case, it was true and effective to act for her practical and physical aspect of Life but in the case of my friend who was troubled by his very full-time -nothing-elsebut-job-life, the solution needs to be more of internal than external, for my friend who cannot stop thinking of what went wrong to him, the solution again needs to be more of internal than external, thus clearly explaining us about two layers of existence — one with the physical world around us and another layer in the Mind as a by-product of our interaction with the physical world.
Nevertheless, we have been freshly introduced to this yet another layer — the layer of ‘Self’, which is at a deeper level to perceive. Thanks to our Mandala Artist.
“The One is Largest to be ever seen… The One Smaller than Whom has never been…”
The conviction of Self would only sound like a story. The idea of the Mind being a piece of Self would appear unrealistic, the only reason being the difficultly to see but this realization of Self can unleash a more comprehensible view of Life leading us to develop a sense of simplicity against a lot of conflicts that we face. Talk of it simply, the things would become simple. This is where the intent of Relish lies. The intent expressing how Consciousness is the fruit of both harmony and conflict which grows on the tree of Thought, in the forest of Mind. The fruit of harmony being sweet and the fruit of conflict being sour. This realization of Self can bring us to a better knowledge of the One who brings us together, can teach us to be more compassionate, it can teach us about where the mode of ignorance should be turned on, it can teach us about how beautiful every human soul is.
The irony however states — Self and Mind as a piece of Self inclining us to a new kind of dilemma whether it is anything about two as different or one which can/cannot be distinguished as the second. So, what do you think?
