Every day I wake up in the middle of the same old mind-clutter: should do this, should do that, don't want to do this, don't want to do that (exercise, diet, clean house, give non-stop unconditional love and attention to everyone, save the world, conserve energy, recycle, etc.).
The mental landscape reconstitutes daily.
Fighting it is the trap of becoming more entangled in it.
Let it be. Let the mind machine do what it does, which is to play out endless internal conflicts.
Yet the magic of awareness is here all the time. Awareness doesn't say a thing. It sees, sees, sees. It is the rays of light that shine away the mind-fog.
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8 comments:
Too bad we don't all know this, or rather live by it.
Aloha,
Alton
Hi Alton, Thanks for visiting. Aloha, Colleen
Yes! Just being aware that the mind machine does what it does, (dividing,comparing,trying to complicate things, "should-ing") is such a relief. It can be pretty amusing to notice those random thoughts arise, then when ignored, they just fade away.
Fighting the mind is a losing battle; it's programmed to preserve and protect, and it is quite diligent in "dividing, comparing, trying to complicate things, and "should-ing"". The problem is that the entity or separate self that the mind is programmed to protect is just an image! When this clicks in awareness, it's easier not to take what the mind says so seriously- and the old tapes can even be amusing, as you point out! Thanks so much for your comments Diane, it's a joy to be in sync with you and others waking up out of the mind-trance.
I read your post and was asking why this is. It doesn't seem to be an evolutionary help. After all, it's something that actually gets in the way of smooth functioning, so it would be an evolutionary disadvantage. But then I realized it is, in fact, an evolutionary advantage. Several million years ago the ability to think of various scenarios and continually weigh options and methodologies would have been an advantage. This ability didn't get in the way because things were simpler then. We only had to have the ability to calculate the movement of herds, or think of a better way to accomplish a domestic chore. It's only now, when our survival doesn't depend on us calculating these things, in an environment where there are (literally) millions of variables to manipulate on the daily basis because of the complexity of our society and our unbounded choices, that the mind becomes a handicap. It doesn't know when to stop. For example, I read your post and was asking why this is. It doesn't seem to be an evolutionary help. After all, it's something that actually gets in the way of smooth functioning.......
I have noticed the change in mindset from my own experience when i allow the thoughts to be as they are.
There is truly an underlying peace and calm that knows everything is perfect just the way it is.
I tried for a long time to change the endless chatter.Make it a better chatter and tried to throw out what felt wrong or bad.
What is really coming out from all these is the underlying need to define myself.To put all this me in a box and define it as something but with each moment something new always pops up.
Funny Aliman!
You demonstrate a thought loop in progress.
The mind tends to ball up like those old paper roll-up window shades- you know the kind that if you tug on the bottom just a little bit it snaps back up into a rolled-up ball. I read this analogy somewhere recently.
Why has the mind evolved to become such a torture machine? Good question. The mind is an organ to protect and enhance survival for the organism. It just seems to have gone overboard.
We don't want to "throw out the baby with the bathwater." The mind is a remarkable instrument. But perhaps we are now discovering (or re-discovering) that there is a higher intelligence than thought. I don't know if we have come up with a clear name for this intelligence beyond thought- call it presence or intuition or alignment with the Tao...
I often think of Einstein's words: "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."
Thought is the level of consciousness that has created problems in my individual life, and problems on the larger societal scale as well.
There is sometimes a sense of shifting to another level/dimension of consciousness beyond thought from which my problems are solved. In fact, the problems are recognized as not even existing. They were mind-fictions.
I've been enjoying a fascinating history book about the evolution of the mind's dysfunction, The Fall, by Steve Taylor (Eckhart Tolle recommends this book). You might like it too Aliman.
Thank you so much for your comments!
Hi Triza,
You write, "There is truly an underlying peace and calm that knows everything is perfect just the way it is."
This underlying level is where you and I and everyone are united right now and always, whether we realize it or not.
This underlying level is the intelligence beyond thought.
Sometimes it seems that thought is nothing but a decoy or distraction to keep attention away from recognizing this underlying level of peace and oneness.
You observe that the drive to define ourselves, to "find" ourselves by having a mental box labeled "me", fuels the compulsion to think. Excellent insight! I think this is accurate.
In the moments when it is clear that I cannot define myself or anyone else, thinking calms down quite a bit of its own accord.
The mind is like a computer that has been fed with an unsolvable problem, namely, "Find out who I am." We search desperately for a "me" that we can believe in and live with, but all along we sense there is something fishy...the whole chase is in vain. Who we are cannot be found in the mind or in thought or in any idea. Yet we are reluctant to release our attention from the mind, to step out of the mind-made world we have inhabited.
But whenever we drop the clamp of attention from the thought stream, suddenly it's wonderful not to know who I am! It's wonderful to be undefined. It's wonderful to stop thinking about myself for a moment.
Instantly the "me" disappears and I find myself. Quite the paradox!
I enjoy dialoguing with you so much Triza! You open my mind. Your comments are truly appreciated.
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