You are not your mind
„Be the
master of your mind” or “be the master of your life”, which actually means
exactely the same, is something you definitely have heard the one or the other
time in your life. Well then, that’s said more easily than done and when it
comes to further procedures, one often lacks accurate informations and help. Being
let alone with a well intended advice, it is very easy to give up handling the
mind quite quickly and go on with one’s ordinary and well aquainted life.
Investigating
the mind is an adventure on it’s own and by doing so you will find yourself in
the situation of an explorer reaching into an unknown territory. “Terra
Incognita Mentis”, the unknown land of the mind, lies before you and you have
to cut away many blockages to pave a way for yourself on which you can advance.
Moving forward you will reach many crossroads, stumble and fall, get back up
and correct carefully step by step as your awareness and knowledge expand. Soon
one will finds out that the mind is a tricky thing, as dynamic process, and
most of all: it is extremely powerful and will not just obey your wished and
dreams right away. No, very far from it. It has a life on it’s own, doesn’t
like change and is way more interested in sustaining itself, it’s opinions and
beliefs, than helping you to reach happiness and success.
That is
the mind in it’s untamed state, like a wild animal of great but rough power. Gaining
power over the mind is like timing a tiger. One has to be very careful, for the
tiger has the power to cause big harm or can even kill you. You have to accept
that the power you are dealing with is way stronger than you are. Never ever
fight the mind, you can only lose if you do so. That’s the first rule in
dealing with that mighty creature.
Good, accepted,
but how could you ever handle such an enormous power? Where should you begin
and where is the right approch, the lever, which you can pull to move the
needle?
The first
and most important insight you have to gain, when dealing with your mind, is
the following:
YOU ARE
NOT YOUR MIND!
Yes,
you read rightly. It’s a simple truth, but it is absolutely profound, for
without this knowledge and insight, all the attempts to control your mind will eventually
be in vain. But how do you know you are not your mind? You probably have
identified yourself with your mind for your whole life and now you should
suddenly give up on that identification? Yes, that is exactely what you have to
do to be free, to turn your mind into your best servant and effective tool.
So,
here is the trick: You have the capacity to observe the mind – now who is the
one who is looking at the mind and what it is doing? Obviously it is not the
mind itself, it is someone else. When you look in the mirror you see yourself.
Ten years ago you did the same but what you see in the moment right now is more
or less different from what you saw ten years ago – right? But the one who is
looking is still the same! The observer hasn’t changed at all. The same is true
when you observe your mind. The thoughts come and go, they change over time and
by any given situation, but the one who is aware of them isn’t changing a bit. The
one that is looking is consciousness, the real you, everything else is
subject to the changes in the universe, eventually of life and death, but the
consciousness stays untouched by all of them.
That
is the awareness you have to come to, to be able to handle your mind properly.
You are not what the consciousness is aware of, but the pure consciousness, the
concsiousness in it’s empty nature – consciousness itself. If you can
distinguish between what you are conscious of and consciousness itself, than
you have disidentified yourself from those obejcts you recognize – whether they
are physical (like in the case of your body), your emotions, your perceptions
or your thoughts (what is going on in your mind). An that finally enables you
to tame the mind and make it subject to your control.
Soon
I will publish further articles on the topic. Until then, I wish you the very
best.
Yours Oliver Maerk
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