The silent mind!
Hello all,
Namaste! I want to let my blog readers know about my new website-swaroopa.net. Very simple id, not the complicated blog id address. Now to the post.
Last week we discussed, how Kethu and our ancestors have unique blessings for each of us human beings that comes to us through our own DNA. Most of the time this guidance is accessible to us only through our own intuition. But in this modern day and age, we are giving much more importance to our logical mind, and we ourselves lose our deep connections to our own inner spirituality.
Now, we can ask why do we need the intuition and this deep spiritual connection. Mind you, this is not religion. Religion has nothing to do with it. Even without being religious, we can be spiritual. Being spiritual just means listening to our highest Self- as in our own highest ideals. In social terms, it can mean morality. But morality also should not be forced upon a being so that they asphyxiate under the pressure of the moral code.
The mind: Life is supposed to flow. Underneath all our visible body, we are energy beings. This energy should flow through every moment of our life. Any time we are being forced, pressured or mandated to do something we don't innately like, our energy starts to stagnate. Mind has a deep role to play in how our own life evolves. Mind is where the true creativity and the vibrant aspirations of a person evolve.
That mind should physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically be free to pursue it's highest ideals and aspirations. Many times within religion, social structures and ritualistic norms, the mind loses its innate creativity. Let us take an example. If a cuckoo, the bird is sitting outside on a tree, it may sing a beautiful, natural song. If the same bird is kept within a cage, it may sing, but that song may not be as vibrant as in a natural setting.
This is the same with a mind that is bogged down by religions, other perceptions, social structures and norms. That does not mean society should not have rules and regulations. It must. But it should not be so forceful that the creativity of a person itself is lost. Whenever a mind is bogged down by fear, guilt or shame due to the norms of a society or moral code, it is within a cage. Such a mind is not free. It cannot sing as a free cuckoo.
Until now, we discussed the pressure from society and all the moral codes. Above this as humans we also carry a lot of subconscious patterns and behaviors, we have no idea we carry. In Vedic astrology, the subconscious is represented by the twelfth house. The twelfth house becomes the back of our head. Can we see behind the back of our head? No. That is our blind spot. Same way the sign, planets and any other aspect the twelfth house holds, the person has zero idea about that.
For example, say a person has Moon sitting in the twelfth house. As all of us know, Moon waxes and wanes. Accordingly, the person's emotions waxes and wanes. One day they would be as bright as a cherub, after ten days they would be like a wilted wall flower. Others may notice the difference. As this is the person's blind spot they may have zero notion about this. As long as they don't realize it, their own emotions would sabotage their every project, days or aspirations. They would wax and wane like the Moon. This is the case with any place the Moon sits. But in twelfth especially the person may have zero clue until they themselves become aware of it.
Let us take one more example. Another person has Mars in the twelfth house. Here let us assume unfortunately this Mars is very weak due to its placement. Twelfth is one of the hidden houses. The person when something upsets them won't show the anger, as it is hidden. But they would keep this anger within. As it is their blind spot they themselves may not know it. It would keep on accumulating. This person instead of showing anger directly, can show the anger in a passive aggressive way. The person themselves may not be aware of it. But others could sense it.
Like this many times our mind holds onto conditioning and patterns which we ourselves may have zero idea about. All these are huge burdens on our mind. These conscious notions, subconscious patterns, behaviors and attitudes interfere with the mind. All these take up the space in the mind. Such a mind is not free. Within it there are cages, trenches and gallows. Such a mind is struggling with its own problems. These are a range of issues each human deals with.
Above this many times life also brings very tough experiences. The mind again gets bogged down by regrets, frustrations, disappointments and other heavy emotions. As long as the person is not aware about their own subconscious hold-ups, they are stuck to repeat the same lessons again and again.
Subconscious mind: Now, here another problem also arises. We have discussed a spiritual law before. "Our inner reality, reflects outside". Whatever we put out into the Universe comes back to us. The twelfth house. We have no idea what we are having in our twelfth house. No idea about our own subconscious mind. What happens? Without our own conscious knowledge of the logical mind, we are putting out energy that may be our ancestors had.
The emotional mind and all of us originated from our DNA. Let us take an example. Say one of our great aunts was totally distracted. She loved gossip, the village happenings and the 'news'. Now, here we are the current generation. In three days we have exams. Our logical mind says, prepare, study, put in your hard work. But what are we doing? Our great aunt is controlling us through our DNA/ subconscious mind.
Instead of studying we are sitting nicely and reading a write-up on Facebook, or we are posting a few pictures on the Instagram, or we are browsing through the news sites to know the latest news. See. We are supposed to be studying. But as of now emotionally we are acting as our great aunt, and we have zero clue. Later when the results come we are one of the last ones in our grade. So, it very much matters without our own realization what we are doing. How we are living our life.
The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung used to call these patterns and behaviors of which we have no clue about as unconscious. He has said, "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." Isn't it true? As long as we don't realize our own behaviors and patterns we keep on doing it. By virtue of doing that we invite unnecessary outcomes into our own life. This as we have no clue about, we call it fate.
That is why many times people who are very aware, move into the mindset of 'I am the creator of my experiences'. They are totally aware of their own life, blind spots, subconscious patterns. When they get into that 'autopilot' mode, they catch themselves. "Oh, I am wasting my time and energy on this. Let me stop it now". Awareness. It can help us to conserve our own energy and time.
Many times without us knowing we give our time, energy and power away to people, circumstances, projects. Let me elaborate from my own previous career. In that career, I used to volunteer a lot. My notion was the volunteering would somehow open up an opportunity or job for me. I volunteered hours, days and months. But nothing came up. Only I was losing my time and energy. I even had to spend gas money for my car to drive to the volunteer site. I did volunteer for 2-3 years. What is the point?
When we are not truly aware of ourselves, our life and what we truly desire, we get into circumstances that take away our time and energy. Today I write a blog, on Quora, answers and on Facebook. But every single word has my name attached to it. I am not wasting my energy and time in random, time-consuming activities. I am building my career one brick at a time. So, I nowadays truly understand how subconscious and unconscious patterns can eat away our time, energy and life itself.
Whether we realize or not, each of us have only very specific time. Each human being has come with an 'expiry date' stamped on us. We try to ignore or neglect it. But when we become aware we start to eliminate all these time and energy wasters. We align our life very much towards our own Dharma or purpose.
Now, how to become aware of our own subconscious patterns? We have to once a while come to the 'present moment' and check, What am I doing? That brings us awareness about our own behaviors and patterns. By becoming aware, working on ourselves and eliminating things that we don't need in our own life, we start to unclutter and clean our own logical and emotional mental space. But of course it does takes time. We as a human carry a lot of gunk within our own minds. This uncluttering would free a lot of mental and emotional energy for ourselves. Energy to use towards our own life.
Silencing the mind: Once we start to remove all unnecessary activities, people, circumstances and projects, next we need to start silencing our own mind. If we allow, our mind can talk up an internal storm, and we can fall victim to anger, fear, guilt, shame or any number of things. These can also be patterns we have carried through generations in our family.
Another unfortunate thing is, if we are too logical minded we ignore all these factors as useless. Emotions. Who wants them. It is the sensitive and weak, who wants to concentrate on their own emotions. I am strong and logical. Really? More than logical beings, we humans are emotional beings. Otherwise, why the majority of us feel very warm and cozy when we see our mothers? It is the same comfort we felt with our mothers when we were babies. We carry it with us until our death.
So, whoever says emotions are useless- I feel sad for you. You have actually zero clue who you are. Now, another thing. All the higher mental realms of inspiration, creativity and intentions works through feelings, emotions. You 'feel' you like to write. You 'feel' you are doing your Dharma. You feel you have found your purpose. You feel you are walking your path.
Standing in this space think how important our feelings or emotions are. The true Masters like Ramakrishna Paramanhansa and Ramana Maharshi were very loving beings. People used to 'feel' the love. Swami Vivekananda used to feel the love Ramakrishna Paramahansa had for him. The higher realms of love and emotions. This is what every human is saying No to, being too logical or rational. No wonder humans are going and knocking at the doors of psychologists and psycho-analysts. We have lost our own way in life.
To realize all these aspects we need our mind to be very much 'present' with us. It should not distract us with constant chatter, bringing up unnecessary details, information and data. Nowadays humans are getting drowned in information and data. Remember, as we have discussed many times data and information are not knowledge. If we think so, we are being fools.
This is how I see it. Any thing raw is data. When it is organized properly it becomes information. When the same information is useful and we can use it, then it becomes knowledge. Only when that knowledge is used very properly towards our own life using our own life experiences, it becomes wisdom.
Look at a very new doctor and a doctor who has been practising medicine for some forty years. Many times the experienced doctor is very knowlegeable and wise. They are practising medicine using the knowledge they have developed through their own life experiences as a doctor for some forty years. So, let us not confuse between information and wisdom. Information cannot be wisdom. It is just information. Also a wise mind, chooses. Very much. It chooses only that which it wants. Others it discards saying - No, No, No. I don't want this. I don't want that. I don't want this. I don't want that.
The silent mind: This is where the mind is moving towards silence. A cluttered mind is distracted, unfocused, scattered, loud and all over the place. It just exists devouring all that the material realm has to offer. Remember Rahu. The energy of the dragon head- I want this, that and the other thing- now! But Rahu also exists in two vibrations. The lower vibration of a devouring, all eating snake and the higher vibration of a serpent with the jewel- Nagamanikyam. Naga-serpent, Manikyam-ruby.
Many times most people thing this Nagamanikyam is a literal jewel. What if it is not. What if it is metaphorical. The Nagamanikyam is found on the head. Wisdom usually is in the head. This precious jewel very well can be the wisdom the being embraces. In this space, the being becomes as wise as a serpent carrying a jewel on it's head. The body- Kethu also has all the wisdom his/ her previous lifetimes, generations, ancestors and family lineages carry.
Now, this jewel can also be thought as the crown chakra-the Sahasrara. The deep connection to our own higherSelf. To access this knowledge, for it to flow to our crown chakra as a celestial Ganga (mythological river), our mind should be as silent as Shiva to recive the torrential downpour of Ganga. See, now how the mind should be? As Shiva- silent, meditative, in penance.
Shiva- the eternal Yogi. Adiguru. The first teacher. To have that kind of a knowledge, we need that kind of a mind. It is so easy to read about Hinduism- Sanatana Dharma. To practice it as a 'way of life' humans many times have to open our own awareness. Why are we just praying to Shiva? Instead, we should become Shiva- the very silent mind. All the people who are shouting so loudly about Hinduism- do you really understand Hinduism? Sanatana Dharma. If you truly know it, you would guide anyone towards their own mind, higher knowledge, the wisdom within- The Shiva- the eternal Yogi.
The Shiva who is the very silent mind. Very meditative. The celestial knowledge Ganga as a torrential river, being received by the mind as Shiva with an opened third eye- vision. A visionary! Leader! Meditative! Contemplative! Silent! Mysterious! In Dhyana! To such a mind- silent, deep, quiet- knowledge comes from the Universe itself to lead their way, their path, their purpose and their Dharma!
So, shouldn't we all become Shiva in our own lives, listening to our own higherSelf with access to our own Ganga-the celestial wisdom? Understand the true Sanatana Dharma. It would do one good, actually great! Also, this concept is not reserved for Hindus alone. Anyone can use it to develope a vision, awareness, purpose for their own life. Sanatana Dharma is truly a way of life, if one truly understands it. But then, to develop the awareness or not, that is always a being's freewill and choice!
Note: Without describing the Shiva concept, I would not have been able to describe 'The great void'. Hence, listening to my own intuition, I moved it to the next week.
Addendum: Unfortunately, I have another even more important concept, I am being guided to write. So, next week, I definitely need to write about the focus of the mind.
I wish you a good and safe weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: The spiritual law- Where the focus, there is your life!
Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay
Namaste! I want to let my blog readers know about my new website-swaroopa.net. Very simple id, not the complicated blog id address. Now to the post.
Last week we discussed, how Kethu and our ancestors have unique blessings for each of us human beings that comes to us through our own DNA. Most of the time this guidance is accessible to us only through our own intuition. But in this modern day and age, we are giving much more importance to our logical mind, and we ourselves lose our deep connections to our own inner spirituality.
Now, we can ask why do we need the intuition and this deep spiritual connection. Mind you, this is not religion. Religion has nothing to do with it. Even without being religious, we can be spiritual. Being spiritual just means listening to our highest Self- as in our own highest ideals. In social terms, it can mean morality. But morality also should not be forced upon a being so that they asphyxiate under the pressure of the moral code.
The mind: Life is supposed to flow. Underneath all our visible body, we are energy beings. This energy should flow through every moment of our life. Any time we are being forced, pressured or mandated to do something we don't innately like, our energy starts to stagnate. Mind has a deep role to play in how our own life evolves. Mind is where the true creativity and the vibrant aspirations of a person evolve.
That mind should physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically be free to pursue it's highest ideals and aspirations. Many times within religion, social structures and ritualistic norms, the mind loses its innate creativity. Let us take an example. If a cuckoo, the bird is sitting outside on a tree, it may sing a beautiful, natural song. If the same bird is kept within a cage, it may sing, but that song may not be as vibrant as in a natural setting.
 |
| The mind- where every experience, creation and aspiration evolve! Image credits - Pixabay.com |
This is the same with a mind that is bogged down by religions, other perceptions, social structures and norms. That does not mean society should not have rules and regulations. It must. But it should not be so forceful that the creativity of a person itself is lost. Whenever a mind is bogged down by fear, guilt or shame due to the norms of a society or moral code, it is within a cage. Such a mind is not free. It cannot sing as a free cuckoo.
Until now, we discussed the pressure from society and all the moral codes. Above this as humans we also carry a lot of subconscious patterns and behaviors, we have no idea we carry. In Vedic astrology, the subconscious is represented by the twelfth house. The twelfth house becomes the back of our head. Can we see behind the back of our head? No. That is our blind spot. Same way the sign, planets and any other aspect the twelfth house holds, the person has zero idea about that.
For example, say a person has Moon sitting in the twelfth house. As all of us know, Moon waxes and wanes. Accordingly, the person's emotions waxes and wanes. One day they would be as bright as a cherub, after ten days they would be like a wilted wall flower. Others may notice the difference. As this is the person's blind spot they may have zero notion about this. As long as they don't realize it, their own emotions would sabotage their every project, days or aspirations. They would wax and wane like the Moon. This is the case with any place the Moon sits. But in twelfth especially the person may have zero clue until they themselves become aware of it.
Let us take one more example. Another person has Mars in the twelfth house. Here let us assume unfortunately this Mars is very weak due to its placement. Twelfth is one of the hidden houses. The person when something upsets them won't show the anger, as it is hidden. But they would keep this anger within. As it is their blind spot they themselves may not know it. It would keep on accumulating. This person instead of showing anger directly, can show the anger in a passive aggressive way. The person themselves may not be aware of it. But others could sense it.
Like this many times our mind holds onto conditioning and patterns which we ourselves may have zero idea about. All these are huge burdens on our mind. These conscious notions, subconscious patterns, behaviors and attitudes interfere with the mind. All these take up the space in the mind. Such a mind is not free. Within it there are cages, trenches and gallows. Such a mind is struggling with its own problems. These are a range of issues each human deals with.
Above this many times life also brings very tough experiences. The mind again gets bogged down by regrets, frustrations, disappointments and other heavy emotions. As long as the person is not aware about their own subconscious hold-ups, they are stuck to repeat the same lessons again and again.
Subconscious mind: Now, here another problem also arises. We have discussed a spiritual law before. "Our inner reality, reflects outside". Whatever we put out into the Universe comes back to us. The twelfth house. We have no idea what we are having in our twelfth house. No idea about our own subconscious mind. What happens? Without our own conscious knowledge of the logical mind, we are putting out energy that may be our ancestors had.
 |
| The modern world we live in today! Image credits - Pixabay.com |
The emotional mind and all of us originated from our DNA. Let us take an example. Say one of our great aunts was totally distracted. She loved gossip, the village happenings and the 'news'. Now, here we are the current generation. In three days we have exams. Our logical mind says, prepare, study, put in your hard work. But what are we doing? Our great aunt is controlling us through our DNA/ subconscious mind.
Instead of studying we are sitting nicely and reading a write-up on Facebook, or we are posting a few pictures on the Instagram, or we are browsing through the news sites to know the latest news. See. We are supposed to be studying. But as of now emotionally we are acting as our great aunt, and we have zero clue. Later when the results come we are one of the last ones in our grade. So, it very much matters without our own realization what we are doing. How we are living our life.
The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung used to call these patterns and behaviors of which we have no clue about as unconscious. He has said, "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." Isn't it true? As long as we don't realize our own behaviors and patterns we keep on doing it. By virtue of doing that we invite unnecessary outcomes into our own life. This as we have no clue about, we call it fate.
That is why many times people who are very aware, move into the mindset of 'I am the creator of my experiences'. They are totally aware of their own life, blind spots, subconscious patterns. When they get into that 'autopilot' mode, they catch themselves. "Oh, I am wasting my time and energy on this. Let me stop it now". Awareness. It can help us to conserve our own energy and time.
Many times without us knowing we give our time, energy and power away to people, circumstances, projects. Let me elaborate from my own previous career. In that career, I used to volunteer a lot. My notion was the volunteering would somehow open up an opportunity or job for me. I volunteered hours, days and months. But nothing came up. Only I was losing my time and energy. I even had to spend gas money for my car to drive to the volunteer site. I did volunteer for 2-3 years. What is the point?
When we are not truly aware of ourselves, our life and what we truly desire, we get into circumstances that take away our time and energy. Today I write a blog, on Quora, answers and on Facebook. But every single word has my name attached to it. I am not wasting my energy and time in random, time-consuming activities. I am building my career one brick at a time. So, I nowadays truly understand how subconscious and unconscious patterns can eat away our time, energy and life itself.
Whether we realize or not, each of us have only very specific time. Each human being has come with an 'expiry date' stamped on us. We try to ignore or neglect it. But when we become aware we start to eliminate all these time and energy wasters. We align our life very much towards our own Dharma or purpose.
 |
| Our inner reality reflects outside! What is the mind creating? Image credits - Pixabay.com |
Now, how to become aware of our own subconscious patterns? We have to once a while come to the 'present moment' and check, What am I doing? That brings us awareness about our own behaviors and patterns. By becoming aware, working on ourselves and eliminating things that we don't need in our own life, we start to unclutter and clean our own logical and emotional mental space. But of course it does takes time. We as a human carry a lot of gunk within our own minds. This uncluttering would free a lot of mental and emotional energy for ourselves. Energy to use towards our own life.
Silencing the mind: Once we start to remove all unnecessary activities, people, circumstances and projects, next we need to start silencing our own mind. If we allow, our mind can talk up an internal storm, and we can fall victim to anger, fear, guilt, shame or any number of things. These can also be patterns we have carried through generations in our family.
Another unfortunate thing is, if we are too logical minded we ignore all these factors as useless. Emotions. Who wants them. It is the sensitive and weak, who wants to concentrate on their own emotions. I am strong and logical. Really? More than logical beings, we humans are emotional beings. Otherwise, why the majority of us feel very warm and cozy when we see our mothers? It is the same comfort we felt with our mothers when we were babies. We carry it with us until our death.
So, whoever says emotions are useless- I feel sad for you. You have actually zero clue who you are. Now, another thing. All the higher mental realms of inspiration, creativity and intentions works through feelings, emotions. You 'feel' you like to write. You 'feel' you are doing your Dharma. You feel you have found your purpose. You feel you are walking your path.
Standing in this space think how important our feelings or emotions are. The true Masters like Ramakrishna Paramanhansa and Ramana Maharshi were very loving beings. People used to 'feel' the love. Swami Vivekananda used to feel the love Ramakrishna Paramahansa had for him. The higher realms of love and emotions. This is what every human is saying No to, being too logical or rational. No wonder humans are going and knocking at the doors of psychologists and psycho-analysts. We have lost our own way in life.
To realize all these aspects we need our mind to be very much 'present' with us. It should not distract us with constant chatter, bringing up unnecessary details, information and data. Nowadays humans are getting drowned in information and data. Remember, as we have discussed many times data and information are not knowledge. If we think so, we are being fools.
This is how I see it. Any thing raw is data. When it is organized properly it becomes information. When the same information is useful and we can use it, then it becomes knowledge. Only when that knowledge is used very properly towards our own life using our own life experiences, it becomes wisdom.
 |
| Ganga and the river of wisdom can be seen flowing from the hair of Shiva! Image credits - Tej Kumar Book Depo / CC0 |
Look at a very new doctor and a doctor who has been practising medicine for some forty years. Many times the experienced doctor is very knowlegeable and wise. They are practising medicine using the knowledge they have developed through their own life experiences as a doctor for some forty years. So, let us not confuse between information and wisdom. Information cannot be wisdom. It is just information. Also a wise mind, chooses. Very much. It chooses only that which it wants. Others it discards saying - No, No, No. I don't want this. I don't want that. I don't want this. I don't want that.
The silent mind: This is where the mind is moving towards silence. A cluttered mind is distracted, unfocused, scattered, loud and all over the place. It just exists devouring all that the material realm has to offer. Remember Rahu. The energy of the dragon head- I want this, that and the other thing- now! But Rahu also exists in two vibrations. The lower vibration of a devouring, all eating snake and the higher vibration of a serpent with the jewel- Nagamanikyam. Naga-serpent, Manikyam-ruby.
Many times most people thing this Nagamanikyam is a literal jewel. What if it is not. What if it is metaphorical. The Nagamanikyam is found on the head. Wisdom usually is in the head. This precious jewel very well can be the wisdom the being embraces. In this space, the being becomes as wise as a serpent carrying a jewel on it's head. The body- Kethu also has all the wisdom his/ her previous lifetimes, generations, ancestors and family lineages carry.
Now, this jewel can also be thought as the crown chakra-the Sahasrara. The deep connection to our own higherSelf. To access this knowledge, for it to flow to our crown chakra as a celestial Ganga (mythological river), our mind should be as silent as Shiva to recive the torrential downpour of Ganga. See, now how the mind should be? As Shiva- silent, meditative, in penance.
 |
| Shiva as an ascetic yogi, with a disciple! Image credits - Ravi Varma Press / Public domain |
The Shiva who is the very silent mind. Very meditative. The celestial knowledge Ganga as a torrential river, being received by the mind as Shiva with an opened third eye- vision. A visionary! Leader! Meditative! Contemplative! Silent! Mysterious! In Dhyana! To such a mind- silent, deep, quiet- knowledge comes from the Universe itself to lead their way, their path, their purpose and their Dharma!
So, shouldn't we all become Shiva in our own lives, listening to our own higherSelf with access to our own Ganga-the celestial wisdom? Understand the true Sanatana Dharma. It would do one good, actually great! Also, this concept is not reserved for Hindus alone. Anyone can use it to develope a vision, awareness, purpose for their own life. Sanatana Dharma is truly a way of life, if one truly understands it. But then, to develop the awareness or not, that is always a being's freewill and choice!
Note: Without describing the Shiva concept, I would not have been able to describe 'The great void'. Hence, listening to my own intuition, I moved it to the next week.
Addendum: Unfortunately, I have another even more important concept, I am being guided to write. So, next week, I definitely need to write about the focus of the mind.
I wish you a good and safe weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: The spiritual law- Where the focus, there is your life!
Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay
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