Are we aware of how often we use it? How many of these negative mantras do you recognise in yourself? Become aware of your own favourite ‘anti-mantras’ and ‘yes, buts.’ See what you use them for and why, and try to find their origins. We can notice that as soon as this ‘mind’ of ours decides on doing something, then the habitual ‘anti-mantras’ of self-deprecation begin to arise. This same ‘mind’ then struggles indecisively, swinging back and forth between conflicting considerations and subconscious counter-proposals. This inevitably causes stress in the system and the resulting tensions have a tendency to slowly solidify into the various forms of bodily and mental illness. But even then, this is only the natural purging process of the body-mind complex attempting to cleanse itself of the toxicity of our thoughts.

It is evident that we also often have a semi-conscious predisposition towards not getting what we want out of life, or thinking we want. For example, if we are already pre-programmed to feel unworthy of it, even if we manage to realise our ‘day-dream desire’, this mental interference of a ‘mind’ will not allow us to enjoy it.

If I desire to be wealthy but suffer from an ingrained ‘anti-mantra’ such as: ‘Poor me, I am miserable and moneyless’(and it shows in your face and spirit), then neither friendly assistance nor money is likely to flow your way, as your inner attitude has destroyed virtually all possibility from the start.

Even if you become rich, like so many rich people, you are still likely to feel poor and insecure. But if in your heart of hearts, you feel supported and rich, then your needs are few, and money and needful situations will easily flow towards you. Such is the assertion of Jesus when he says that those who have, will have everything added unto them and those who have not will have even what little they have taken away. This is the way we enhance or destroy our own future. We may wish for a long and healthy life, but if we have a lurking fear of being maimed, this tendency can draw us into a situation where we are injured in a car crash or an accident at work.


Accidents

Even what we call ‘accidents’ are happenings we draw to ourselves, attracted by our inner attitudes of mind. I always find it helpful to ask what are the advantages of the ‘illness’ or the ‘accident’ you have unconsciously ‘decided’ to have? The answers can be revealing. For many, it seems to be a form of self-punishment for real or imagined misdeeds. More often than not it is a form of escape from something we did not want to face. Perhaps it came as an answer to an unconscious prayer to free us from a stressful situation, or a horrid boss or difficult decision, in an attempt to flee from the contradictions of the mind.

But can we hope to escape the machinations of our ‘mind games’? All the great sages from antiquity to the present day have diagnosed the ‘uncurbed mind’ as the major source of all ills. But how to be free of it?


Is it possible to live without mind?

Let’s consider the facts. We have already experienced existence without mind. We began life without a personalised consciousness. How is it that the original ‘mindless’ spermatozoon knew how to seek out the egg, fertilise it and then divide itself into self-reproducing cells? What was it that caused all these identical cells to decide to develop themselves into divers organs, bones, skin, hair and nails—all without the aid of an individually conscious mind? Eventually, passing through all evolutionary forms of life in the womb, all these multiplying little particles happily know when to stop, and miraculously end up as a human being. The much vaunted brain (which many mistakenly assume to be the source of thought), is developed last of all. Even then, it only becomes fully operational approximately after the first three years of bodily existence.

Credits: Supplied Image;

So where was ‘mind’ all this time?

We are not even aware that we exist until around the age of three. During these wonderful early years of infancy, we exist as innocents in the world. We are awed by all of creation but have no self-conscious sense of identity. It is this very lack of an ego-conscious mind in tiny children (and saints) which delights the hearts of we impoverished mind-bound adults. Only slowly comes the sorry awakening of self-centredness and an awareness of that reflective and repetitive drivel we call ‘mind’. Our contact with the mind-bound world around compounds the problem.

The Christian myth of Adam and Eve spells out this story of Everyman. The innocents in Creation are said to have ‘fallen’ into self-consciousness from the state of ‘Self-consciousness’ (with a capital ‘S’—the Consciousness of the Universal Self) In other words, they became aware of an individualised movement in consciousness (namely the ego-prompted thought-flow we know as ‘mind’), as distinct from the free-flowing ‘God-consciousness’ which was previously operating through them. It is that free-flowingness of the omnipresent conscious energy which is effortlessly animating and unfolding all other beings, birds, animals, insects and plant life of the world in perfect harmony.

And we are also part of that unfolding.

But as we awaken to existence, each one of us slowly tumbles into the trap of ‘mind’. Man is the only self-conscious creature on the planet, thus making himself the Eternal Outsider in this ‘Garden of Eden’. He has built a life-shrinking barrier between himself and the Omnipresence and the manifest creation and calls it ‘My Mind’.

Man thinks, therefore he suffers.

To be continued in Part 3

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Author

British mystic, author, psychotherapist, spiritual counsellor, mantra yogi, fine artist and illustrator, theatrical set and costume designer. Founder-editor of Gandalf’s Garden magazine and Community in the London Sixties, and 3 years as columnist for Yoga Today magazine, BBC 4 Scriptwriter, author of four spiritual self-development books and two storybooks for children. 

Muz Murray