fivelayers.net

For some time, I have been enquiring into the nature of my mind to understand its tendency to chase happiness and reject unhappiness, and its ability to project the past and the future upon the mental screen. The resultant of this mental swing has been vagaries of emotions that takes me into upward or downward spiral. I am inquiring into the nature of my mind because my life experiences over the past decades has compelled me towards this kind of introspection and analysis. I have realised the dangers of clinging and chasing towards happiness, and achieving a balance state of mind is necessary for spiritual growth.

Five Layers in an Individual

Out of five layers of an individual’s existence , the mind or the mental body sits right in the middle, with the intellect and bliss body preceding it towards universal consciousness and the energy and physical body succeeding it towards material world (see fig.1) . The mind is the seat of emotions and desire, it acts as a bridge between the outer sensory world and inner world of consciousness. The mind takes the sensory inputs through perception and presents it to the intellect for decision making. The mind can either let the consciousness to move outwards into the material and sensory world or inwards into the universal consciousness. The outward movement of consciousness leads to suffering (happiness and sadness) and inward movement leads to joy. It sounds contradictory, but happiness when ‘pursued’ is a form of suffering as well, even if we dont want to agree. On the other hand Joy is not pursued, it is our real nature, our true being.

The Projecting Mind

Now, speaking about the Mind specifically, an ordinary mind is like a pendulum that constantly swings between past and future, and the breath follows mind like a loyal servant. The breath and mind a.k.a the energy and mental bodies are intimately connected. One follows the other. People, events, places from the deep recesses of the memory are projected onto the mental screen. The minds eye then sees these projections and if we are not aware it gives rise to thoughts, feelings, desire and sensations. We then cling to happy memories and repress or suppress unhappy feelings.

The action of clinging to happy feelings and rejecting unpleasant feelings are both the forms of suffering. Extreme happiness is based on conditionality of a pleasant memory or an imagined pleasant future event , both of which are not everlasting.  They can crumble and take us down the path of unhappiness. This is the world of duality that most people live in.

The Way Out

So what is the way out to stop this mental pendulum from swinging between past and future ? 

It is very hard to stop the projection of people, places and events appearing on the mental screen because these are latent sensory impressions of our memories. This wont go away easily. But what is possible is not to be attached to these impressions when they show up on the mental screen. Being aware of these projections itself and staying with it is sometimes sufficient to remain in the present state of peace rather than being dragged into past or future. We need to develop ability to freeze that person, place or sound right at the time when it appears without allowing to blossom into thoughts, feelings, desires and sensations.

Another technique is to let the mind follow the breath instead of breath following mind which is by default for most people. Letting the mind focus on the incoming breath and going with it all the way in and going out with it all the way out keeps the mind from swinging between the past and future. For people with anxiety, this is a great method to bring the mind to the present to have a calming effect. Listen to this technique from the master himself – Bhagawan Osho that is called ‘Anapanasati’ – Awareness of Inhalation and exhalation that establishes the connection with breath and mind.

Referring to Fig.1, the outward movement of consciousness is caused when the mind interacts with the material world through the senses, the result of which is happiness and sadness, a world of duality. But when the mind rests with the breath without getting attached to thoughts, the possibility of consciousness moving back towards the bliss body is imminent.

🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 The result is Joy ! 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼

References

[Fig. 1 & 2] Pendulum background image sources: https://www.weightmanagementpsychology.com.au/ , https://www.vedantu.com