What is mind? What is the spiritual search all about? Are we masters of our mind? Observe this mind when you really feel like having a piece of chocolate or a glass of beer.
The quintessence of all spiritual searching: to explore, subdue and shape my own mind.
You should go through this word by word.
My own mind
It’s about my mind and not about anyone else’s mind. I can influence and subdue others. But by doing so, I do not change anything in myself. I have to do it myself, and I have to do it with my mind.
What is mind?
In short, mind is what creates me and what shows me how the world is.
On the obvious level, mind is my thoughts and my emotions. The mind can recognize, understand, know and be aware. The mind creates the one who says: I.
My mind makes the sky blue. He is my gateway to everything imaginable and beyond. He is the creator of heaven and earth. He causes me to be happy or unhappy, to rejoice, to have anger, to hate or to love.
Why “subdue”?
The first and most difficult step is to become master of my mind and no longer be slave of my thoughts and emotions. The mind should do what I want it to do.
You think that’s always the case? Then observe this mind. Try to wait half an hour when you really feel like having a piece of chocolate or a glass of beer.
Why “explore”?
If I want to know how things are, I can travel around the world and look at many things and read a lot of books. But in the end I’ll not find the source. The source is my own mind.
Only when I explore my own mind, I can recognize the ultimate. Is that true?
Everything I believe to be true is based on assumptions. I have not investigated things. Is there a world that exists independently of me?
My mind goes beyond what my senses perceive. It creates a layer that is between me and the world. Glasses are in between, eyes, an X-ray machine, a microscope. I do not see directly. And there are thoughts and emotions, concepts, judgments, memories and ideas between me and the world.
Since everything is based in mind, I need sure knowledge about the mind. Where does the mind come from, where does it dwell, where does it go? What are its characteristics? What is its age, color and shape? What is the nature of the mind? Does the mind exist at all?
Why “form”?
My own mind has created reality as I perceive it. The world is learned. And thus the forming of my mind is the universal master key.
There are many tools to shape the mind. The most important one is meditation. Meditation can calm down the mind. One thought follows another. There is no gap. Only when the mind and the thinking have come to rest reality can become visible.
Silence is not about silence, but about simplifying. I don’t see a flower as it is. I perceive it and immediately come concepts, judgments, wishes, memories and ideas. To perceive the flower directly, I have to slow down the process.
Only when there is no layer between me and the other I can experience the world directly and purely, unfiltered by my normal mind with all its thoughts and emotions.
The mind is more than my thoughts and emotions. There is a state where there are no thoughts and emotions – but wakefulness and awareness.
What remains is clarity. There is the naked nature of reality as it is and has always been.
