Creative Guidance – The Mind – Inspirational Educative Articles

The Mind:

Everything in existence is a part of the mind, because there is only one mind – the perceiving mind, the observing mind. To better understand the nature of reality around us, we have divided the mind into compartments, and we refer to it by different names. Sometimes we refer to our thoughts as the mind, like when we say, “My mind is disturbed.” What we’re really saying is, “I have some thoughts, some unresolved thoughts, and those thoughts are disturbing me.”

Similarly, we say things like, “My mind is restless. My mind is fearful. My mind is quiet.” But, if you will observe, all of this has nothing to do with the mind itself. It has something to do with the content of the mind. It has something to do with what you’re holding in your mind. The mind itself is not a part of this conversation. The mind is never disturbed because mind is always mind, whatever the nature of the mind might be.

Your mind is like a cup. Depending on the contents of the cup, you designate a quality to the cup, because the cup itself has no qualities. You pour water into it, it accepts. You pour coffee into it, it accepts. It will never question the contents. If the mind is not interested in knowing the contents, if the mind is not arguing, then who is talking about the disturbed mind, or the peaceful mind? Whose quest is all of this?

The next time you think your mind is disturbed, it’s very important to remember that your mind is not disturbed, but disturbance has been added to your mind. The moment you conclude that your mind is disturbed, you will want to do something that will take you into more distractions: “My mind is disturbed. I want to relax, maybe go out and watch a movie. I need to do something with my hands, I need to get busy.” You cannot quieten the mind simply by telling it to be quiet, or by distracting it. This is where you need a different method: That different method, that scientific method is called meditation. Meditation is really an effort to grasp the mind, which is everywhere, yet invisible.

“This article is a part of the creative endeavor of Nirvana Foundation and IASBABA.”