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Tame Your Own Mind
Most of us tend to think that we authorise the thoughts that arise in our minds and that we are the masters of our minds. But do you believe it to be true? When was the last time you could stop your mind from incessantly babbling whatever it wanted? This reminds me of the experiment where you are told NOT to think of a multi coloured cow and the first thing that comes to your mind is a multi coloured cow which probably doesn’t even exist! Yeah i know a multi coloured cow doesn’t exist. “Then Karan — thats my name by the way — why do you write ‘probably’?” Thats because when I was asked not to think about a multi coloured cow, I first needed to know what a multi coloured cow is and then i could assign my mind to think of anything but a multi coloured cow! Thats how our mind works. Actually thats how we think our mind works. We communicate through words. But what are words? They are these symbols that were invented by us humans. Now, I need you to give this a thought. Whenever you talk or think, you do so by the use of words, be it in a conversation with someone or yourself. Next time you do so, notice this that your mind forms sort of mental images or symbols about the words that were spoken by you or were thought by you. So in order to understand something you need to make mental images of things that are being spoken about and hence the image of a multi coloured cow comes to my mind when I am asked not to think about it. Thats just how it works. So, does controlling your mind mean that you should be able to avoid thinking about that multi coloured cow when you are asked not to? No. this was just an explanation about what I think how the mind works. The point I am making here is that you need to realise how powerful the mind is.
Consider this, we perceive our environments through our senses and the most used of the senses is our visual perception. Though stoners wouldn’t hesitate in agreeing with me when I say that we see things differently when high. Don’t believe me? Well, then go ask LSD. If a drug can trick your mind into seeing things that aren’t there do you think that we could rely a 100 % on our senses? I am not asking you to doubt whatever you see. But I am surely asking you to consider this fact that all our perceptions about everything around us is an illusion of what we think. And how we think? Through that complex yet beautiful machine that sits at the highest position (if you…
