Dealing with the mind is like dealing with a child. Much care has to be put into the act. When the mind is in a delusional state and once aware of it, we can lead it to inquiry instead of identifying with it further. It is like a child who has fallen from the swing and is crying. We don’t cry with the child but embrace the child in our arms and tend to his hurt. However, in most cases, we identify with the mind hence believing that we are the ones suffering. Of course, in that space, we and the mind is not separated yet that detachment from the mind state is necessary in order to bring that delusional mind back to its balance from its state of confusion.
One way to bring the mind back to balance is to question it, and at the same time loving and respecting its process without judging it. It like much like the initial journey of saying, love yourself and don’t judge yourself – and it is actually more truthful to say appreciate and not judge the experience rather than the mind or yourself.
Mind is just nature doing its own work. As lifeless as a tool, it is a powerful tool almost likens to have a life of its own hence comments such as the mind being tricky and cunning can be heard of. This actually is a good thing as then the practice of awareness does not cease until it becomes habitual hence natural.
It is possible to infuse favourable qualities into the mind to take responsibility, as in to bring the attention inwards instead of outwards as in to fix what is outside, the world. What is in the world is already an effect and hence to fix what is effect is as good as fixing the TV screen rather than the player that is playing the movie. It is essential to go back to the cause as in meeting the cause; the cause becomes causeless when it is met with understanding and compassion. So it is redundant to perform a ritual of letting go of a situation or a person but for it to happen naturally arising from realisation or right understanding of the situation.
Yet again, because of the identification with the mind, it is easy to forget that we are not the mind and hence become the child that needs to be tended. No wonder people grow old (in age) but never grow up. We are more than capable to mould and lead the mind towards liberation hence experiencing a life of the same but many run and run around the merry-go-round like a little hamster running around its little cage not knowing where the door opening is. The door and its key have always been visible and reachable. It is just a matter of finding it. Tools and skills have been imparted yet the tendency to get sucked into the dramas and storylines are so strong. Again, seldom anyone ask the mind – Why? What is the matter here? – as you would a child.
Yes, it is easy to forget. But once we remember, what do we do then?
Since we experience through the mind, it is essential to take care of the mind. Allowing the mind to speak its piece, as in allowing it to be heard is a way to allowing it dance to its end too. Until then, nothing needs to be done but be with it. It is like a little child, just needing YOU. You are its master and responsible for it, if not you – who?
Q: Why suffering?
A: It’s good question to ask but the answer is never the answer. It’s not that I know the answer and the child doesn’t. It’s that I don’t know the question and the child does. I see that the question that haunt the child’s mind has no reality outside of it. We want to ask questions and get answers, and when people ask us questions we want to give them answers, but there’s only one true answer and it lies at the exact center of the question.
Q: What about sin and original sin and all that?
A: There’s only one sin; the only sin is ignorance. Ignorance is sin, sin is ignorance. There’s nothing else.
Q: Ignorance of what?
A: It’s not the kind where you don’t know something. It’s the kind where you do know something that’s not true.
The question is not to be answered by the one who questions. There is no reality outside the mind. There is no one out there. It’s all in the mind.