JOURNAL - AUGUST 7, 2005

The Life of the Mind

Most of us live the life of the mind. A life spent in comparing and measuring, in ideas and concepts. When we are "up" according to these measures and ideas, we get relatively happy or relatively peaceful. When we are down, we get disturbed, unhappy and suffer pain.

If we look closely, what really goes up and down are these concepts. This can be seen in the area of fashion or diets as an example. Today, one concept is in vogue, tomorrow another, and there is a constant battle between them. We can also see this in our everyday values in life, which keep changing as we grow and experience new things. At one time, our life is ruled by the idea that "having more money is what makes us better"; at another time, it is ruled perhaps by "helping others more is the most important thing in life" and so on. We exchange one ruler for another, and certainly some rulers are kinder and gentler and less harmful than others. However, we are always being ruled by a concept.

These ruling concepts and ideas are constantly in motion fighting with each other, and cause conflict between individuals. For example, if I have the concept "discipline is important" and my wife has the concept "being free is important, discipline is boring", there is a source of conflict.

Similarly, at social and national levels, there are conflicts between ideas like "capitalism" and "communism". When nations and religions fight it is to defend a "way of life" which again boils down to a set of concepts and ideas.

We are talking about concepts and ideas as if they have a life of their own. And they do! They transcend specific individuals, transcend specific groups or genders or races, and appear in many sections of humanity. Then what is our (humanity's and the individual's) relationship to them?

We think that we control these ideas and concepts and that we have free will. However a hard look at reality will reveal that these concepts and ideas are defending themselves and perpetuating themselves at our expense. We can call this as the process of conditioning or programming. These ideas and concepts or programs work through us as individuals, groups, races and nations and perpetuate themselves. In other words "conditioning is making use of us for its own survival".

The strange thing is we are quite unaware of this, we are ruled by an unseen emperor. This is indeed the greatest tragedy of the human race, a race that believes it is free when in reality it is a slave. These ideas play their game even in the spiritual arena. We are constantly trying to measure ourselves, trying to see what progress we made, compare to others, etc, is it not. And frequently, it is easier to delude ourselves in this arena, making us even more of a slave.

What can we do? Shall we start to fight the emperor? When we do this, we start to see the next trick that is being played. The great trick is that when we try to fight and end this rule, we get enmeshed even deeper. More insight into this conflict can be found in the article "Ego vs Non-Ego".

So what can we do? All we can do is to be aware. And if you are fighting to end it, be aware of that. Any effort to end the life of the mind, gives it more life. Any effort to end that effort increases that effort and so on. In this sense we are helpless.

Most workshops and processes free you from one form of conditioning and take you to another. This is a very essential step on the route to freedom, but should not be mistaken for freedom from conditioning. It is definitely better to be a prisoner in a golden mansion than a prisoner in a cramped, filthy cage, but nevertheless you are a prisoner.

What needs to happen is a neurobiological change, a change in our brain structure and the energy patterns flowing in our body. This is Oneness or Enlightenment. Not a change in the mind, rather a change in the brain connections, and hence a change in the neurobiological system with a corresponding change in the energy field or energy body surrounding the person. Such a change can be brought about by the Energy Transfer for Oneness (Mukti Deeksha) that is offered by the Oneness Movement founded by Sri Amma and Bhagavan. Through this energy transfer, it is possible to be completely free from conditioning.

Only then do we truly live our life instead of existing in the life of the mind. A person living such a life no longer asks the question "what is the purpose of life", for the purpose of life is to live!