The Utamed Mind

This piece is about the mind and thoughts. It is about how we perceive, why not switching of our analytical mind when it’s not needed deceives us, and how it is possible to become in control by becoming an observer.

Some things can only point you in the right direction, like a menu, the menu is not the food but points to it. So please forgive me if some if this article seems repetitive, it maybe, but only because saying something differently helps moves one in the right direction, seeing something from multiple perspectives gives a rounder picture.

There are times when you have a flash of insight, maybe something you never understood becomes understood in a moment, a flash. It becomes understood at all levels in you, a feeling level, body level and thinking level, in moment understanding of something happens in all places in you together, at once and without any doubt. Essentially you know, and you know you know without any doubt, there is no need to be uncertain, because you know, the inspiration and flash of knowledge was so complete you just know it for your self.

This flash of understanding can also occur after intellectual understanding has accumulated and seems reasonable to accept; however, thinking/intellectual knowledge is like an island, only part of the world knows, part of you knows but not all. Thinking knowledge is not really complete until every part of you knows it. You can be reading things, thinking, logically deducing things, but the learning isn’t really complete until a flash of inspiration that fills in the missing areas of your being with the meaning of the intellectual knowledge arises in you. These flashes of inspiration rage in size and impact.

Yoga practice, that is personal and regular, seems to promote these flashes of inspiration, many a time I have had a phrase spring to thought after such a flash of inspiration. Or at least I seem most creative in writing terms after a yoga practice.

Today I had this pop into my mind with the flash of understanding; “As our untamed mind, so is our false reality. Mind Empty of thoughts perceives 100%.”. For a long time now I have been able to see how when the mind is empty of thoughts, switched off, not running wild is a good thing. It’s calming, peaceful and allows observation without misperception. It allows us to act from a deeper level.

I have understood for a while the benefits of not thinking when analytical muscle is not required, but today I realised the true impact, meaning and importance of training the mind so you control it, so most of the time you do not think but just are. So why and how does the untamed mind cause false perception. Well as you can imagine this isn’t easy to explain. The yoga sutras, philosophy and science explain this very well, but it’s only intellectual until the deeper understanding occurs, as it has with me.

Imagine your arm, you only use it when you need it, you only walk when you need to walk, when your sitting there is no need to walk. Well the mind is like your arm or leg, it is a tool, a function of the body, but it only needs to be used for certain things at certain times. The problem many people have, let’s say most, is that the mind is running wild like untamed horses. The untamed horses distract and get in the way of the real moment or situation. While the horses are running around and distracting us, we fail to notice many things. As I have proved for myself, it is possible to do many things with no thought; years of meditation have taught me that. And so once a person has experienced the ability to act without thought, and be in a busy place without thought, one understands how being in the world doesn’t need the constant flux and flow of idle thoughts like circus acts, distracting us moment by moment.

The mind and its thoughts need to become under our conscience control, this way we can learn to turn on or off the brain muscle, on and off the analytical, on and off the thoughts, at least to become aware of our thoughts without unconscious involvement, without our actions being caused by an untamed, unchecked thought. Reaction is when a situation prompts a thought that prompts action without the mind seeing this thought, and discerning if it’s appropriate.

To quote David Swenson an Ashtanga Yoga teacher; “The fruits of Yoga mature with practice and care”, and like K. Pattabhi Jois an Ashtanga Guru says; “99% Practice 1% Theory”. Lets also quote Aristotle; “Practice is the best of all instructions.”

How did I come to have this understanding? A combination of regular personal yoga practice including regular mediation, yoga lessons, reading the yoga sutras. Over time the garden of me cultivated in this way promotes understanding at a deeper level, allows me to develop the skill of not thinking, and improves my ability to not think and be in control. In essences to transform myself from conscience to unconscious, although I admit I still have a long way to go.

I hope I have been able to share some of my insight, although hopefully you will appreciate that these words only uncover a truth at shallow level, and are not the total understanding that I have talked about.

Copyright © 2008 Russell Smithers