Some days ago, I came across this interesting joke that at a premise, a signboard instruction displayed – “No Parking Zone, Penalty Rs. 250/-.” But nobody took notice or adhered to it. They would park their vehicles right below the signboard, until one day, a wise man deleted the words ‘No’ & ‘Penalty’ from it and the signboard then showed as “Parking Zone, Rs. 250/-.” Now nobody is parking any vehicle in that slot of premises. The owner is searching to felicitate the wise man who did this. That’s a laugh….!!
More as humans progressed to be social, more they became anti-social because human behavior has always been of antagonist nature. We tend to do whatever is forbidden. Even Adam & Eve ate the forbidden Apple, and hence the creation of Mankind.
Contradictory situations come in combination. If we have something, we become possessive and then protective of it. If we do not have something, we become envious or jealous and then obsessive about it.
Doubts of being deprived of what is yours creep in the first case, and passion to the extent of madness, of getting what is not yours, dominates in the second instance. So we keep making friends & foe in this process at all levels.
In the process of evolution, we have developed to be civilized, learned to be social, progressed to live in communities, grow food from the soil & process it to be edible. Invented, discovered & engineered all commodities of our need as well as protection. But the origin of our emotions, achievements, brilliance & creativity is singularly from – “Our Mind”.
Let’s Understand the Mind
‘Mind’ is probably the most powerful endowment given to us by God. It is the source of all man-made creations as well as philosophies. It is undoubtedly master of a body as from here, all instructions to a body generates.
The instructions are unimaginably intricate and are voluntary as well as involuntary both. The process of respiration, digestion & secretion of various chemicals in the body are examples of Involuntary instructions, whereas moving our hands, legs, etc. are examples of results of voluntary instructions given by the Mind.
The subtle Mind is primarily divided into 2 parts – Active & Super-Active. The Active mind could be said to be fickle in nature. Therefore it always endeavors to do the forbidden things. It will envy, feel jealous, fall in lust & try to break rules wherever.
But the Super-active mind which is the conscience (Vivek) is judgemental. It will always advise what is right and what is wrong. The character of a person is determined by the balance between these two.
When the active mind in a body is more powerful than the super-active mind, the person would be experimental, mischievous & driven towards the material side, or even towards the dark side. But if the super-active mind of a person reigns over the other, then the person will be rational & virtuous.
In short, it could be said that whatever a body does is what its mind orders to do. So next time please do not believe when you hear someone say that “I listened to my heart” because scientifically, the heart does not say anything but the mind does. A very special and unique feature that a mind has is that “it thinks” and this is our subject in this write-up.
Thoughts – the Power of Mind
Thoughts are the tentacles of the mind or we may state that the mind works through the Thoughts. According to a survey, as many as around 60,000 thoughts pass through a human mind in 24 hours.
The greatest force is derived from the power of thought –
– Swami Vivekananda
The finer the element, the more powerful it is. The silent power of thought influences people even at a distance because the mind is one as well as many. The universe is a cobweb; minds are spiders.” Thoughts are variable.
There are thoughts – good or bad, which apparently decide a human life. Generally speaking, the Mind works through its informers. Organs like eyes, ears, nose, tongue & touch are informers to the mind. Looking at something/ person or hearing, smelling, tasting or feeling, generates thought about a specific object, which in turn, triggers emotions, and determines its status and the mind’s reaction to it.
Thoughts are regular in the mind. A zero thought mind could be considered as a dead mind. Even during meditation, the mind is not without some minimal thoughts like thought to inhale and exhale, functioning of the heart, etc.
The mystery of the human brain is amazing. Dr. Vincent Candrawinata – a researcher at the University of Newcastle confirmed that humans have two brains. It is a very surprisingly strange fact about the mind/ brain of human beings but it is confirmed to be absolutely true.
Dr. Candrawinata confirms: “As our brain in our Head is a command center for our nervous system, being responsible for our thinking and processing, by receiving signals from our body’s sensory organs and sending instructions to the muscles, and thus creating feeling & movements.
Our second brain is located in our Digestive system and operates independently of our brain. Our Stomach contains certain elements of our nervous system which include chemicals that influence our mood.” It is very interesting to note that when we have an ‘Intuition’, why we often call it our “gut feeling”. Sometimes, we experience butterflies in our belly, if we are nervous. Also, if we are under stress (examination, interview, etc.), we have diarrhea or nausea.
It is because our gut receives the feeling that something is going to be wrong. This, not being a regular thought, is not received by the normal brain, directly. The gut, then sends signals to our brain in the head, to let it know that something is not going to be OK due to something. In fact, many researchers assign causes of many neurological & mental health issues, due to an unhealthy digestive system. All this is due to the presence of a second brain in our stomach.
So, thoughts stimulate & confirm, many known as well as many unknown facts. This brings us to another quest that is – the role of our imagination.
Thoughts, Imagination & Reality
The strength and potency of thoughts are unimaginable. According to our ancient scriptures and knowledge of our learned sages, all human beings are empowered with many hidden abilities that manifest when activated. It is unfortunate that we have always ignored this knowledge as we have been driven by limited information given by the modern science of today.
We often use the phrase “dream come true” and we have actually experienced this, at least once in a lifetime. Believe it or not, thought in the mind has the power to convert our imaginations into reality if it is supported with conviction. This is one of the basis of all holistic techniques; Law of Attraction (LOA) to be more precise.
Thoughts may be unaware to start with, but there are subconscious beliefs that set them into a motion –
– Sharat Sir
Given the right amount of conviction & belief, and imagination vibrates to produce results. This is the principle that constitutes the basis of LOA, where the prophecy is that “whatever we conceive, imagine or aspire with utmost passion & desire, the universe works magically to provide it for you.”
We often wonder that why does a poor man, or a person under debt, mostly remains in this distress. It is because of his/ her own state of mind. If a person is in distress, he keeps on thinking about this negative situation again & again, as a consequence, he keeps on attracting negativity throughout his life and never comes out of it.
But a person among these, who, instead of thinking about his adverse situation, thinks and works positively, with a passion and mindset for prosperity, shall attract fortune. Again, believe it or not, this is the rule of the universe.
As it has been wonderfully put in by Darwin P. Kingsley – “You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations of your own mind.”
I remember an excerpt from a book from author – Swett Marden, which I presume shall fit in to explain the power of the mind:
It was a night like many other tired & weary nights of the week. Father Joseph disrobed his white vestment and hung it on the peg and walked heavily towards his kitchen to have a mouthful of water. Feeling drowsy, his eyes were heavy with fatigue – it was a very busy day, he thought. After the daily sermons, he had been invited for a discourse, by a charitable organization that went on for long, and now at this late hour of half past midnight, he just yearned to have a good sleep.
Walking like a sleepwalker, as he advanced towards his bedroom, the doorbell rang. “Ah! Who could be there in this hour of the night?” thought the Pastor and went to answer the doorbell. In front, he found two gentlemen, who were visibly in distress. They pleaded for pardon, to have bothered the old priest at this inconvenient hour and explained their helplessness.
They requested the Father to accompany them to a nearby hospital, where their uncle, according to them, was at his last stage. The doctors have had done their best, but even they did not have any hope for the patient to survive. Therefore, they wanted that the priest may say a few words to him.
Father Joseph was a compassionate man. In all his tiredness of the day’s work, he could have refused, but then he could not forget that he was a Godman and carried responsibility for society. So pulling on his vestment, he agreed to come along.
In the Hospital, he could see the serious faces of the doctors attending the patient. The family members rushed to greet the Pastor and took his blessings. He was shown inside the ward, where a man of a lean appearance laid on the bed, in rather a delirium condition.
The Pastor could sense that the person has left his zeal to live. He approached the patient and started speaking in his ear “What have you done to yourself – My child. You do not belong to this place, just think about the sad faces of your family members, who are sitting outside, do you wish to add to their misery?”
He continued, “You still have your share of life, why do you want to deprive yourself of it? Believe in God, for sure he loves you, and so he created this wonderful world for you, but in your hunger to muster wealth, you forgot to live the Life. This is not what He sent you here for.”
While the family members of the patient, took brisk strolls in desperation on the aisles of the hospital, there was a suspenseful silence in the corridor. Apprehensive of bad news coming soon, they were expecting the priest would come out any moment, but the time passed by.
As their aggravation rose, and patience wore out, and with their throbbing hearts, they peeked inside the ward in anticipation. But their eyes widened in disbelief, as they found the Pastor preaching, while the mesmerized patient now listened to him, sitting erect on the hospital bed. Amazed by this miracle, the doctors who had given up, rushed to re-attach the patient with life supports.
Father Joseph appeared like an angel for the family of the patient. They told the priest that since the doctors had have lost all hopes, that the patient will live any-more, they desired that they should call a Godman who would say a few holy words to the patient, so that his soul may depart in peace, but here since Father Joseph did not know about it, because the persons, who were sent to bring the priest, requested Father Joseph just to say something.
Now as the Father had guessed the hopelessness of the patient, by the first look, he spoke of Life and this invoked, in the patient’s mind – a desire to live, and ‘his mind’ ushered his body to recover.
The above excerpt might be picked up from a book, but there are cases in reality, where a person have died, because of having lost his interest in life, and there are cases where a dying person comes back into life again because of his/ her utter desire to live. The mind leads and the body responds. This unique power of our mind is also a way to utilize the energy of the universe and the source of many healing techniques that we come across. This lays the fundaments of “Mindfulness.”
Mind and Mindfulness
The mind does what you apply it to. As a benevolent mind engages in virtuous thinking, a malicious mind is occupied with evil ideas. Both begets as per respective thoughts. I have read a quotation somewhere -speak it into existence but considering the power of the mind, the phrase might as well be corrected to “think it into existence”.
If Author Sidney Madwed has to be quoted, he says, “Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes, and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives.”
The Universe throws back, Good or Evil, whatever the mind wishes, so if spoken inversely, focus the mind on what you desire from the Universe, this is the doctrine of Mindfulness.
If we prepare and train our mind in such a manner, that it renounces all negative & fickle thoughts, and concentrates on our targets, desire & objectives with conviction and belief, the energies of the universe shall arrange ways for its achievement.
In the words of Denis Waitley – “If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won’t, you most assuredly won’t. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.”
To sum up, we can state that destiny could be altered and fortunes could be amended, the power of the Universe is committed to being you all, what is required is to be Mindful – Just Mind It.
If you feel excited about the power of the mind and desire to learn more about Mindfulness, the training program, conducted by our very talented VK teacher Rakhi could be very helpful to learn and practice this technique. Must check: What is Mindfulness? What is Mindfulness Meditation?
