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| Category: Inner Peace |
Date published: May 8, 2003 |
"You Are Not Your Mind" by John Lehmus © 4/9/03
We are told that we have many senses, but the most common for me are sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch, intuition and imagination. Yet there is a lot more going on in our lives than simply these senses. While talking about our many senses with a good friend the other day, I asked about the sense of fear and they said ?oh that?s an emotion?. That comment, got me thinking and writing.
What about our emotions? What happens when we feel an emotion? What do we do? Because it doesn't seem to fit into one of the sense categories, we think the emotion has become us or maybe more accurately said: ?we have become our emotion?.
When an emotion is given our full attention, it does become very real. Just like oxygen allows a fire to burn, our mind can keep an emotion alive for many minutes or even many hours. Sometimes, an emotion can last days, weeks, months or even a lifetime. For some, emotions become so strong people will even say ?I am so anxious? or ?I can't think straight?. For those, the emotion has become so strong, there is no separation between self and mind, between being and thinking. Our mind has taken control. But, We Are Not Our Mind.
The thinking in our mind can become much like background noise that we have become used to. It is like the sounds of a heating system or a fan or even a dishwasher. We don't notice it?s there, until it stops. Then, we experience relief. We may say, ?Whew, glad that stopped?. But, in truth, we didn't even notice it, until it did stop!
Our busy mind can be much the same way. For example, when driving, our mind can become very busy thinking about our day, worrying about the future or even reliving an event that happened years ago. And then all of a sudden, an animal runs out in the road and we react with lightening speed to swerve and miss hitting the creature. Next, we take a deep breath as we look in the rear view mirror, to be sure all is okay. Then we sense a calm and a quiet that we haven't felt for a long time. An event just happened that totally brought us to the present moment. To what was literally, right before our eyes we awoke! The mind stopped and we became one with the now.
Here is an idea. When you are by yourself, while walking, or driving or just sitting at home, here is a practice that will help: speak your mind out-loud. This will help you see the mind chattering. By saying it out-loud we physically disconnect from the thinking that is going on in our mind, and we realize our separateness - our separate selves - our own individual being. The more we practice, the larger the abyss. In fact, "Our Being" will start to grow larger than our mind. Another practice that will help is to visualize setting your mind on a shelf or on a table. By doing this, you will immediately notice your Being, awakening. These practices will be very liberating.
Emotions can seem so real, but they are just the mind chattering. At a subconscious level we have become our mind. But wait, when we can see our mind as separate from our being, we can learn to slow it down, as if it were a tape player, with a speed control. When we are aware of the mind chatter, we start to adjust the speed control and slow it down. First a garbled voice, and then eventually slower and even slower. With practice, we even find the "Stop" button.
Thank You for listening.
Namasté
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