Yoga practice is to know what the mind is and who the ego within us is and how they are related to the perception of suffering.
The
ego is the voice in us that telling us ‘this is me’, ‘I am this, I am
that’, ‘I am happy, I am sad’, ‘I am healthy, I am sick’, ‘I am pretty, I
am ugly’, ‘I am superior, I am inferior’, ‘I am right, you are wrong’,
‘this is mine, that is not mine’, ‘I am not this, I am not that’, ‘I
want this, I don’t want that’ or ‘he’s this, she’s that’, ‘this is good,
that is bad’, ‘this is happiness, that is suffering’ and so on.
The
senses come in contact with the objects and through the senses, the
mind sees, hear, smells, tastes, touches, and thinks. It all happens in
the mind. Without the mind, we cannot perceive what we see or hear and
so on. The mind perceives everything through the sense organs, the eyes,
the ears, the nose, the tongue, the skin and the thinking faculty.
If
the mind doesn’t function anymore, when it is cut off from the senses,
the world doesn’t exist for us at all although we still exist to the
world, such like being in a coma.
Along with the function of the
intellect to differentiate all the differences of names and forms, good
and bad, comfort and discomfort, and the ego will generate likes and
dislikes, cravings and aversions.
When we feel good, actually it
is the mind and the ego feeling good. When we feel bad, actually it is
the mind and the ego feeling bad.
The mind is ever restless. It
is a continuous flow of thought waves constantly whether consciously or
unconsciously while we are awake, dreaming or in deep sleep. It is a
lifelong projector, showing the memories from the past, the names and
forms receiving from the senses at the present moment or the
imaginations of the future.
It is so fickle that it keeps on jumping from one scene to another without us realizing what is going on.
We will become insane and not able to control ourselves anymore if the mind goes haywire.
The
mind is such a beautiful thing if it is pure and under control, but at
the same time it can be very dangerous as well if we don’t have a clue
of what is going on inside there.
When we categorize the thoughts
in the mind as happiness, we will laugh and feel happy and crave for
more. When we categorize the thoughts as suffering, we will cry and feel
sad and rejecting them. If the craving or the rejection is not attended
or not gratified, then we will be frustrated and feel suffer because
it’s against our wish.
If we identified with the mind, we will be
happy at one moment and being unhappy at another moment and so on. It
is madness but it is very normal too.
When the mind is pure, we shall have no problems at all.
Once
we had purified the mind, the mind is an unlimited resource of power,
wisdom and bliss. The Yogis utilize the pure mind to tap the knowledge
of the universe.
First came thoughts, then they will manifest as
actions and speech. And these actions and speech will bind us with the
related karma (cause and effect).
Thus the health of the mind or the state of the mind determines the conditions of all the existence that we perceive now.
The
mind, the intellect and the ego work so well together. They like each
other very much and will support each other like a family.
The
ego is under the influences of the mind all the time, but the mind is
like an innocent child because of it ignorance. The thoughts in the mind
do not mean to influence anything or to hurt anyone or to control
anything at all. It is just a continuous flow of thought waves arising
and passing away. It is neither good nor bad in nature. It has no
intention to be good or bad if we do not attach to them.
The ego
does not like the evolution of the self in the path to enlightenment or
Self realization (selfless), because it is weakening by the progress of
the self moving towards purity and closer to the higher consciousness.
It has less power. Eventually it will go into deep sleep, when the self
has reached selflessness (egoless).
If we have developed a strong
will power, we can easily over power the ego and have control over all
the impure thoughts such as lustful, greedy and evil thoughts.
Selfishness
is one of the characteristics of the ego. So as not wanting to be
disciplined is one of the characteristics of the mind.
The mind
does not like to be disciplined or being controlled and restraint, like
our hands and feet are being tide up, not free to do what we like, we
won’t like it.
They are very impatient as well. They like variety
and cannot concentrate on one thing at a time for a long period, they
will get bored easily.
They both like the things that they are
agreeable with (doesn’t matter right or wrong, good or bad). And they
are strongly rejecting the things that they are not agreeable with.
If
we want to transcend ‘suffering’, we need to transcend these two
elements within us. They are the main factor or the switch that keeps
telling us ‘this is good’, ‘this is bad’, ‘this is happiness’, and ‘this
is suffering’.
We can not kill them or make them disappear. But
we can transcend or over power them by strengthening our will power,
purify the mind, stilling the mind and unfold the wisdom.
Practicing
the Yoga asana (control of the physical body) and Pranayama (control of
the breath or Prana) regularly and other disciplines of the teaching
can help us to achieve this.
The Prana and the mind are
inter-influencing each other. When the Prana moves, the mind moves and
vice versa. By controlling the breath, we can control the Prana, and
thus controlling the mind as well.
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