Don’t Rely on the Mind to Free You of Conflict Because Its Nature is Entanglement (Thinking)

Intellect is a potent tool for problem solving but it cannot rid our conflicts and confusion. Therefore, analysis is a trap of the ego-intellect-mind system that leads to more thought entanglement.

Last week I received an email from a seeker, and she wanted me to guide her on the spiritual path to Truth. This seeker living in a Buddhist monastery was following Vipassana meditation and was receiving guidance from monks and other Buddhist teachers. From her email, it was clear that she was experiencing intense pain and was seeking an immediate solution to end her confusion, but was unable to do so.

What was the confusion? It was, “Why am I unhappy even when I’m following all the practices diligently as prescribed by the monks and abbots of the highest order?” My response in return was an investigation into what is that that she truly desires. But she wasn’t willing to go there. Why? Because it was painful, and perhaps, she wasn’t ready at this point to make a deep investigation inwardly.

She wanted what she presumed “I” had. She said, “I want to be at peace like you. Not troubled by anything in this world.” What she was not willing to accept was that despite all the teachings and learnings I had received to date, I do get troubled every now and then.

However, my trouble arises in the moment and does not sustain in horizontal time as prolonged suffering; but, like others, I suffer too. And when I suffer, I absolutely do nothing about it other than see it for what it is. In other words, I’m not doing anything to change what is happening in the moment.

She expressed the desire to be free from suffering, but look at the cunning trick that her mind was playing: she wanted to achieve that only through the practice of Vipassana and other Buddhist teachings while studying in the monastery. The mind has put a condition that it wants freedom or enlightenment or moksha or whatever you want to call it, and it wants to choose the path and process that it deems fit for such a goal.

Do you see the elaborate trap her mind has set for her? “I want liberation, but I want it on my own terms. I want it the way I imagine it should be.” This is how the mind entangles itself. What are we seeking freedom from? The mind claims that it wants to get rid of the ego and experience the supreme bliss, but what it fails to see is that it is not separate from what it is trying to attain freedom from.

Therefore, the nature of the mind is confusion, conflict, suppression, and getting entangled in the knots of obsessive thinking. It creates an image of supreme bliss and it also decides the path to it. Do you see what is happening here? That which you’re trying to free yourself from is not separate from “you.”

You say, “I don’t want to experience anxiety, restlessness, irritation, and I want my mind to be quiet. I’m willing to undertake any practice or discipline that can help me achieve that.” You choose a practice based on your personal preference, but who is doing the practice? It’s the mind preparing and planning for its own annihilation. That’s not going to happen. The mind will make a U-turn and revolt because that is its nature.

While you take up practices such as meditation, Japa, kriyas, or anything else, the mind trains itself to remain quiet for that duration. For ten, twenty, or two hours, the mind will teach itself to be quiet, and afterward, as you go about your day, it will resume the mischief. You will find yourself repeating the same patterns. The restlessness and irritation will be back along with that haunting emptiness.

Why does that happen? Because we’re caught up in finding a solution to an imaginary problem. The problem is that despite everything I do, I feel unhappy, and the solution that the mind has conceived is that happiness is to be attained to be free of unhappiness.

See the trap! They are two sides of the same coin—the interconnected link of opposites. You want to cling to one and avoid the other. Hence, our mind goes back and forth between clarity and confusion. Sometimes you feel blissful and calm, while other times, you feel restlessness and pain.

“It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.”

― J. Krishnamurti

The Classic Trap of Analysis

Just as a software code cannot understand its own nature, which is small electrical signals turning on and off, the mind, while as an analytical tool is fantastic, but it cannot use analysis to know its true nature—pure knowing—the awareness aware of itself as the Being. The awareness is the substratum of all intellectual and analytical thinking.

As the software code can execute a task efficiently based on the input provided, so does the mind operate efficiently based on the conditioning it has received. A mind trained in mathematics can solve complex equations with ease, but it cannot know objectively the awareness that it is.

Therefore, any solution that the mind comes up with to solve a problem will create further problems. “I want to get rid of my compulsive and obsessive thinking; therefore, I should not think. I want to get rid of my inner chatter that is negative and pessimistic, full of doubts and unworthiness; therefore, I need to be told and pacified repeatedly. I don’t want my heart broken; therefore, I should never love anyone. I don’t want to become materialistic; therefore, I should not chase money. I don’t want to be attached; therefore, I should learn to detach.”

The dualistic opposite is not the solution. The mind contemplating to free itself from itself is not going to bring peace and harmony. The mind trying to avoid clinging in the hope of getting detached, gets attached to the idea of detachment. Do you see the clever tricks it plays? Every movement of the mind is an attempt to expand itself as it is terrified of death. It fears loneliness. It fears abandonment. It fears stillness because stillness for the mind is like death.

So what is to be done? Nothing at all. Watch what is happening and that’s it! The analysis is the continuation of the mind. It won’t solve a thing. It won’t give you a bit of relief. When you give up the idea of the dualistic opposite as the solution, there is a total vision of everything that is happening. In that, things happening are neither good nor bad. They are precisely the way they are.

This undistorted, unfiltered, and unbiased vision is free from analysis. It is direct vision where the separation between the observer and the observed collapses. The collapse of this separation is peace and harmony. It does not require practice. It does not require effort. All it requires is to BE.

In being, there is total and unconditional acceptance of things the way they are, which includes “you” not accepting things as they are. There are no abrupt conclusions but the flow of life is observed without modifications and alternations.

Freedom From The Known

Yesterday, while walking with a friend, we came across a coconut water seller. He immediately recognized me and offered us coconut water. In the scorching summer heat of New Delhi, with temperatures soaring over 44 degrees, this drink felt refreshing. This coconut seller, a young fellow, asked me for a favor while we were enjoying our refreshments. He said he needed some loan to pay his college fees and asked if we could help.

Instantly, I see my conditioning arising: “Is he trying to extract money from me? Is he really studying or making an excuse to booze with his friends? Or will he spend the money elsewhere?” The fear-based thinking mind arises like a current and immediately starts analyzing. There is no way I can know if he was telling the truth because I don’t know him. So I asked him to wait while I spoke to my friend about this situation.

She said that he (the coconut seller) seemed genuine but she would leave the decision to me. The thinking mind again wanted confirmation from my friend to avoid the fear of being wrong or cheated. Why are we so afraid of being wronged? It’s going to happen every now and then. The mind lives in this constant fear to avoid situations where it can be proved wrong. Why? Because the mind is “me”—the story of which it has convinced itself.

“We carry about us the burden of what thousands of people have said and the memories of all our misfortunes. To abandon all that is to be alone, and the mind that is alone is not only innocent but young—not in time or age, but young, innocent, alive at whatever age—and only such a mind can see that which is truth and that which is not measurable by words.”
― J. Krishnamurti

After my brief conversation with my friend, we decided to loan the young lad some money. It was not a huge amount so we agreed that even if he was unable to repay, we would forgo that amount. So we gave him money and there was an innocent smile on the boy’s face while he said that he would pay back the money soon.

In that instant of decision making, whether to give the money or not, the mind was coming up with all the fears and doubts, but eventually, that did not stop us from giving him the money. Once the money was given, it became inconsequential as to what purpose the money would be used or whether the boy was genuine or not. None of the thinking arose because the situation was seen for what it was at that instant.

Only the mind free of past conditioning is free to look at the newness of every phenomenon. Even when a situation has happened multiple times in the past, it is looked at fresh as if happening for the first time. In other words, the past content does not distort the perception. It does not limit the perception with personal biases and prejudices.

Our capacity to offer compassion is not diluted because of past experiences, which may have been unpleasant. There is total seeing of the situation rather than the limited filtered perception. In this total vision, there is no choice (no analysis) but direct observation of the fact as it is happening at this very moment. All there is, is this moment.