Friday, 6 January 2012

Mastery of the Mind

By Lucy Lidell 


The mind is like a lake, its surface broken by ripples of thought. In order to see the Self which lies beneath, first you must learn to still these ripples, to become the master of your mind rather than its servant. For most of your waking hours the mind is tossed from one thought to another, pulled by desires and aversions, by emotions and memories, both pleasant and unpleasant. Of all the forces that agitate the mind, it is the senses that most often disturb the concentration, giving rise to fantasies and desires. A well-loved tune in the radio sends the mind racing to the time you heard it first, while a tempting smell or a sudden cold draught can shatter your train of thought. Of all the senses, sight and hearing are the most powerful, endlessly drawing the mind outward and wasting valuable mental energy. For this reason meditation uses either sounds (Mantras) or images (Yantras and Mandalas). 


The mind is by nature constantly searching for happiness, vainly hoping to find satisfaction once it attains what it desires. On acquiring the desired object, the mind is temporarily silenced, but after a short while the whole pattern starts again, because the mind itself remains unchanged and the true desire unfulfilled. Imagine, for example, that you out and buy a new car. For some time you feel proud and satisfied – the mind is at rest. But soon you start hankering after a new model or a different color, or worrying about it getting stolen or hit. What began as a pleasure has become yet another source of discontent, for in stilling one desire, many others are created. 


Yoga teaches us that we possess a source of joy and wisdom already inside us, a fund of tranquility that we can perceive and draw nourishment from when the movement of the mind is still. If we can channel this desire for contentment inward instead of attaching it to external objects that are by nature ephemeral, we can discover how to live in peace.





Swami Sevaratna
Yogaspirit, Λαοδίκης 34, Γλυφάδα, Τηλ: 210 - 96 81 793
* If you live in Athens, I will be very glad to have you in one of my classes of Real Yoga

No comments:

Post a Comment