The mind and its patterns by swami sukhabodhananda

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The mind and its patterns by swami
sukhabodhananda
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We have spoken of the four qualities of the mind,
its psycho-somatic nature that extends beyond the
brain and spine to envelop the whole body, even
each cell of its millions. It is natures most
sophisticated technology, a powerful one at that.
Weve delved a little bit into how the Vedic
concept of the human condition considers these
interactions of the mind-body as creating an
illusion that prevents us from knowing our true
nature. We may do well to know how the mind works
in our everyday lives. How do we employ this most
sophisticated technology to reach a true
understanding of the Self?
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It is unfortunate that our education and
life experiences create and enforce patterns of
thinking that become engrained in us. In
neuropsychology, this may be explained through
the concept of anagrams a means by which
memories are stored when external stimuli cause
biophysical or biochemical changes in neural
tissue
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You have to change the old pattern of the mind
which is habituated to a world of becoming and
has forgotten the world of being. Our mind can
be trained and conditioned to work according to
our interests. You will never be the same once
you drop the old mind and start living freshly in
this moment. Dropping the future is cutting off
the deception that the future is the saviour and
the present is a curse of existence. One has to
destroy this foolishness. If one takes a close
look, time exists as past and future. The present
is not part of time. The moment you look at the
present it becomes the past. It is difficult to
understand unless one looks at life deeply.
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The real enemy in life is not difficult
situations, but the mind, which is unwilling to
be flexible, is resistant to explore, and
addicted to its own way of doing things. Our mind
has become a whirlpool, for it is not an abiding
mind but a scattered mind. A scattered mind is
activity. It always wants to be occupied. It goes
on seeking and seeking and seeking. The
activity-ridden mind creates illusions and starts
running after the illusions and then gets
disappointed when it realizes that illusions do
not provide joy or happiness. This upset mind
seeks happiness in the future. If one is lost in
such a mind and its pranks, it is madness.
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The mind is whipped by desire, by ambition, greed
and other such addictions. We are self-hypnotized
beings falling prey to our own illusions. The
drama of these illusions is not life. When one
looks deeply, one sees that the future is nothing
but an extension of the present and the present
is an expression of the past. If you are unhappy
now, you will be unhappy in the future because it
is an extension of the present. You have to learn
to change the now in order for the future to
change. You have to observe what is happening in
this very moment in order for the future to
change.