Chapter 4 Understanding the Nature of Mind

You only notice your legs when you're in pain; otherwise, you don't notice them at all. Similarly, you only notice your hand when you have a cut; otherwise, you don't. In a sense, your mind has become sick because you only notice it and nothing else throughout the 24 hours of the day. The healthier a body is, the less it is felt. You only feel the unhealthy part. And now, the only part of the body you feel is your head. Your consciousness only moves around it, only recognizes it. A pathological wound has appeared there. Without getting rid of this wound, without getting rid of this very tense and very uneasy state of mind, no one can reach the center of their life. So today we will discuss this state, the mind, and how to change it.

The first thing you should do is clearly understand the state of your mind. If you sit alone for ten minutes and honestly write down the thoughts that are passing through your mind on a piece of paper, even your closest friend would be reluctant to show you that paper—because you'll find those thoughts so crazy that neither you nor anyone else could have predicted them. You'll find some thoughts so irrelevant, useless, and contradictory that you'd think you've gone mad. If you spend ten minutes honestly writing down what comes to mind, you'll be very surprised by what's happening there. You'll wonder if you're lucid or insane. You never even spend ten minutes looking into your mind—or perhaps you don't look in because deep down you already know what's happening there. Maybe you're scared.

Our minds have become completely confused, but we have never paid attention to this problem, so we have not yet developed a solution to it.

But for this to happen, you must first understand two or three things. Only then can you think about how the mind can be changed.

The second thing to remember is to discard all feelings of conflict and struggle in any state of mind. Simply create a feeling of wanting to know and understand—"I should understand what my mind is really like." One should enter the mind with this sincere feeling. That's the second point.

This contradictory nature of the mind is well understood by advertisers worldwide, but religious leaders are completely oblivious. Propagandists around the world understand it, but so do societal leaders. When a movie ad says "Adults Only," children will run to see it wearing fake mustaches. Advertisers know that to attract children, they must use the phrase "Adults Only" in their ads. Some women's magazines say "Women Only." Nobody reads them except men; women never read them. I asked around and found that most buyers were men. When I asked magazine distributors about the magazines they sold, they said, "Women occasionally buy 'Women Only' magazines; they usually buy 'Men Only' magazines."

From your childhood, the foundation of education is this: if an idea is wrong, suppress it. That suppressed idea isn't destroyed; it goes deep into your unconscious. And the more you suppress it, the deeper it goes, and the greater its power over you.

Anger is wrong, so you suppress it: then a stream of anger flows within you. Sex is wrong, greed is wrong, this is wrong, that is wrong… Whatever is wrong, you suppress it, and in the end you will find that you have become what you suppressed. How long can you block the spring of repressed anger by closing these openings?

Moreover, the mind works in a specific way. For example, whatever you try to suppress or escape, it becomes central to your mind. The things you want to escape become attractive, and then your mind starts moving in that direction. Try it! — If you try to escape or suppress something, your mind will immediately become very focused on it.

That's why people are afraid of being alone, and spend 24 hours a day searching for companions—wanting to find a friend, go to a club, or somewhere. And if they can't find anyone, they start reading the newspaper or listening to the radio. Nobody wants to be alone, because the moment you're alone, you begin to discover your true state. When someone else appears, you become involved in what you do with them, and then you stop noticing yourself. The search for others is simply a search for an opportunity to escape yourself. The fundamental reason you become interested in others is that you're afraid of yourself, and you know very well that if you fully understood yourself, you would find yourself completely insane. To escape this state, people seek companions, partners, friends, social groups, and crowds of people.

People are afraid of being alone. He becomes afraid of being alone because in solitude, he finds a reflection of his true state; he encounters a reflection of his own face. And that can be very frightening, very terrifying. So from the moment he wakes up in the morning until he goes to bed at night, he uses various methods to avoid himself, to prevent himself from facing himself. He is afraid that he might see himself.

The first thing to do to connect with your mind is to ignore what others say or how you appear to them; instead, you must connect directly with your true nature. You must completely open your mind in your solitude and see what's there. That's an act of courage. It's the courage to enter your inner hell. It's the courage to look at your naked self. That takes immense courage.

The third point is that whatever comes to mind should not be judged. Do not judge what is good or evil. Evil and good are two sides of the same coin. Where there is evil, there is good on the other side; and where there is good, there is evil on the other side.

Good people and bad people are not different; they are two sides of the same coin. But a saint is a third kind of person—in whose heart there is neither good nor evil. The coin has completely disappeared. A saint is not a good person, a gentleman, or a saint. A petty person always hides within a gentleman, and a gentleman always hides within a bad person. A saint is absolutely a third kind of person. He transcends good and evil; he has no relation to either. He has entered a completely different level, where there is no question of good and evil.

So my third point is: Don't decide whether a thought that comes to mind is good or bad. Don't condemn or praise it. Don't say it's bad or good. Just sit beside the stream of your mind, as if you were sitting on the riverbank, watching the water flow indifferently. The water is flowing, the stones are flowing, the leaves are flowing, the pieces of wood are flowing, and you are sitting on the riverbank, quietly watching.

These are the three points I wanted to tell you this morning. First, be fearless in the face of your mind; second, don't impose limitations or constraints on it; third, don't judge the thoughts or desires that arise in your mind, don't judge them as good or bad. Your attitude should simply be indifference. These three points are necessary to understand the abnormalities of the mind. Then this afternoon and evening we will talk about how to get rid of and transcend these abnormalities—but these three basic points must be remembered.