Human beings do not live in the world of reality.

They live within the world created by their mind.

They are, thus, subject to its whims, its patterns, its haphazard fancies.

It is a life of routine. Emotional swings. Varied moods. Mental confusion.

What is this thing we call the mind? Does it truly exist? Can it be controlled? From where does it arise?

We live our lives according to pattern. The pattern of the sleep cycle that we have created for ourselves. The pattern of the route we take to work. The pattern of the manner in which we speak to our children. The pattern of our activities between returning home and going to bed.

We feel that we have a reason for doing what we do. We feel that there is a good reason for our patterns. If someone questions us we justify the patterns. Because we hold them so dear. Our habits have become our personality. Our habits have become us.

What is the consequence of such an existence?

Patterns and habits are extraordinarily seductive. Inertia is a very appealing phenomenon. But we pay for it with our lives.

Such an existence is barely an existence. And it certainly isn’t living. I do not have a standard manner of living against which I am making this judgment. The real litmus test is our level of bliss in any given day.

How many moments of bliss have you known today?

How many?

If a man is blissful, he can be certain that he is living a life. He can be certain that he has learned how to live. If he is not, there are questions that he must ask.

Why do we have such habits? Why do we live according to these patterns?

Because we live within our minds. The mind justifies everything. It has an answer for any question that you ask it. But the answers that it provides are non-answers. They are simply well-crafted justifications. Why do we listen? Because for all of our lives the mind is all we have known.

A wonderful contrast is to watch a child.

He notices every bend in the road. He asks about the shape of the cloud that you didn’t see. He asks about the ripple in the pond that you didn’t notice. He lives in a land of color. He lives in a land which is overflowing with life. While the adult hasn’t seen a new thing in years.

The adult lives in yesterdays and tomorrows. The reason he does so is because he feels that there is something to come. The child lives squarely within today. Because, for him, all that might come has already arrived.

The child lives beyond the mind. Until he is taught otherwise. Until he learns the habits of those around him. And soon the colors begin to fade. And where he once saw life, he now sees images. That which once raised questions, now produces assumptions.

What is the way out? Can we return to seeing what truly is? Can we act spontaneously, free of habit and conditioning? Can we recapture the mystery and the anticipation of the moment the way we once did?

We can.

How?

By understanding that we have lost it. By understanding that we have retreated within the mind. By ignoring the answers that our mind gives to us, and by understanding that the thoughts it produces belong to it and not to us.

This is the opening of the door that has for so long remain closed. And by opening it, we can perhaps see what we used to see. We can sit witness to that which has been there all along.

And we can, for once, turn our life into a living.

 

 

 

 

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Editor: Emily Bartran

Photo: derekdavalos/DeviantArt