Whether you waste it or not, the human mind is a task-master. It’s a sneaky, conniving, self-serving supercomputer worthy of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Only it’s not trying to elevate Soviet supremacy. The mind’s main purpose, left to itself, is generating falsehoods that keep you beholden to its truly fantastical dreams.
I’m right.
I deserve better.
I can’t stand that.
I wonder where she got the nerve to take my daughter out shopping?
Eastern teachers have lots to say about the mind. Shantideva, a really sloppy student in the good old days in India, confounded his classmates with an astounding commentary on mind and the mind’s enslavement to itself. Because he was a lazy young man who never showed up at class, the students were expecting him to shrink away humiliated rather than expound to all of the Nalanda University crowd.
I’m right.
I deserve better.
I can’t stand that.
I wonder where she got the nerve to take my daughter out shopping?
Eastern teachers have lots to say about the mind. Shantideva, a really sloppy student in the good old days in India, confounded his classmates with an astounding commentary on mind and the mind’s enslavement to itself. Because he was a lazy young man who never showed up at class, the students were expecting him to shrink away humiliated rather than expound to all of the Nalanda University crowd.
But Shantideva had been doing his own contemplation of reality. And his suggestion for doing battle with a noisy, bossy, greedy, omnipresent, merciless chain gang mind was this:
Be a log.
Do you have any idea how effective this is? Hold your place and let it all pass. Whatever drama storms are raining on your life, they cannot last. Are you those storms? Are your thoughts real? Even when tainted deeply with emotion? Especially when tainted deeply with emotion!
Because I am in a playful time of life, the advice to “be a log” gives rise to others:
Because I am in a playful time of life, the advice to “be a log” gives rise to others:
Be a leaf.
Be a flower bower.
Be a bunny.
Albert Einstein—the king of creative insights—said, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm no mathematical genius or spiritual saint, but I know from writing novels that intuition is mind before mind. Intuition flows, it is not a think. (I meant to type thing, but it’s not either one: a think, or a thing). Intuition works before and beyond words. Intuition is our access point for the great mysterious reality we are.
Tibetan teacher Anan Thubten says, “Drop the mind.”
Ouch. But is that painful—dropping the mind—or is that sweet? "Mind is the greatest hindrance. Mind = the conceptual splinter. A splinter to consciousness, causing so much agony in us for countless eons, indeed. Remove the splinter. Spirituality is unbelievably simple: drop the mind."
(Watch a video of Anam Thubten teaching, and smiling that radiant smile, here.)
Be a log.
Drop the mind.
Wear the boots on your head.
And doing so, the sacred gift of intutition automatically and naturally rules.
Ouch. But is that painful—dropping the mind—or is that sweet? "Mind is the greatest hindrance. Mind = the conceptual splinter. A splinter to consciousness, causing so much agony in us for countless eons, indeed. Remove the splinter. Spirituality is unbelievably simple: drop the mind."
(Watch a video of Anam Thubten teaching, and smiling that radiant smile, here.)
Be a log.
Drop the mind.
Wear the boots on your head.
And doing so, the sacred gift of intutition automatically and naturally rules.
Get your servant serving. Do not let mind rule your roost.
