The Journey-in.com
The Conditioned Mind
The conditioned mind is the greatest challenge to a beginner of spiritual practices.
Try sitting and observing your thoughts for 5 minutes, I am sure you find that you are deluged by a constant stream of thoughts, and even if you do not want to think or entertain them - since some may not be positive or nurturing - you seem unable to exert any sense of mastery over this effort.
Understanding spiritual concepts in themselves can be easy for many, as sometimes certain words or premise immediately wrap themselves around our hearts with such a sense of “rightness”, leaving very little room for the intellect’s interjections. The challenge comes however, when it was necessary for the mind to integrate the information as a new way of responding to situations.
The understanding or accepting the information is not the effort, integrating and assimilating it as our new way of thinking and corresponding behavior, become not only the next step in the process but also proves to be the test itself.
In other words, recognizing spiritual principles for many usually comes easily… but how do we let go the conditioned mind in the moments we need to release all those negative patterns of thinking?
“My heart knows the truth, my being says - yes, yes! but years (lifetimes) of being enslaved to a faulty belief system, keeps me shackled to the bad feelings, the pessimistic outlook and depressive state.”
So many times we speak “Universal truths”, because they do resonate deep within, but then, there is still that gap between our discernment of innate knowledge and where our conditioned minds are in each moment. Now, if there is a way to snap the fingers and have it transformed in this instant - (anything is possible I guess) - but I don’t know that way….
For me, it was going through the process of re-conditioning my mind; years of assimilating new information, years of re-training my mind to “think anew” - learning how to become non-attached to my negative thought patterns.
The act of simply observing - The Witness.
Learning not to associate my sense of self with my emotions and thoughts, learning how to bring meditation into every activity - so that at last - there comes a moment when - wait a minute - my attention is not tied up with thinking, halleluiah !
Somehow, I can change this thought because it no longer represents who I truly am - Or, I have enough presence of mind to be in this moment - fully at one with this moment.
For me, change was and is a process…
The journey of coming home to myself.
And at the end of the day, whatever we use to get there,
are only tools that help to re-train our runaway minds, and eventually, we put them aside because we will no longer need them. We are in-tuned and reconnected to our Higher Mind - the God Consciousness in us.
Then, it becomes effortless ease…
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Try sitting and observing your thoughts for 5 minutes, I am sure you find that you are deluged by a constant stream of thoughts, and even if you do not want to think or entertain them - since some may not be positive or nurturing - you seem unable to exert any sense of mastery over this effort.
Understanding spiritual concepts in themselves can be easy for many, as sometimes certain words or premise immediately wrap themselves around our hearts with such a sense of “rightness”, leaving very little room for the intellect’s interjections. The challenge comes however, when it was necessary for the mind to integrate the information as a new way of responding to situations.
The understanding or accepting the information is not the effort, integrating and assimilating it as our new way of thinking and corresponding behavior, become not only the next step in the process but also proves to be the test itself.
In other words, recognizing spiritual principles for many usually comes easily… but how do we let go the conditioned mind in the moments we need to release all those negative patterns of thinking?
“My heart knows the truth, my being says - yes, yes! but years (lifetimes) of being enslaved to a faulty belief system, keeps me shackled to the bad feelings, the pessimistic outlook and depressive state.”
So many times we speak “Universal truths”, because they do resonate deep within, but then, there is still that gap between our discernment of innate knowledge and where our conditioned minds are in each moment. Now, if there is a way to snap the fingers and have it transformed in this instant - (anything is possible I guess) - but I don’t know that way….
For me, it was going through the process of re-conditioning my mind; years of assimilating new information, years of re-training my mind to “think anew” - learning how to become non-attached to my negative thought patterns.
The act of simply observing - The Witness.
Learning not to associate my sense of self with my emotions and thoughts, learning how to bring meditation into every activity - so that at last - there comes a moment when - wait a minute - my attention is not tied up with thinking, halleluiah !
Somehow, I can change this thought because it no longer represents who I truly am - Or, I have enough presence of mind to be in this moment - fully at one with this moment.
For me, change was and is a process…
The journey of coming home to myself.
And at the end of the day, whatever we use to get there,
are only tools that help to re-train our runaway minds, and eventually, we put them aside because we will no longer need them. We are in-tuned and reconnected to our Higher Mind - the God Consciousness in us.
Then, it becomes effortless ease…
Syndicate Nerak's articles on your site! Fast, Easy & Free!
