A Mind without You

Imagine a computer that is not programmed and you have all the potentiality of inserting whatever script into it as to make it run according to how you want it. And when it is done, the nature of the computer will work exactly to what you input, except that you have to run it.

The nature of the mind works exactly what the computer does. It has its own nature according to the one who runs it. It has a life of its own, so to speak, due to what has been programmed. The only difference with the mind is that the programming is constantly changing, in relation to the person who experienced it.

In truth, the person who experiences the mind is not two different or separate experiences. The “person” is the mind, and the mind, the “person”. If you are trained to observe the mind with “you” getting out of the way, the experience of that moment will be such – the mind by itself already knows what to do and each time when an experience arises, which is a mind experience, you will observe that there is an already old attitude responding to it. That respond is a natural mind reaction, responding accordingly to what it has formerly been taught to do so. And that reaction is the new ongoing programme rewriting the mind so that it continues its existence.

Hence if you wish to write a new programme instead of the default rewriting, what do you think can be possibly done? Positive thinking? Not possible if you are not recognizing and first accepting what is already in the old program. But how can you accept the old program if you are not skilled in handling what is already here, especially since the mind will do its already way of reacting? What will be the best solution to this situation, which is in fact, the situation of the mind all the while as how we think and react is constant with what we have always done in the past.

Do you see that you need new information to this situation? Without new information it is impossible for the mind to know anyhow. Consider that the reaction was due to the way you only knew how to respond as you had not been taught any other way. What if you were to consider that the way the mind is already reacting is nature working its way. There is no you there when the reaction occurs as it runs according to what it has been scripted, again and again. You were not there for it as you were totally unaware when it happened or happens.

“Nature working its way” is a new information given to you. The next round when the same happens again, and when you are aware, can you just give the experience a voice but telling yourself that nature is working its way – it is not me who is reacting. By having this right attitude you are writing a new script into the mind. There are times just by having this right view, you will also experience you are no longer re-experiencing the reaction at that moment. It simply means that wisdom has taken place at that time, allowing the mind to move into a new direction, hence the old reaction no longer apply. Will this new experience of non reaction occur again in the future since the new script is written? Depends how strong your old script is and also whether wisdom will visit you the next time when you apply the new attitude nature is working its way

Overcome

Mirror, mirror of the Mind
who is the greatest conjuror
of them all?
MIND, sir.

Mirror, mirror of the Mind
who then is the greatest illusionist
of them all?
Again it is the MIND, sir.

Oh, Mirror, mirror of the Mind
if both are you
who then is the greatest trickster
of them all?
DELUSION, my dear lord.

Oh, Mirror, mirror of the Mind
who then is the greatest conqueror
of both the Mind and Delusion?

Err…..

Speak out Oh, Mind
who then is the greatest conqueror
of both Mind and Delusion?

Wisdom, sir….

Craackkkk……!

Mind is Not You

How would you define experience? For me, experience is how the mind defines it. In other words, I experience according to how the mind defines experience. And since I can never move out of the mind, I am merely an experiencer of the mind. I am not the mind but merely experiencing what the mind offers.

Do I have a choice in how the mind experience? Yes and also a no. I can create causes for the mind to experience a certain way, but I cannot change how the mind is already experiencing. Give for instant, pleasure. Pleasurable feeling is an already arisen state in the mind and I am a receiver of it. Can I reject it? No way. Similarly if anger is already in the mind, which is an unpleasant feeling, I too have to experience it according to what the mind has generated. In both instance, be it pleasant or unpleasant, both are merely experience deriving from the mind.

Now how you experience both depends much on your own wisdom. If you were to truly understand that both are not really yours except a passing by experience of the mind then you are able to take both equally as they come by. It will be difficult for one to understand how both experiences can be taken equally the same considering that one is more pleasant than the other. It is possible if you were to consider what makes one pleasant and the other unpleasant. Pleasant and unpleasant are relative by nature and not as fixated as what you think it is. One moment of pleasant can next be relatively unpleasant to the experiencer if another object of much deeper pleasure comes into picture. The depth of the experience depends on how you relate to it. There is no difference between a cup, or say, a lover, except your meaning given to it. Both are merely objects subject to my relation but my relationship to it is another thing all together. My relationship with the cup is just for drinking whereas my relationship with my lover is emotional, hence both gives me different flavour and intensity to the experience.

As such how I relate to it defines my experience. So if I think I can reject the mind experience, I might try resisting the unpleasant feeling or to hold on to the pleasant feeling. My ignorant thinking makes it so; ignorant to the fact that the mind is here to stay, not something I can push away or hold on to. Ignorance will result in my not seeing the mind is constantly what I am experiencing and as such I do not have any say on it except to experience.

If you truly understood and realized this fact, then your pleasant or unpleasant feeling will be equal as you will see there is no possibility of holding on or resisting it. That is why it is so important to come back to watching my own attitude if I wish to stay as much peaceful with the world, as the world is in actuality the mind receiving and processing and I am the end receiver of it. If I don’t see that the mind is not me, I will be having a hard time accepting what is. This is what wisdom is for when one meditates – you can’t detach from the mind but you can be detached from the experiences of the mind in an impartial way – and this can only be done by right understanding or right view.