Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Melt the Mind into Butter


The mystics say the mind is a glorious tool, we just haven't learned how to use it yet. The great distinction between disciple and master is the mastery of mind. What is mind? Psychology inquires into the thinking processes but never asks what the basic primal energy of a thought is. Researching the role and nature of mind in our lives is the individual project of Yoga.
Amma, the hugging mother, says she holds her mind gently in the palm of her hand. The Bhagavad Gita offers that mind is like the wind, one cannot control it, only know how to allow it to sway. I hold that the mind is a laboratory of intrigue and mystery, one to be discovered, observed and clarified to make room for illumination.
One conclusion of meditation is that the mind is annoying, an obstacle that must be overcome. Vedantic philosophy from Sanskrit texts that have survived over thousands of years give our mind something positive to absorb itself in. Higher knowledge is as much about the meaning as it is about pacifying the mind with something positive. lt is like saying: "Here mind, rather than tangling yourself up in that non-sense worry, why don't you start untying this golden knot of existence and understanding your place in the cosmos!?" Ha, quite an invitation! But such is the splendor and adventure of Yoga.
Like the Sly and the Family Stone song, the refrain of the yoga tradition is "Everybody is a Star". A drop of God sustains every being. Our minds are ways back to the source, but they are currently off track and leading us away rather than towards. Our job is to tune up our minds and take higher aim by means of commitment and eagerness to our path. In this way life becomes not so much a riddle to be solved, or a problem to be fixed, but a path to unwind, a dance to take part in; we just have to listen foer the rhythm and get up onto our feet.