What do you mean by dysfunction? When thinking becomes an addiction; when we derive our self from what we think. When we start identifying ourselves with our thinking we end up creating an opaque screen of labels, images, judgments, words - this blocks the present and all relationships that come along with it. Thought is compulsive, and not being able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction.
The human mind can never be happy as it will always compare and contrast. All it can do is gather, store and analyze data. It is a survival machine and for its survival it needs to be given food - (ie) our attention to it. It will complain about what it doesn't have and flaunt about what it has (ego/self). People say that only when one goes through an acute mental dysfunction does this realization dawn upon the individual.
Our mind is always planning, trying to achieve some goal, trying to manifest some inner desire, using the present as a means to getting there. One cannot derive permanent happiness from the outside world as it is fleeting, ever changing. If you take a moment to think of all those incidents when you wanted to be like someone because he was smarter, more creative, more talented etc. your mind was at work. That is what it does, compare and contrast, complain about what it doesn't have and flaunt what it has. We need to realize that we are beyond our mind. When we take decisions based on the mind, we are unconscious, so as to say the present decision is based on a culmination of all our previous experiences. The need of the hour is a higher level of consciousness or what is called realizing our inner space.
Only our inner space that is under our control, can give us ever lasting happiness. This can be achieved thro' the realization of one's own inner energy field or the conscious presence. All meditation techniques focus on breathing that makes us become conscious of our presence, realizing the energy field within. The state of all presence and no mind.
The path to freedom lies in freeing oneself from the mind. Creativity is a derivate when one switches between the mind and no mind state. Great scientists have reported that the most famous discoveries happen when they switch between these two states.
Stress is a result of being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there’, being in the present but wanting to be in the future. Any joy that is perceived in the future is only an illusion, all happiness that can ever be is only in the present. The way to go forward is to accept the present and act. Always it is our duty to work with the now, not against it.
I am sure all of you know this, but felt we that needed to be reminded of it once in a while.
Cheers
:-) :-) :-)...Superb Post. You can also say that stress is a result of switching between the past and the present. "Oh i wish i hadn't done that..I i wish i had done this". Keeping on pondering on past actions. And as you pointed out, being fearful or anxious about the future.
ReplyDeleteLoved the post.