We inhabit this planet and have a connection to the universe. Before there were ever people, there were us. When compared to the vast diversity of life on Earth, human civilization seems little. Four or five billion might be our population size. The world of vegetation is enormous. In light of this, our planet seems little and insignificant.
Beings may be classified as either mindless, mindful, or mind-expanding. Worms, fritters, insects etc. are lacking consciousness since they do not have developed mind. That’s why we label them “underdeveloped.” They are mostly guided by sensory awareness in daily life.
Humans have a very sophisticated brain. A human being is gifted with mental potential. The man has some mental faculties. One of the mental processes is thinking. He has a good memory. Remembering is a mental process. He has a vivid imagination. One other mental exercise is using one’s imagination. So, he sets goals, dreams big, and strives to achieve them. The human mind, memory, and creativity are extraordinarily advanced.
Sensitivity is the Cause of Sorrow
There is a law in the world that states that wherever there is a thinking process and a mind, there will also be unique individuals. Conflict arises in every mental activity. Conflict, sadness, and anguish would accompany the existence of the human intellect. Happiness, not sadness, is what most people want. It’s just normal. Everyone, not just humans, deserves to be happy. No one wants sadness. Beings who don’t have minds nevertheless feel pain, but it’s little and indefinable. They don’t have nearly as much mental capacity as humans have, thus they don’t suffer from the same levels of stress or misery.
There are two forms of grief. Both are results of the unfavourable scenario and the emotions sparked by such condition. It’s the thoughts and emotions prompted by those negative occurrences that create the most pain, not the actual events themselves.
It is only reasonable for the daughter-in-law, son, and servant to feel upset when the mother-in-law scolds the daughter-in-law, the father complains about the son, and the master complains about the servant. Rude comments are unpleasant for everyone involved. Hurt caused by unkind comments doesn’t last forever. The effects go off within 10–20 minutes, but emotional distress might linger for much longer. It may persist for two or four months, two or four years or may even endure the whole lifespan. The intensity of the pain increases as a result of the accompanying feelings. A person’s level of empathy and sensitivity determines the intensity of his feelings of loss. Fickleness produces hardships and so does shortage. Emotional distress is much more painful than physical pain. When there is no longer a need to worry about running out, as happens in times of plenty, people tend to feel unhappy. The sad response to the event leaves an inner impression that stays with you for a very long time.
Developed Mind Causes Sorrow
Mindless living things suffer a lot less than humans do. When a plant is damaged by having its leaves or branches plucked, the plant experiences physical pain but quickly recovers as the plucking stops. A guy suffers pain when his finger is broken on purpose. His finger will continue to hurt until it heals. The pain this accident inflicted, however, won’t go away until the last tear is shed. The sadness gets sustained over a long period and the individual continues to be unhappy. The mental imprint of emotional pain is permanent.
The related sadness becomes the sensation, the perception. Being the most intelligent species, humans are also the most defenseless. If his brain had never matured, he may not be burdened by grief.
A Buffalo or Bull that is beaten will feel extreme agony and suffering. It probably forgets it within a few minutes, but a person doesn’t forget, since his memory is strong. He has a vivid and powerful imagination. He deliberates, examines, verifies, remembers, and stores. However, he continues on. The trial resumes after this point. His reaction, in which he consumes himself in the flames of wrath, beyond explanation. As a result, mental progress brings more anguish. The evolution of the human intellect, although unquestionably beneficial, also poses the greatest threat to society.
Let the Developed Mind Become a Blessing
Curse and blessing go hand in hand. There is an image from Greece. In Greek mythology, King Midas is famous for his ability to transform whatever object he touches into gold. When he received the benediction, he was overjoyed. As he starting touching the water, wide etc. they all turned into gold. He was unable to consume even the bread or water. His daughter visited him at home. She too became a statue of gold at his touch. The blessing became a burden.
Can we find a way to break free of this evil? The mental anguish that people experience nowadays makes one wonder whether it wouldn’t be better if humans didn’t have minds at all or if the human mind never evolved to such an advanced stage. When one has left behind the immature mindset, he has no desire to go back there. Then, the issue of whether or not the pain of having a sophisticated brain may be mitigated emerges. A workable solution to this issue has been developed. Meditation proved to be the answer. Only by sustained meditative practice can the benefits of a highly developed mind be maintained. While meditating, he will be able to let go of his sadness. He needs to enter the state beyond the mind in order to alleviate his grief. Only through contemplation can this be accomplished.
The third kind of living things are those that are completely mindless and unbiased. These are the living things that have given up thinking altogether. Beyond the mind describes this point in one’s mental evolution. The final destination of the mind is the higher state. In this condition, a person is fully awake and aware yet experiencing neither cognition nor imagination. In this condition, there is no sadness nor difficulty; rather, there is simply happiness. Many Indian thinkers have written on this condition. This is a place where some people believe existence, awareness, and happiness all coexist. This group of organisms is very rare. True happiness is in a place beyond the intellect, and only those who have seen the truth have ever known it.
States of Mind
One cannot compartmentalize joy and sadness while one is in the bestowed frame of mind. They have decided to stay a couple. There will be moments of joy and times of sadness. Light and shadow are inseparable companions, just as day and night. In a similar vein, there will be periods of calm and times of turmoil in the mind.
Sukeshi, the son of a minister, was strolling beside Prince Bhadrababu. The prince looked around at the clustered people and said, “What place is this?” The question is why everyone is here. This is the crematorium,” Sukeshi told the prince. Someone has died, and the funeral and cremation will take place right here. The prince, who was somewhat self-conscious about his appearance, overheard this and inquired. What’s the point of torching the body? How come we can’t keep it? After death, the corpse decomposes, the minister’s son answered to the prince. The item begins emitting a putrid odor. Nobody wants to keep the dead corpse near him.” The prince turned his gaze inside. The beauty was permeating every part of the body. He questioned. “Will my beautiful body also be burnt one day?” The son of the minister spoke forward. “Yes, it would be burnt one day.” The news made the prince agitated. His vanity over his attractiveness was shattered. Hum shuddered at the thought that his body would be burned. He started feeling agitated and down.
The King eventually found out what had happened to make the prince so downcast. He then led the prince to a holy man and explained what had happened. The holy man responded, “Prince! You fell into delusion, and that’s why you’re down in the dumps.” The human body is ugly. The awareness at home in the body is quite stunning. You felt down since the physique was so attractive to you. When the prince finally saw the truth, his mental unease subsided and he began to recover.
The mind might be in one of three states: tranquil, restless, or transcendental. Men are more likely to choose a life of restlessness. The minds of the wealthy are just as agitated as those of the impoverished. Because he lacks money to buy food and shelter, a poor man’s psyche is always on edge. A wealthy man’s mind is restless because even after possessing all the conveniences of life, he is not pleased with them. Rich people tend to be more restless than poor people, according to surveys. When worries are absent, mental tranquility ensues. The mind is at rest for the moment, but it won’t stay that way for long. Unpredictability is on the rise, and so is mental restlessness.
The last, transcendent level of consciousness is represented by the number three. You’ve entered a meditative state. The beyond mind condition is accessible via meditation. When you reach that point of staring, you can no longer think. Here, just your own awareness is active. The mind and the state of being aware are two distinct entities. Freud’s thesis relied only on mental processes. The intellect was the only thing that mattered to him.
Mind and psychic are both terms that were created by Yung. The mind and the self-aware awareness that it has are the two. The intellect is a limited tool that can never provide a full picture of life and its pursuits. However, the scope of awareness is far greater. All actions and reactions may be understood in terms of the interplay between the mind and the conscious self. The mind dies, but the psyche or awareness lives on and even becomes brighter after death. When the mind is at work, awareness is pushed to the periphery. When the mind is tranquil, the awareness becomes more active.
The mind is at rest and quiet in the beyond the mind stage, yet the awareness is bright and alert. The mind is awakened via the practice of meditation. In this condition, there is no past hurt to carry about with you from real life or your fantasy. Your worries will finally be over. When the mind ceases, ideas stop. When you stop thinking about it, your sadness will stop. Sadness and mood swings go hand in hand with mental activity. Distraction, according to Maharshi Patanjali, leads first to sadness. Inconsistency leads to misery and evil. The greater the degree of capriciousness and diversion, the deeper the loss. A person doesn’t want to endure agony, but he doesn’t grasp what is causing this suffering. It is common knowledge that sadness develops when circumstances are unfavourable. Even the most enlightened thinkers agree that bad luck brings sadness, yet nobody has ever attempted to quantify the extent of that sadness. When things aren’t going well, it’s important to remember that how badly you feel about it relies on how easily you give up hope.
How to Attain ‘Beyond the Mind’ State?
Mudita , often known as “long breathing,” is the practice of noticing, or rather feeling, the absence of breath while observing it. Look at the gap between when you breathe in and when you breathe out. While it’s normal for your mind to wander while deep breathing, practicing mindfulness may help you transcend your thoughts. Whether you call it “beyond the mind” or “no-breath,” arriving to either condition is the same. A physical activity is just that if we can’t achieve the condition of no-breath via it. Though getting to the point of being beyond the mind is not simple. One may progressively hold the thoughts and attain that condition. Shift your gaze from one of dependence to one of independence in your meditative practice. We should strive for a condition transcending mental and cognitive processes. This is the purpose of meditation. Keep in mind that gaining insight into the mind is not the goal of meditation. If we just use our heads, we’ll simply be playing and getting ourselves tangled up like kids.
No matter how wise or educated a person is, if he hasn’t achieved a meditative state, he will never be able to stop playing mental games for the rest of his life. He sees it as the last goal, thus the pain never goes away. If you keep playing mental games while meditating, you’ll just be meditating in your head. Even though one may experience feelings of happiness and peace while meditation, after the practice is over, nothing will change.
A herdsman came to a Pandit and said. The end of the month is near. Earlier, I pastured your cows for you. Now is the time for payment. The Pandit gave an answer. You are a guy of great purity. What good would money do you? What part of the Vedas don’t you understand? According to Vedic texts, Brahma permeates the whole cosmos, making everything Brahma. Who will pay the bills when we’re all Brahma? After hearing this, the herder started to worry.
A month has passed since I began pasturing your cows,” the herdsman reported to the other party. Please give me the money. “Don’t you know what Lord Buddha has said!” the guy said. He said, “Life is short. The cows that you bad grazed, they are all dead long ago. They died instantly upon impact. The cows we see now are their descendants. I’m dead and now so are you. You, I, and the cows have all just given birth. Who is going to pay you, and who are you going to give the money to, for the elderly cows you grazed? The herder couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He told the whole situation to a knowledgeable person since he couldn’t come up with a solution. Someone gave him advice and told him. “Keep the cows with you and don’t send them to their owner homes.” He told the herdsman what further needed to be stated.
It was becoming late, and the cows still hadn’t made it back to their owners. The herders’ owners hastened to the herder’s home to inquire. “The cows have not yet come home?” The herder called out, “Panditji!” How about those cows? Who is to take the cows and who is to give them? Did you forget the theory you espoused this morning, that Brahma is everywhere? Retire to your cozy abode.””Oh!” said the Panditji. That was a philosophical conversation. Here, take this cash. After receiving payment, the herdsman released the cows.
Another individual showed up to the herder’s home to voice the same concern: “Why have the cows not yet returned?” Which cows?” asked the herder in response. They are all dead. The one who gave to them is dead, as is the one who was meant to look after them. You should repeat this process at home. Nothing lasts forever. The individual was frustrated by having to shoulder the weight of his own remarks, and he became furious. He questioned why we were having philosophical conversations at this time. Please accept this payment and bring back the cows.
It’s all in your head here. It was everything a game of strategy, including the ideology. Until such mental and intellectual games cease, neither religion nor philosophy nor truth will be what they claim to be. To find the truth, one must go beyond the intellect.
Mudita Dhyan students need to face the fact that they do not belong in the mental kingdom. Instead, they need to join the kingdom that exists beyond the conscious realm. The mind does not exist; only awareness does. The pain will never go away till this point is reached. The only condition capable of alleviating this pain is Beyond the Mind. We spend our days and nights in the realm of thought. The mind’s games might keep us up at night. Our of twenty-four hours, at least for twenty to thirty minutes one should learn to live without thought. This action will result in the birth of new life. The elderly are the ones who live to play mental games. The new way of living goes beyond the mental and is instead governed by awareness.
You should look for help while practicing. Help is always appreciated. The first steps are taken while clinging to mom’s finger. As he gets older, he no longer needs the finger to help him walk, and he can do it without difficulty. The only way to go over a river is on a boat. We ditch the boat on the other side of the river. Although assistance is important, it is not beneficial to rely on it indefinitely. If a meditator always leans on the same support, the practice might become harmful to him. One of the goals of meditation is to help the practitioner realize he or she must eventually go it alone. The help he offers should be relied on. In the end, only self-sufficiency will do. At first, all you have is your breath to lean on. When one has this help, they don’t have to remember anything or use their brain. It gets away from many thanks to the help of one. This is the aid that will save you from getting lost. With its help, we may make our way to our destination without any other assistance.
