Turning monkey mind into meditative mind

Sanyasa is a state of mind. A person may be mentally fixated on material things while living in the Himalayas. On the other hand, a householder may be unattached from all the material possessions, while living in society. It all depends upon: what is there in mind?

The question arises of how we can work on the fixations of the mind. I feel that there is only one way and that is to be aware of each moment. There are 5 steps, following which one can easily overcome these fixations:

1.    The king regains control by asking the right questions to the minister: In the normal state of awareness, as human beings, we are aware of a very limited range of reality. First of all, there are limitations of the senses. We can not see beyond a particular range of light waves. The range of sound waves that we can hear is also very limited. Our mind can understand only a few phenomena.  With these limitations, the first easy step in the process of dropping the fixations is to realize the limitations of the mind. Mind understands too little and yet remains so sure while assigning meaning to different things and attributing value to them. It remains so sure that success in a particular exam will make life wonderful, or accumulation of wealth will make us happy, or getting a name and fame will give us perpetual pleasure, or damaging an enemy will make us satisfied.

The first step is to become aware of the limitations of this mind. If a king is acting on the advice of a trusted minister and the minister has a very limited perspective, the first step for the king is to be aware of the limited perspective of the minister. The king just needs to ask the right questions to the minister. Suppose the minister warns the king of the dangers, the king needs to ask back where the perception of the danger is coming from. If the minister tries to lure the king to attack the fellow kingdom, the king needs to enquire about the genesis of these thoughts and the analysis carried out by the minister.

 Generally, out of laziness, we forget that we are the kings. Our rational mind (king) just starts playing to the tune of the emotional mind (minister). The moment, we regain control, we start asking the right questions from the minister. We understand the limited perspective of the emotional mind and learn to calibrate or moderate the advice of the minister. This is the first step in the direction of awareness.

 2.       Leap of faith: So far, all our motivations have been oriented around the likes and dislikes of the emotional mind. Once we regain control, we have to make the decisions of life. We are no longer ready to blindly act on the advice of the minister. At this stage, we need to take a leap of faith. At this stage, we don’t understand what is the reality. Our physical existence is less than a dust particle on the earth when we see it on the scale of the universe. Even the combined knowledge of the entire humanity is too little to make some sense of what life is.

 However, once we understand the limitations of our knowledge, we start developing an agnostic faith in nature. We start observing and appreciating the miracles of nature operating from the quantum scale to the scale of the universe. We appreciate the dance of sub-atomic particles inside the atoms as well as the vastness of the cosmos. With this appreciation, comes an agnostic faith in nature. How life has emerged on earth despite it being such an impossibility. The right distance from the Sun, the right speed of rotation, the right angle on the tilt of the axis of the earth, the right climate, the right temperature, the right atmosphere, flora, and fauna. How can so many impossible combinations take place to make it possible for life to grow on Earth? We are not very sure of what it is, but at the same time, we develop some faith in nature. This motivates us to explore it further and understand it more.

 The king now comes out of the comforts of the palace and starts exploring the kingdom. Faith grows within which motivates him to explore further where this faith is coming from. If one starts looking at the light coming from outside the well, we have been residing for a long. It attracts us to explore it further. We get tempted to come out of the well.

 At this stage, we start exploring different books, interacting with the people moving along this path for a long to share their experiences, and thinking about the nature of reality. There remains a lot of confusion at this stage. The minister tries all the tricks to regain control over the kingdom, with fear and insecurity being the primary tool. It will offer different temptations to the king to get over these insecurities and fears. The king has to just ask one question: whether the solution offered by the minister will remove the fears and insecurities forever or it’s just a temporary solution and the fears and insecurities will come back in another form? 

 3.       Time for action: The next step is to live life with awareness. As the king regains control, he carries out the day-to-day activities with awareness. He carries out the work with the same ministers and yet is vigilant of them.

We carry out all our activities with awareness. We start becoming aware of what is going on inside us while making any decision. We observe the anger, jealousy, anxiety, stress, and greed within. We observe what effect these movements have on us. As the king becomes aware, the ministers get to know their right place. They know that their advices are being seen through by the king and therefore they also become wiser in their advice. Now they do not create panic over small things and realize that the king is capable of taking the heat.

Wisdom starts guiding the decisions of the king. The king takes one step back from F to E (Fear to Exploration) which helps him significantly move in life. This results in a significant course correction. While the decisions so far were driven by the strong desire to have more pleasure and avoid pain; the decisions are now driven by the curiosity to explore. To know the nature of the light coming from the opening of the well. It results in a significant change in the way we live life. We gain more control over our decisions. We are able to say “no” to many things that we have been doing so far due to habit patterns, fear of losing a friend or a relationship, need for social validation or approval, or desire to be praised. We are able to make many decisions that are not well appreciated by society caught in the routine.

With these steps, we learn to say no to the waste of time in meaningless conversations, parties, gossip, and pursuits of shallow possessions. We become free to decide where to invest the time. Generally, while making decisions, we hesitate to say no because of the direct or indirect correlations of these decisions with our likes or dislikes. For example, we feel that society may not like our non-attendance in a social function, howsoever irrelevant it may be to us. With wisdom, we realize the significance of time and the stupidity of wasting time for social approval.

4.     True knowledge of the law of nature: As the king explores the kingdom and remains aware while making decisions, he starts gaining knowledge of his kingdom. As we live life and make decisions with awareness, we start gaining wisdom. With wisdom, we start understanding the laws of nature. We start understanding the real nature of the self. With this understanding, there comes absolute clarity in life.

5.    Meditation: While living life, we come across many situations and there is a continuous bombardment of information. Sometimes, we get puzzled. That is the reason why the regular practice of meditation helps us. During meditation, we withdraw from the outer world and our thoughts for some time and connect inside. Though, a person who follows the first 4 steps may always remain in a meditative state of mind, even a short duration of meditation helps us to reconnect internally and observe ourselves.