Viewpoint October 2007
Out of Your Mind
by Dr. David SimonPause for a moment, close your eyes, and look into your own awareness. You’ll notice that you are engaged in a perpetual internal dialogue, interpreting and evaluating what has happened, is happening, or might happen to you. This is your mind.
Your inner thoughts and feelings reflect your perceptions of the world, while your intentions and desires direct the experiences you create. Both the world around you and the world within you are changing. The greatest mystery of life is how our sense of self endures despite the fact that our experiences and thoughts are transitory.
People identify themselves by what they think most about. If you think of yourself as a lawyer, businessman, or software engineer, it is because the bulk of your thoughts are about your job. If you identify yourself as a mother or spouse, it reflects that the greatest proportion of your thoughts are concerned with another person. Your identity as a member of a religion or political party indicates the considerable time you spend thinking about the beliefs that are held to be true for that group. Your self-image or ego-mind derives from the beliefs, people, things, positions, and possessions to which you attach yourself.
There are two drawbacks to creating an identity solely in your mind. The first is that your thoughts (and the behaviors that follow) are easily conditioned. Most people have about 60,000 thoughts in a day, 59,000 of which are the same thoughts they had yesterday. We think and do things repeatedly—and then wonder why we are unable to manifest something new in our lives.
The second challenge with defining ourselves through the dialogue we have with our attachments in the world is that everything in the domain of form and phenomena is changing. If my sense of self is dependent upon a job or relationship, then when things change (I lose my job; the relationship ends) I lose my sense of self. There can be no lasting peace when the ego-mind is our internal reference point.
20 Ways to Go Out of Your Mind
Watch a sunrise or sunset.
Swim in the ocean.
Lie on your back and watch
the clouds.
Make love.
Listen to classical music.
Stand on your head.
Get a massage.
Smell flowers in a rose garden.
Dance.
Ride your bicycle downhill.
Go surfing.
Go sailing.
Tickle somebody.
Anticipate what your next thought will be.
Pay attention to the space between objects.
Hold your breath.
Follow a bird.
Bite into a lemon.
Listen to a thunderstorm.
Practice meditation to access the gap between thoughts.
The ego-mind is perpetually judging. It can’t help it; judgment is in its nature. Sensory experiences register on the screen of your awareness and you instantaneously label them by drawing upon memory. With each sensation you ingest through hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting, or smelling, your discriminating mind passes judgment. Is it good or bad? Pleasing or disgusting? Do you like it or not? As a result of this discrimination, you pass the ultimate judgment; do you or do you not declare ownership? In other words, do you make it yours?
You decide, for example, that you need a new fall jacket. You go to your preferred clothing store to see the current fashions. As you shop, information about style, color, fabric, size, and price registers in your awareness. Each registration is accompanied by judgment�you like the cut, you don’t like the color; you like the pockets but you don’t like the buttons; you like the material but not the price. Finally, the net judgment of your experiences generates a declaration of ownership. You buy the taupe linen jacket with the wooden buttons that is on sale today.
This process of registration, judgment, and ownership extends to all domains of life�from the type of toothpaste you use to the magazines you read to the partner you call yours. We need our discriminating mind to survive in the material world. On its own, however, it prevents the possibility of lasting peace or happiness. Because its nature is to perpetually compare what you have with what you don’t, discontent is intrinsic to the ego-mind.
What’s the alternative? Become intimate with the silent spaces between your thoughts. Underlying and giving rise to the judgments in your mind and molecules in your body is a domain of consciousness that is accessible whenever the thought traffic of the mind stills. We get glimpses of this ever-present field of witnessing-awareness when we see a rainbow, hear an awe inspiring piece of music, experience ecstatic sex with someone we love, taste a delicious culinary dish, or inhale the aroma of freshly cut tuberose flowers. Whenever we have an experience beyond words, whenever we go out of our minds, we touch the unlimited dimensions of our being. Cultivating a meditation practice that quiets mental turbulence enables us to expand our internal reference point from skin encapsulated ego-mind to unbounded, eternal spirit. In the space between thoughts, we eavesdrop on the mind of the universe and realize who we really are. Established in this state of unconditioned being, we can engage in the world of thought, behavior, and things with freedom and grace.
Dr. David Simon is the medical director and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing located in Carlsbad, California. For more information, visit www.chopra.com or call 760.494.1639.