 You
need to understand your mind in order to conquer it. Once you start
understanding your mind, you will be able to control your life in a
constructive way. The Mind is like the sky. We all know what the sky
is; yet, there are few of us who can define it. If I were to ask you,
“What is the sky?” - you may point your finger upwards
and say: “That is the sky.” Similarly, we know that the
mind exists, however, we do not really know what it is, we may have
never even thought about it. The mind can only be understood by the
mind itself.
If we consider the question: 'What is sky?' You may say it has the
sun in its centre, which implies that the sky has borders. The centre
and borders are subjective and would change for someone in another
part of the world. This shows that the descriptions of the centre and
borders are subjective notions and not complete descriptions of the
reality. The sky may be beautiful where you live but that does not
mean that you can limit a part of the sky and say that this part of
the sky, for example, is the sky of England.
We all know that the sky is blue but few of us know why it is blue.
We do not know where it comes from, whether it is material or non-material,
nor its size. The Mind is similar to the sky; it is formless, without
substance and without dimension. It has no centre, nor borders. Yet,
we limit the limitless and reduce the infinite to the finite, remaining
locked up in the narrow confines of the ego, or the "I."
This is as absurd as someone from, say, England having a notion of
"English sky."
We all suffer from two types of suffering, external and internal.
Most external circumstances have possible material solutions, but,
for internal suffering material solutions are ineffective. This can
be illustrated as follows.
Let’s consider a rich person who is the leader of a peaceful
and thriving country. This person, who possesses all the external sources
of happiness, has a dream in which he’s being chased by a gang
of thugs who want to catch and kill him. This individual suffers from
anxiety and fear. No matter what he may have materially, his dream
cannot be relieved by any remedy outside the dreamer's mind.
Similarly, we may possess all the material conditions for happiness,
but, this is of little help if our minds suffer, stress being a major
cause of mental suffering. For internal problems we need internal solutions.
Meditation is the only solution that can free us from inner mental
suffering and anxiety because it deals with the mind.
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