One of the aims of a spiritual journey is mastery of the mind. The essence of a yogi life is the transformation of the mind from mindless to mindful; the mind becomes one’s best friend—all fighting is over.
The mind is meant to be as free as a bird, or, to use another analogy, like a plane. We do not want our plane to crash or to lose it or for it to crawl along at ground level. A plane is made to fly. The mind is meant to fly and not get caught up in a web of entanglement with the minds of others. We use expressions like the mind being blocked or paralysed, contaminated or poi-soned or heavy—‘a lot on my mind’. If I regain sovereignty of my mind, I am able to fly free.
The mind thinks and feels and is constantly active. It cannot stop thinking for very long, or it can, but only under special circumstances. The mind creates thoughts at different speeds, to a greater or lesser depth. It has the ability to focus, or it can be scattered in many directions. When we ‘lose our mind’ we lose the ability to think properly.
The kinds of thoughts that confuse the mind, take it into some kind of maze, are thoughts like ‘I cannot’, ‘I wish I could’, ‘I should have’, ‘I would have, if…’. Thoughts like these weaken the mind. We need a very healthy cycle of thoughts to keep the mind full. It is the quality of thoughts, not the quantity of thoughts that makes it full. We need thoughts of understanding and meaning, which come from spiritual knowledge. We need thoughts full of colour; virtues bring colour and variety, like those of peace and love and joy. Thoughts of this calibre bring great power to the mind. When the mind is full in this way, with the awareness of spiritual consciousness, then we can have access to the highest, purest form of energy from the mind of God, the Supreme Source of peace, love and power. God emits the highest frequency. A living being coloured with the deepest truth, the ocean of bliss.
My mind is my world. If my mind is full of confusion and craziness, that is what I will see in the world. If it is full of peace and love, that is what I will experience. If my mind is tuning in to the Supreme Mind, a mind of benevolence and power, then that is what I will receive and bestow, and what a wonderful world that will be.
Eric Le Reste is a journalist and producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and coordinates the activities of Brahma Kumaris Centres in Canada.