Purging the Unwanted Ruts from Our Mind
Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari
“The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence, but by oft falling.” Lucretius
Each drop of water may look very small but over period of time it could create an ocean. So also our attitudinal deficiencies may look trivial, but once it becomes a tendency, a habitual rut, then it creates unpleasant worries and tensions.
When we are stuck in a rut of our unconscious mind, we resist anything negative. It then becomes more powerful, as if it sucks our energy and is empowered! This inner resistance builds up. Anger and anguish are expressions of this inner turmoil. But that only creates more violence and disharmony and we are caught in a vicious cycle.
To be hurt by someone we love is a very common experience in everyone’s life. We can be angry, upset, resentful, or looking for a chance to give tit for tat. This is the natural reaction of the ego-consciousness. If the situations recur then the negative brooding increases, and now the hurt is more self-inflicted. Anyone can hurt us, but whether we will allow our self to be hurt is our choice. Practice of meditation will empower us to transform hurt-energy into forgiveness-energy. Thoughts of compassion and forgiveness and moving on in life come only when we move out of the treacherous rut of reactive negative state of mind.
Simple awareness of the play of our own mind, the emotions that reside in our heart and our soul’s own brilliance can begin to break this cycle. Our unconscious mind is usually in this repetitious rut and allowed to play on its own accord, will play in the mud all day, confirming “I am this physical body, I am my mind’. This repetition deepens our ignorance of the true Self that we are! But the more we focus on the quality of the Soul within, the more a sense of forgiveness and compassion begin to flow from us. Provocations then cannot ignite the fire of anger in us.
We are hurt when our expectations are challenged or when our conditional rut is threatened. The whole purpose of meditation and mindfulness is to wake up to the need of being unconditional and mindful. The more mindful we are the less the need for us to be vocal. As such so much peace abides in the shrine of our heart that as the clutter and chatter of our mind subsides we are flooded with a sense of contentment and fulfillments. We no longer feel the need to say our thoughts, for we have nothing to prove as an effort of the ego.
In meditation, as we keep watching our mind non-judgmentally, we grow in the awareness of our Soul. The question then becomes, who is the one watching? As we allow the Witness consciousness to awaken in us, we will see that the quality of our thoughts changes. For in the very act of observation, the light of consciousness works the magic of purging the unwanted clutters and ruts from the mind creating space for pure light to permeate and fill us up. Compassion and love fill the space where before we had angry thoughts.
Reacting to persons and situations is our mind in its habitual rut. Responding to every negative circumstances with calm understanding, empathy and awareness is mind in its holy pilgrimage back Home!!
