inayat - control of mind.
lack of the control on mind results in the tendency to :
· be worried over nothing
· become anxious for little things,
· be fidgety,
· be restless,
· be afraid,
· be confused,
and the tendency of
· moving about without any reason,
· speaking without purpose,
· being sad without any motive at the back of it,
·
besides the effect that is made upon one’s own personality- all weaknesses, errors, and mistakes that man makes against his own wish, all worries, anxieties, fears, and doubts come from the lack of control of mind.
And if there is a secret of success, the key to it is the control of mind.
Intuition, inspiration, revelation, all come when mind is controlled. .
what is mind?
Today the idea of mind is divided into two different parts.
There is one part of humanity which considers mind as something still inexplicable, and another part of 1 humanity who considers mind as an action of brain.
All that is registered in the brain is impressed on the atoms[neurons] of brain. And it is the composing and decomposing of these little pictures in the brain that brings about a thought. It is a very limited conception of mind. If voice is such a great thing that it reaches through the wireless miles beyond, mind is finer than the voice.
It cannot be limited and restricted to the brain, although brain is the medium by which thoughts are made clear. Mind according to the mystic is the real man; the body is a garb which man wears. This word comes from Sanskrit origin; in Sanskrit it is called mana. They call it marn also. 2 And from that comes man.
In other man , man means mind. It is true too. When a person says the fellow is sad, the man seems downhearted, the man seems courageous, seems enthusiastic, wellbalanced, all these attributes belong to his mind.
What a person is, is not his body, but it is his mind. As there is a saying, what you are speaks louder than what you say. That means the voice of mind reaches further than the spoken word and has greater effect than a spoken word, as it is mind which creates atmosphere.
One often wonders why it is that one feels uncomfortable in the presence of someone without having done any harm, or that one feels excited in the presence of someone, and that one gets out of tune in the presence of someone , or tired, or confused in the presence of someone. Why is it? It is the effect of that person’s mind. The mind that is going into a fire, that mind creates the fire in the atmosphere. Everyone in that atmosphere is burning also in the same fire. The mind that is restful and peaceful, it emits its effect giving rest and peace to those coming in the atmosphere of that mind .
mind is independent of the body as far as its existence is concerned. But mind is enriched by the experience man gets through his senses. No doubt, mind is within the body, but without[outside] the body also, just like the light is within the lantern and without the lantern also. The body is the lantern in which there is the light. But the light is not coveredby the lantern, but is independent of the lantern. It shines out.
And so does mind. Neither the brain is mind, nor the piece of flesh in the left breast of man is the heart. Only, the feeling is felt more deeply in the breast, and the thought is made more clear in the brain. In other words, spectacles are not necessarily eyes; spectacles only enable one to see things more clearly. But the sight is independent of the spectacles. But the spectacles are dependent upon the sight.
So the body is dependent upon mind, but mind is independent upon the body. Body cannot exist without mind, but mind can exist without the body. The mind is the invisible being of the body. It is as its seat in the physical being, and it is that seat which is called brain, as the seat of feeling is the heart.
Neither mind therefore is visible, nor is heart. Mind is the surface of the heart, and heart is the depth of the mind. It is two aspects of one and the same thing. Very often we confuse these two words, the heart and the mind, not knowing that they are one and the same, only they are distinct in this way, that thinking belongs to mind, and feeling belongs to heart.
Mind can be explained as five different aspects.
thinking/memory/retention/reason/feeling
The first aspect is the power of thinking. And thinking can be divided into two parts: automatic thinking and intentional thinking. Automatic thinking is imagination, and when we think with intention that is called thought. Both thought and imagination have their place in life. A person who does not allow his imagination to work is as much mistaken as a person who does not allow a thought to act. Many laugh at an imaginative person. They say he is in the sky, he is in the clouds, he is floating in the air, he is flying in the space, he is in his dreams and veems . But all works of art and music and poetry, they all come from imagination because imagination is a free flow of mind. Mind is allowed to work by itself and brings out the beauty and harmony it has.
The next aspect of mind is memory. Memory is likened to aphotographic plate. It takes impressions, and the impressions arethere. And when a person wishes to recollect something, this facultyhelps him. It is within his reach. As soon as he wants to recall an experience, he, so to speak, puts his hand on that particular platewhich had taken the impression of a certain experience. There is noexperience taken from the sight of smell, or hearing, or touch, ortaste which is lost. But every little experience gained once, be it fora moment, is impressed upon the memory, and the plate of thatpicture is there. But some say, My memory is not good, I cannot remember things; I am absent-minded. The reason is that they havelost the control over this faculty. But the impression is there. Veryoften a person knows19, I know it, but I cannot recall it to mymemory. In other words, in his mind he knows it, but in his brain itis not yet clear. For instance, the name of a person, the face of aperson, that a person has lost his memory then he says, I think Iknow it and yet and I cannot make it clear. That means that mymind that knows it, it is there, but I cannot make it clear in my brain.
The third aspect of the mind is the retaining quality, to retain athought. Those who concentrate, they practise to retain a thought, animpression. But those who do not practice concentration, theyautomatically retain things of great interest, things that impressedtheir mind most. It is therefore that some carry with them a fearwhich perhaps from childhood is there. It is carried along throughlife. Some have a sad impression of disappointment. They carry itthroughout life, they retain it in their mind.
Mind is keeping it alive by revivifying it, by keeping that impression, an impression ofrevenge, of gratefulness, of success, of failure, of love, of admiration.It is kept there, and the mind cells give food and means for it to beliving. Sometimes this is helpful and sometimes this is against one’slife. Now the psychologist calls it a fixed idea, and is always readyto call it insanity and also to put it on the list of the insane. But it isnot insanity, it is everyone has got it. It is one of the attributes ofmind. It is a faculty, a quality, to retain what likes to retain orhappens to retain
The fourth faculty of mind is reasoning. This is a department ofmind which is always balancing and which is always enlightening,enlightening in this way, that mind asks why has that person done it?Mind says, That person is senseless, that is why he has done wrong.That is what mind says as reason. What mind knows it saysimmediately. Person can often show has been so.But what mindsays becausemay not always be right. It may be a wrong reasonalso. But at the same time, there is some answer all the time. And itis very wonderful to watch the trick of the reasoning faculty, thatwhen another person has done something wrong, reason saysbecause that person is wicked; he has done ten wicked things, now hehas done another wicked thing. And when oneself has done awicked thing, reason says, because it could not have doneotherwise. I could not help it.
Reason takes side of the ego. Reasonis a slave and a servant of mind. It is ready at the call. Mind only hasto turn its face to reason, and reason stands there as an obedientservant. It may not be right at all, but it is always there. No doubt,there is always a reason behind a reason, and if we penetrate thethousand veils of reason we can touch the reason of all reasons, andwe can come to an understanding that the outer reasons cannot give.And by that we understand all beings, those who are in the right and those who are in the wrong.
If a person knew hundred languages and did not know the heart of man,he knows nothing. But there is a language of the heart. Heart speaks o heart. That communication makes life interesting. Two personsmay not speak, but their sitting together is an exchange of lofty ideal and harmony.
the fifth aspect of mind, the heart, which isthe feeling. But thought, reasoning, maintaining of thought, andmemory, all these faculties are nourished by this one faculty, and thatis feeling. People divide today intellectuality and sentimentality. Butin reality intellectuality cannot be perfect without sentimentality. Notthe thinking power can be nurtured, nor the faculty of reasoning can be sustained without a continual outflow of feeling. In this age ofmaterialism we seem to have lost the value of feeling. We know thename heart, but we have never seen such a thing. We don’t know ofits existence. We don’t use it. We don’t see its importance. But reallyspeaking that is the principal bank, that is the root of the plant of life.
The heart quality is something that sustains the whole life. All virtuessuch as sincerity, respect, thoughtfulness, consideration, appreciation,all those qualities come by heart quality. If he has no heart, a personis not capable of appreciating, nor of being grateful, nor capable ofexpressing his own soul, nor of receiving favour, goodness, and helpfrom another. A person without heart quality remains selfish, evenfoolishly selfish. If he was wisely selfish it would be worthwhile.People say very often, “But we have no time to show our heartquality, we have no time to allow the heart to develop. We are sobusy.” But one can be busy every day long, every moment of life,every minute from morning till evening, but everything we do we cando it with our whole heart, express it from the depth of our heart.When the heart quality is shut out, then all one does is lifeless.
Mind is likened to pool of water. When the water in the pool istroubled, it cannot take reflection. So is mind. When mind is troubled,it is confused, it cannot take reflection. It is the stillness of mind thatmakes one capable of receiving impressions and of reflecting them. Inthe Persian language the mind is called a mirror. Everything thatstands before the mirror appears, reflects in it. But when it is takenaway the mirror is pure. It does not remain. It is so long in the mirror,as long as the mirror is focused to it. So it is with the mind They develop40 by concentration, contemplation, meditation, thatquality in mind which makes it still at times and active at other times,which makes it reflect what it sees at one time, and makes it avoidevery reflection, that no outer influence41 can touch it. The mind istrained by the master trainer by diving deep, by soaring high, byexpanding widely, and by centralizing the mind on one idea.
And oncethe mind is mastered, a person becomes a master of life. Every soulborn, from the time it is born is like a machine, subject to all influences, influences of weather, of all that works through one’s fivesenses. For instance, no one can pass through a street without seeingthe placards and advertisements. His eyes are commanded42 by whatis before him. He has no intention of looking, but everything outsidecommands the eyes. So one is constantly under the influence of allthings of the outside world, which govern without him knowing. Aperson says, “I am a free man, I do what I like.” But he never does it.He always does what he does not like, many times. The ears arealways subject to hear anything that falls on them, whether it isharmonious or not,43 disharmonious. And when44 he sees, goes,45 hecannot resist. And so man is always under the influence of life. Thenplanetary influences, then living influences of those around. And yetman says, “I have free will, and I am a free man.” If he knew to whatextent he is free, he would be frightened of his life46.
But then there is one consolation, that in man there is a sparksomewhere written47 in his heart which alone can be called a sourceof free will. If this spark is greater48 a person has a greater vitality, agreater energy, a greater power. All he thinks comes true, all he sayshas impression, all he does will make an effect. What does a mysticdo? He blows this spark in order to bring this spark to a flame, till itcomes to a blaze. This gives him that inspiration, that power whichenables him to live in this world the life of free will. It is this sparkwhich may be called the divine heritage of man, in which he sees the divine power of God, the soul of man.
Spiritual quality, therefore, is the developing of this spark. Tobecome spiritual means by blowing this spark you produce light from it, and see in this light the whole life. And one is more able to think,to feel, and to do by bringing the inner light to a blaze.