The mind is like a sharp tool. It can assist us or it can harm us if we misuse it. But we should never think that it is us. Never identify with the mind and the thoughts that it manifests all day long. The consciousness is not the mind but rather lives within the body and perceives the world through the five senses and the mind.
The mind is the filter through which we as consciousness presently observe the world in which we were born. We use this tool for a while and when it wears out, we abandon it for another, which we gravitate towards based on our desires that pull us in one direction or another.
It's the hardest thing to dis-identify with the mind and body. But to make it easier, think of how, as we age, we find ourselves being just like or very similar to our parents. That's because we have there genes. It's their genes, it's not you. And they got the genes from their parents. But we have to work with the genes we are born into, along wit the nurturing we receive.
That's why the same mind can be the greatest friend or the greatest enemy. It depends on how we deal with it. And that we I'm alluding to is the conscious observer, someone totally different from the body and mind.
To find out who this observer is, it helps to take time to meditate and listen, not to the mind but, although its chatter is almost constant, but to the heart, to the knowing self in the heart. This may take a lifetime to differentiate, and that's why we have a lifetime. That is the purpose of life, namely to become our true self, more than just the mind and its ego.
It's a beautiful process and gets better with age because the demands of the body and mind become less intense with age. Also the demands of family and career also become less demanding, so we have more time and focus to meditate. If we allow ourselves that opportunity and are not habituated too much to following the conditioned urges of the mind and body.
Harness the mind, make it your tool
but never let it make you its fool
Bhagavad Gita ch6:5
उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् ।
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मन: ॥ ५ ॥
uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ
nātmānam avasādayet
ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur
ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ
SYNONYMS
uddharet—one must deliver; ātmanā—by the mind; ātmānam—the conditioned soul; na—never; ātmānam—the conditioned soul; avasādayet—put into degradation; ātmā—mind; eva—certainly; hi—indeed; ātmanaḥ—of the conditioned soul; bandhuḥ—friend; ātmā—mind; eva—certainly; ripuḥ—enemy; ātmanaḥ—of the conditioned soul.
TRANSLATION
A man must elevate himself by his own mind, not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.
PURPORT
The word ātmā denotes body, mind and soul—depending upon different circumstances. In the yoga system, the mind and the conditioned soul are especially important. Since the mind is the central point of yoga practice, ātmā refers here to the mind. The purpose of the yoga system is to control the mind and to draw it away from attachment to sense objects. It is stressed herein that the mind must be so trained that it can deliver the conditioned soul from the mire of nescience. In material existence one is subjected to the influence of the mind and the senses. In fact, the pure soul is entangled in the material world because of the mind's ego which desires to lord it over material nature. Therefore, the mind should be trained so that it will not be attracted by the glitter of material nature, and in this way the conditioned soul may be saved. One should not degrade oneself by attraction to sense objects. The more one is attracted by sense objects, the more one becomes entangled in material existence. The best way to disentangle oneself is to always engage the mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The word hi is used for emphasizing this point, i.e., that one must do this. It is also said:
mana eva manuṣyāṇāṁ kāraṇaṁ bandha-mokṣayoḥ
bandhāya viṣayāsaṅgo muktyai nirviṣayaṁ manaḥ.
"For man, mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation." Therefore, the mind which is always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the cause of supreme liberation.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A C Bhaktivedanta, original Macmillan 1972 edition.
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