“Know Thyself” is inscribed at the Oracle of Delphi and has been interpreted in many ways. Can your mind really help you to “know thyself” or quite the opposite? This written journey offers to contemplate it even further – when you already “know the true essence, source and nature of thyself” – where do you look for answers? Where does the only real Truth come from in a world where everything is an illusion made up by our powerful minds and replicated by other minds, who just “copy & paste” the ideas of others, for they have stopped using their own innate analytical and contemplative abilities to consciously create their own reality. They just apathetically “use” whatever reality is suggested to their minds by “authoritative” others.
And what is at all real in this world of illusions? Brian Weiss would say “Only Love is real” (it is the title of one of his famous books). But then, what is Love? There are millions of definitions for Love, as well as for the many behavioral distortions and compensations for the perceived “lack of love” that are erroneously called “Love”. Depending on one’s level of “awakened-ness”, one or the other is declared as the “truth”. Temporarily, until the next level of awareness dawns. But knowing that nothing that is made up by our minds is a fixed unchangeable truth - where do we find the Real Truth?
Is the Real Truth in the jungle of thoughts?
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.” This is a fragment of a quote attributed to Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. Despite of being widely spread all around internet by “copy-pasting” there are scholars who seriously challenge the authorship of these words. But whoever said these exact phrases, the essence of those lines permeates all the wisdom teachings of all ages and all cultures and all civilizations. “Look within for answers” is one of the consensus points in all the world’s spiritual traditions.
All beliefs, world-views, opinions and concepts “engraved” and “imprinted” in your mind by reading or listening ABOUT the divinity, the nature of reality, universe and our role in it - will eventually give you “real life” experiences that will confirm all those ideas that have been fed into you by “external sources” (as opposed to the “wisdom within”). The same happens every time when you read or listen anything that is written or preached from mass media – if you start to believe it – your mind begins to create “real life” experiences that will confirm the information that has been presented to you. This is how “collective reality” (or illusion of it) is conjured up – by billions of individual minds that have accepted the presented “news” as truth. Because our mind creates our “visible and tangible reality”. And, you know what? Don’t just believe it, try it and prove it to yourself with your own experiences.
Remember the “Buddha’s quote” included in the paragraph above and you will agree – the power of your mind to create everything that you believe and have faith in - is constant. There are no “moments of exception”, no “exceptions according to the subject in question” or “while I’m telling you my miserable story for one last time I am exempt from the universal laws of physics”. No. It is a constant that has no exceptions, no stops or pauses, and no one has any privilege to bend it. The only privilege we all have is to use it to our advantage, instead of creating hurtful scary realities by choosing to give the creative energy of our attention to destructive thoughts - and then feeling disappointed with the outcomes.
When we search for our authentic Soul-path – the same principle applies. No one can “read” your cards or “scan your energy” to tell you authoritatively which is your path and what is your purpose. The answers are within – “know thyself from within”. That small quiet voice inside, the intuition, that gut feeling and that weird sensation in your solar plexus or the warm cozy feeling in your heart – they are the “true guides” and you can “hear” them when the mind is quiet. The only “authentic beliefs” are those that you have obtained from your own revelations and “mind & logic transcending” experiences. And even those are temporary and serve to guide you to the next step on the ladder. Authentic belief creates authentic soul path - and not just another "mind matrix" - a virtual reality based on somebody else’s concept of God.
My intention today is to invite you to get in touch with Your Own Mysterious Source and let the “divine experiences” naturally arise in your life, directly and in a way that is most relevant for your individual Soul purpose at this exact moment. We each individually contribute to the puzzle of the humanity that is composed of infinite number of unique, never repeated, pieces. No one can give you your authentic answers and your authentic guidance that is constantly talking to you from YOUR WITHIN. The only thing that can be helped in this sacred endeavor is to show and teach the methods and practices that have been effective throughout the ages to access this stream of “informational energy” WITHIN YOU.
Where is the “within”? How do we go within and access the Real Truth and the exact wise answers for the exact level of consciousness that each of us is operating from at this exact moment? How do we get the TRUTH BEYOND MIND? By, firstly, accepting that the human mind is a “record player” of the thoughts and ideas that have been fed into it and stored there. Mind has no innate creativity of its own, it can only operate with the information that has been already stored in there “from the outside” (from parents, books, TV, cultural and societal indoctrination, mass media etc.) -and then it operates at a high speed rearranging, comparing, summing up or dividing, categorizing, finding connections and “logic conclusions” between pieces of information. Like a computer. Secondly, we can observe all this hustle and activity in our head by “stepping aside” and getting off from the “train of thoughts” for a while. Besides, further on, we notice that we can actually choose the thoughts we enjoy and stop the ones we do not like, or switch off the mind’s action altogether if we wish. It is only a question of will and discipline.
We are not enslaved by the mind, that’s what meditation teaches as the first assignment. One who is just starting the journey will benefit from the “guided meditation” where the Guide is guiding the thoughts away from the “unwanted” patterns towards more rewarding and intentionally chosen thought patterns. The result of this first step is noticing the difference in the feeling states according to the chosen thought patterns. This leads to the conclusions that if we choose lovely thoughts – the lovely feelings will inevitably follow. And the next stage is to explore what happens in the body when the thoughts are stopped altogether. Now, this is where we are in front of the wide array of Mindlessness practices that allow us to experience “unconditional bliss” – natural authentic states of Joy, unconditioned by any thoughts, be they nice or ugly. States of no-thought. States of Mindlessness.
There are many practices and activities that help us to reach the states of Mindlessness. All of them are valid and yield results if executed with due discipline, diligence and a certain willingness to let go of control of the mind. And gradually allowing the practice itself guide you instead of you “doing the practice under the dictatorship of your mind”. Consciously surrendering to the process itself and listening the gentle guidance prompts from the within. Intuition is information - “knowing” that is FELT, not thought, cognized or obtained in the process of contemplation. It's the same “intelligent energy” that is infinitely flowing in us, making us “physical” and it is the “substance” that our thoughts use to create our personal “visible and tangible reality”. The creative energy, the "formless conscious potentiality" that carries the Real Truth and can be felt when one goes within. The more sensitive we are in noticing bodily sensations - the more acutely we are able to FEEL this spiritual energy, "flowing" in us and transforming our consciousness "from within".
Any Mindlessness practice is beneficial for your Whole being. They help to get your mind off of unwanted thoughts when you want to “fix” what has been created in your reality. It helps to start the body’s regenerative and highly intelligent self-healing processes because the emotional toxicity and health-denying thoughts are lifted and stop creating the “visible and tangible” proof for the “diagnosis set in stone” that one is manifesting by believing in it. And Mindlessness is the most direct path to authentic Gnosis – to the most important destination of our Soul journey – “knowing thyself”.
“Stop the mind and smell the roses” is the wisest thing on earth. Literally and metaphorically. Smelling the roses helps to transcend the mind and access the real wisdom within. Try it for yourself – when you have a chance to stop a while and try to distinguish aromas and smells – in the exact act and moment of “trying to recognize” the aroma there are no other thought processes going on in your mind. Fill yourself with the aroma of anything enjoyable that you can smell at this moment – and !Voila! – you’ve already practiced Mindlessness. And if you set an intention of receiving guidance, advice or answer to a question – this Mindless moment becomes the portal to your Within – the river of infinitely flowing stream of energy that carries authentic pristine knowledge - un-touched and un-altered by the bias and interpretations of the “programmed, cultured and indoctrinated” mind.
There are many and varied Mindlessness practices, some conventionally categorized as “spiritual” and some that you are already practicing in your day-to-day flow of life without knowing that they can serve you as portals to unexplored gems of wisdom.
Meditation, breath-work, yoga, trance-like mantra reciting, tantric lifestyle, silent inward "prayer", ecstatic dance, dynamic shaking meditation, falling in love and just mindlessly basking in the feeling of bliss, mindlessly sinking and surrendering to the existential loneliness and staying present in the feeling, taking a long slow soothing shower at night, total intentional brain-muscle relax and sinking in the feeling of nothingness, the famous Italian "bel fer niente", or the deep soft mental silence and peace after intense emotional exhaustion, or creating art drifting in a mindless creative flow, or trance-like states of complete wellbeing during a well performed energy massage…
Anything that frees your existence from the mind-slavery at least for a while benefits your Whole Existence. Thus, enjoying Mindlessness contributes to the wellbeing and evolution of the Whole Humanity, because each piece of the puzzle counts and we are all connected and responsible for the results of the endeavor of creating our collective “One Beautiful Reality of Kindness and Plenty”.
