Guest guest Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Namaste, One aspect of sadhana is monitoring the mind and questioning the ego. There is nothing physical about the ego but with God's grace "it" can be detected in the daily transactions of the world. Sometimes things don't go your way. You either commit a stupid mistake, miss something apparent or the undesirable situation or circumstances are due to your prarabdha. One reaction that I often detect is mental agitation. The ego is angry with itself for making a mistake or being lazy in the past. I am not sure if it is the ego or the intellect. This mental agitation also results in self condemnation. Now you may try and mentally plead that I am awareness, that I have nothing to do with this mind, body or intellect - I am pure, non-dual, nirguna awareness, but it does not quieten the mental agitation. Prayer, mantra japa, mental alertness, non identification with BMI, pranayama etc is recommended. Anybody else has dealt with this kind of mental agitation and self condemnation and how you deal with it. with regards, Om Namah Sivaya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Namaste, > There is nothing physical about the ego but with God's > grace "it" can be detected in the daily transactions of the world. > Sometimes things don't go your way. You either commit a stupid > mistake, miss something apparent or the undesirable situation or > circumstances are due to your prarabdha. One reaction that I often > detect is mental agitation. The ego is angry with itself for making a > mistake or being lazy in the past. I am not sure if it is the ego or > the intellect. This mental agitation also results in self > condemnation.... > Anybody else has dealt with > this kind of mental agitation and self condemnation and how you > deal > with it. You bring up a very good and every person (let alone a Sadhaka) goes through lots of mental agitations like this. Thanks for asking, these are the 'Sadhana' type of questions that will benefit a wider community. The first and most important aspect of controlling any behavior is to first become 'aware' of it. It looks like you are already there. Next, to get rid of these mental agitations, you can try several different things, whichever works for you). All of the methods basically involve turning you attention away from these negative, corrosive thoughts and 'buying some time' for your mind to sort itself out : just ignore it and turn your mind'a attention : let's not worry about these idle stuff and instead focus doing some immediate task or get engaged in anything more pleasant: go out, watch some TV etc etc. It is important not to get depressed or be in a self condeming mood because these are not useful in either worldly or spiritual sense. If the mind is not strong and cannot be turned away from corrosive thoughts, this can lead very quickly to a downward spiral. Prayer, mantra japa, pranayama etc all help in this. You have to remember, however, these are all 'damage control' after the problem has already occured. It is important to prevent these mental agitations happening in the first place and in this regard I have found Meditation very useful. Others may come up with other suggestions. >> Anybody else has dealt with this kind of mental agitation and self condemnation and how you deal with it. >> Speaking personally, I find my morning meditation helps immensely in this aspect : (1) Meditation prevents such agitations to happen in the first place by providing some tranquility throughout the day. Level of tranquility depends roughly on the strength of my meditation. It is hard to be depressed or agitated too much if you already have some tranquility. (2) Meditation develops (over a period of time) the mental strength required to ignore these thoughts. You will be amazed to find that after some proficiency in meditation, you can tell your mind to ignore these agitating thoughts and surprising your mind will listen!. (3) Provides a 'cushion' effect so the routine irritations of life don't get to you immediately. regards Sundar Rajan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 6, 2006 Report Share Posted September 6, 2006 advaitin, "mahadevadvaita" <mahadevadvaita wrote: > > Namaste, One aspect of sadhana is monitoring the mind and questioning > the ego. There is nothing physical about the ego but with God's > grace "it" can be detected in the daily transactions of the world. > Sometimes things don't go your way. You either commit a stupid > mistake, miss something apparent or the undesirable situation or > circumstances are due to your prarabdha. One reaction that I often > detect is mental agitation. The ego is angry with itself for making a > mistake or being lazy in the past. I am not sure if it is the ego or > the intellect. This mental agitation also results in self > condemnation. Now you may try and mentally plead that I am awareness, > that I have nothing to do with this mind, body or intellect - I am > pure, non-dual, nirguna awareness, but it does not quieten the mental > agitation. Prayer, mantra japa, mental alertness, non identification > with BMI, pranayama etc is recommended. Anybody else has dealt with > this kind of mental agitation and self condemnation and how you deal > with it. > > with regards, > Om Namah Sivaya > Dear Mahadev-ji Yes, mental agitation is the culprit. I am sure every one is familiar with what you say. I am also sure each seeker has his own way of handling it. So let me share with you some thoughts of my own. Mental agitation can be of three kinds. About the past, about the present, and about the future. Note that the context of this whole discussion is sAdhanA. About the past. This means you do not like what has happened. It might have been so bad as to have upset you totally; or it might be some little thing which has just disturbed you. These are extremes. In between there are several levels of this upset. Now what do you do? Certainly you cannot reverse the past. But the present problem is mental agitation about that past. Reason will tell you that there is no use crying over it. But mental agitation does not listen to reason. The present problem is how to overcome that mental agitation. About the future. This means you are not sure about what will happen. There is an implied insecurity about your future. Money, health, longevity, -- not only of yourself but of those who are near and dear to you – and possession. Any of these can cause worry about the future. Again reason will tell you that there are methods of planning your future and acting up to them. But the present problem again (during sAdhanA) is the activity going on in the mind about any one of those things of the future. And that activity is what causes mental agitation. About the present. Usually the agitation about the present is in the form of a dilemma. `To do or not to do'. Thus the above logic tells us that all the three reduce to a question or a problem in the present. You may want to trick me by saying that `logic' is not acceptable to mental agitation. Here I am using logic only to reduce the three cases to the case of `the present'. So all the problems come back to `the present'. I want to do sAdhanA. I want to concentrate. I want to meditate. I want to cool down. I do not want to be disturbed or agitated. But inspite of my will, my mind is still agitated and that comes in the way of my sAdhanA. How do I stop my mental agitation and continue my sAdhanA? Now I will tell you what my experience is. Not that I have succeeded! But I think I have the reins of the `horses' in my hand. The mantra is `Live in the present'. This mantra is only for `management' of the agitation. It is not a mantra in the sense of replacing your `Aum' or `Gayatri' or `the mahAvakya' or whatever your guru has taught you. The `mantra' of `Live in the present' is only a recipe. Now let me elaborate on the recipe. Every minute of our meditation or sAdhanA, in fact every second (or even `kshhaNa') of it, we find the mind is wanting to go its way and almost all the time it wins! Lord Krishna says `Whenever and wherever mind strays, bring it back to the Atman' (Gita VI- ). We do remember that and still the mind is not able to do it. Because the three kinds of agitation bother us. The recipe of `Live in the present' will (hopefully!) help you to overcome the three types of agitation, each in a different way and go back to follow what Krishna has said. How? Thus: The agitation `about the past' is easily overcome by `Live in the present'. Every time this kind of agitation disturbs the sAdhanA, let the mind tell itself that the work now is in the present. Tell yourself that the `present work' is either `japa' or `meditation ` or `nidihidhyAsana' or whatever and not `the past'. You have to repeatedly tell yourself this every moment of the recurrence of that kind of agitation. This part of the process has not been difficult for me – though of course it is only a few months of age. Depending on your Vedanta background or your consistency in satsangh or the Grace of your elders, this part of the process is achievable in finite time. The agitation `about the future' is not so easily overcome by `Live in the present'. It is more difficult. Somehow all our Vedanta helps you to ignore the past, but the task of `ignoring' the future is a greater challenge. Here one has to do a little trick with the mind. Instead of `ignoring' the future, `postpone' it! In other words, every moment this kind of agitation comes and bothers us in the sAdhanA, we have to tell ourselves that we are supposed to live in the present and so `let me do the japa or meditation now; let me postpone this worry about the future'. In other words, we put it on `hold'! I cannot say I have succeeded all the time with this, but I have had several moments of success! Every time I tell myself:"Okay, that worry is there; but only after my japa. Okay I have to call so and so today; but only after the japa; Right now it is japa and nothing else. …." Now comes the Himalayan challenge. How to overcome the `present' agitation `about the present'? Here it is I would request other sAdhakas to supplement my own suggestions. The agitation here is not about the past happening or about the future work on hand; the agitation is something which is `currently in the mind' and would not go. It is almost like a dilemma. It refuses to be postponed, because it is already an obsession in the mind. It may be a mathematical problem of an academic nature, it may be a search for a `proper' reply that I have to give to somebody who has accused me of something, big or small, it may be a nagging worry about something I have misplaced – papers or money or possession. Now comes the recipe `Live in the present'. This `present' has to be broken into minutes, seconds and `kshanas'. `Live in the present minute', `Live in the present second' , `Live in the present kshana'. Tell yourself: `Let me develop an indifference to the next minute, the next second, or the next kshana. I shall only do what I have to do this minute, this second, this kshana. What is true is only that `I am'. I shall not care about the next minute or moment. This is where all the teaching of advaita has to come to our help. The present moment of existence is all that matters -- particularly when we are grappling with the problem of `agitation about the present'. It is difficult, of course. And now comes the value of the supreme surrender-like prayer: *sishyas-tehaM shAdi mAm tvAM prapannaM* ! PraNAms to all advaitins. profvk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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