Root-Cause: Body-Mind Coordination

Ask a poor man: Are you happy? Reply will be: How can I be happy living in such a poor condition? No proper food, no roof above head etc etc etc. What he meant by proper food, proper roof etc is not difficult to make out. Now ask same question to a rich man: Are you happy? A counter question will be shot back to you: What do you mean by happiness, tell me? You: I mean, so rich living must be bringing permanent happiness to your daily living. Rich man will answer: For you these riches may be happiness, but I need peace, mental peace. I can exchange these riches with the peace of mind… So poor is striving to be rich and rich is fed up of his material possessions. Whole world is struggling this way. Apparent external glamorous world is here at the cost of peace, individual’s peace, the peace of mind. Everyone is carrying a desire to get this elusive mental peace. World peace will appear only when each and every individual, at least majority of them, are at peace.

An Analysis: In the present times of advanced technology and communication, almost everyone is in the knowledge that: Human beings exist at body, mind and Soul (Spirit) levels. Naturally human feelings and experiences are results of interactions of these levels of existence. Let us briefly analyze each level.

• Body: Every human being has a physical body; this is no illusion for the mortal eyes of a common man in practical sense. But illusion is to believe that physical body does everything. Body experiences all such doings, is the next bigger illusion. And, in these illusions lie the seeds of all miseries of life. Physical body comes into existence by birth and melts away with death. This is the only real truth with our bodies. In fact, during life time physical body has no independence to act. Physical body is purely inert. This is grossest form, the most inert form created by “Nature” in human beings.
• Mind: This is the invisible finer part of the existence of every human being. This is the real doer. Whatever activities we experience, grosser or finer, are mind’s doing. For a layman to think of such a finer existence is difficult to grasp, but he/she undergoes mind’s activities daily without noticing it. The daily experiences of dreams are common phenomenon with every human being. Rather, more less-evolved a person is, more he/she undergoes dream experiences. Evolved beings have less dream experiences. It’s not only in dream state mind exists beyond these levels.
• Soul (Spirit): This is like sun in the Universe. Sun, by itself, does nothing. But, sun is responsible for all that is happening in the Universe. Likewise Soul (Spirit) does nothing, it simply provides basic elements for activation of mind and body. Under the light of Soul whole human activities, grosser or finer, comes into existence. This light of Soul is also known as “Consciousness”.

In above three elements, mind is the bridge between body and Soul. Its built-up, working, control on body and relation with Soul are mysteries to an unevolved human being. But there is nothing mysterious for an evolved mind. Only requirement is: We have to work on it through practices in the inner world.

Mysterious Mind: Until and unless mind is fully evolved, it remains a mystery. Evolution of mind means its unconditioned state. Now question is: What is meant by conditioning of mind? To understand this, we need to have a clear idea about relationship between body-mind and mind-Soul. In most unevolved state mind has full relation with body. Its conditioning is fully overpowered by the physical body i.e. material world. Remember, for mind its own physical body and whole physical world constitutes the external world.

As far as mind-Soul relationship is concerned, we have to pick up a brief concept of how mind gets its power to work and make physical body to act. In fact mind acts in the light of Consciousness of Soul. It’s like a man sitting in a dark room, even after having full body strength finds it difficult to move. The moment light is on man can perform his/her act. In a similar way mind gets its energy and light (of Consciousness), both, from the Source “Soul”. Energy responsible for all activities of mind is called “Prana” and light from source is called “Consciousness”. Now we again come back to our original question: What is meant by conditioning of mind? Conditioning of mind is defined by its Consciousness level. More evolved mind will have higher level of Consciousness and vice versa. Accordingly conditioning of mind is exhibited in external conduct by one’s physical body. Action resulting from compassion, love, kindness and self-service etc are signs of higher level of Consciousness of mind. So, the conditioning of mind can be observed by conduct of an individual through his/her physical body.

Mind is a big pool of Cosmic energy, working for different purposes: thinking, discrimination, analysis, reaction, storage etc. Unless mind interacts with material world through senses, nothing happens in the mind, for a common man understanding. Whenever a connection is made with the external world through senses, the part of mind involved is called Conscious mind. Then starts the whole process. A part of mind thinks over it (thinking mind), taking help of past experiences i.e. memories (sub-conscious mind), it discriminates and analyzes it (Intellect mind) for the reaction or action to be done. And finally the decision is implemented or executed (Executive mind-ego). So, in the wake up state or conscious state in presence of conscious mind this is brief phenomenon that takes place. What does happen when one goes to sleep? In this state conscious mind with intellect withdraws. So in sleep state sub-conscious mind with ego is free to operate. Sub-conscious mind, in fact, is storage of all past memories. These memories are of all past lives. So in dream state we go through cinema like viewing, without any power of interfering in dream. Why? Because of absence of intellect. Intellect by discrimination can affect the working of mind. Ego forces, because of its executing power, all dreams to appear. Because of our deep illusion or illusory knowledge we consume them helplessly. Remember: Memories stored in sub-conscious mind are all our doings. Modern Psychology fully supports all these explanations. Hypnotism and regression therapy are all proof of this concept.

Thus in conscious state, conscious mind and intellect are in play. Under unconscious state, sub-conscious mind takes over in the presence of ego. This is simplest explanation of the inner aspect of finer body in human beings. Until we experience them, they remain mysteries.

Mind–Body Connection: When conscious mind interacts with the world and, during interaction if conscious mind actively gets involved, all these are recorded in the sub-conscious mind. Those actions that are done mechanically (i.e. involuntarily) without conscious mind, sub-conscious mind does not record it. This is very interesting to experience that if any activity related to physical body or mind is done voluntarily it directly affects mind. Voluntarily means under full awareness. As an application “Pranayam” is one example, where a natural breathing is brought under voluntary exercise. Immediately, a changed state of mind is observed. Every reaction from a human being be it physically externally exhibited or internally at mental level, they will always get recorded. These recording of our deeds are the cause of all troubles in coming life. If they are bad we suffer and if good we enjoy, this is true. But recall, even after any enjoyment we crave for it, that again becomes painful. So, ultimately all these recordings prove to be painful. They result in the disturbance of peace of mind. During dream state, some of these recordings are wiped out or erased by consuming them in the dream.

Modern medical science also agrees that when a person goes to sleep, in the first stage of sleep all latest storages are screened and weak ones are fully deleted and rest goes to sub-conscious mind, to bother you in future. These impressions in sub-conscious mind are called “Samskara”.

Another important observation is the wayward running of conscious mind. In conscious state, everyone feels that most of the time conscious mind is not at job where physical body is. Reason? Actually sub-conscious mind is so powerful that even remaining in background during wake-up state, it propels conscious mind to run with stored memories. Common man finds it difficult to overcome and his/her conscious mind is carried away by such pressures from sub-conscious mind.

Above phenomenon occurs with conscious mind when the consciousness level of whole mind is very low. In such state, conscious mind feels strong attachment to physical body and over powered by sub-conscious mind i.e. his/her Samskara.

Mind-Soul Connection: For seekers of evolution, mind-Soul connection understanding is a must. As explained earlier, mind is like a pool of energy. Just thinking of a soap bubble crated by a child. What happens with it? As Bubble moves up and up its size increases. That is, more it moves up, more it expands. Same way, more the mind moves towards Soul, more consciousness it gets. We say mind expands. This raising of consciousness level or raising of mind is known as evolution of mind in spiritual science. Rishis (spiritual scientists) of Vedic period did experience that more closer a mind near to Soul, mind’s interactions are of high quality, exhibited in form of compassion, love, kindness, service etc. Miseries come when mind descends, away from its source, getting less consciousness. The same Rishis invented, by working on theirs on being, the methods of raising consciousness of mind. These evolution practices are called “Yoga”.

Root Cause: As explained earlier, sub-conscious mind is the key for evolution or raising conscioussness level. Roots for pain/pleasure, suffering/happiness, anger/compassion, lust/love, delusion/peace etc can be traced to sub-conscious mind. His/her Samskara are the base of all problems. A seeker of evolution must have the first pledge that now onward he/she will not create new Samskara.

One regrettable helplessness with mankind is: where his/her mind is, his/her body is not there; where his/her body is, mind is not there. Except for regular sincere practitioners, we rarely find reasonable body-mind coordination. What happens normally: If your body is in London, the mind will be in Rome… Such uncoordinated body-mind under Samskara only creates miseries because of illusions. All reactions to external inputs are results of the absence of body-mind coordination. One, who has perfect body-mind coordination, will be free of any illusion. Illusion is another name for absence of Consciousness. That is why it is said: “Live in Present”. What does it mean? Keep your mind where body is. But, this is easy to say than done and needs sustained practices.

All spiritual practices are mainly aimed to bring perfect “Body-Mind” coordination. After all what do we do in the name of meditation? We try to keep our mind where our body is, that is the present. This is done with “Awareness”.

Solution: Awareness and awareness, is the key of all problems. Live life fully at every moment but with awareness, and immediately appears body-mind coordination. If regularly done with sustained efforts, the consciousness level of mind moves upward towards the source “The Soul”. Thus starts the evolution. We need proper guidance for this. Only a realized person, an evolved person can give such high guidance. Yoga, the Raja Yoga, is the path for this purpose.

Try once and experience yourself.

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