mind

[Giridhar]

>We all heard "You control your mind"
>Who is this "you" who can control the mind.  The "you" is jada cant do
>anything.
>Mind has to control itself.    How?
>Practice meditation.   Who does the meditation?  Ofcourse it is the mind.
>
>I could not find the answer any where.   What are your thoughts?

This question is answered by any advaitic-manual.

"It is well known and admitted that that only with the help of the mind
that the mind has to be killed. But instead of setting about saying that
there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the
mind and you will find that the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned
outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes
itself the Self. Such a mind is sometimes called arupa manas or
suddha manas." Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi on 8th November 1945



                What is mind ? It is only a bunch of thoughts, arising from
the thought 'I am'. Hold on to this  and trace back the source
of this "I'. You will find that initially thoughts will wander, but later
the mind will be a still lake without a ripple of thought. At this
stage, you will find that the thoughts are apart from the real YOU.

                Till you think (i.e., you have thoughts), you have the mind. But
when the mind is enquired into, you will find it disappears since
it is "unreal." However, after some time, due to inherent vasanas,
the mind will go "outside". It has to be again inwards till all the
vasanas are destroyed. Our aim in atma vichara is not manolaya,
i.e., stilling the mind, which is but a temporary phase. The goal is
mano-nasa, complete destruction of ahamkara.

*****           What if you say that you can not meditate well ?

                "Those who have not the mental strength to concentrate or control
the mind are advised to watch their breathing, since that watching will
naturally and as a matter of course lead to cessation of thought and bring the
mind under control. Breath and mind arise from the same place and when
one of them is controlled, the other is also controlled. As a matter of
fact, in the quest method - which is more correctly, 'Whence am I' and
not merely 'Who am I' ......, we are trying to find whence the 'I' thought or
the ego arises within us. ...When we watch whereform the 'I' thought,
the root of all thoughts springs, we are necessarily watching the source of
breath also, as the 'I' thought and the breath arise from the same source"
Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi on 1st December, 1945.

*******         Well, what if I can not even do this ?

        "If you believe in God and His niyati working out everything,
completely surrender yourself to Him and there will be no responsibility
for you.
Surrender appears easy because people imagine that, once
they say with their lips 'I surrender,' and put their burdens on their Lord,
they can be free and do what they like. But the fact is that you can
have no likes or dislikes after your surrender and your will should become
completely non-existent, the Lord's will taking its place. Such death of ego
is nothing different from jnana."


***Thus,


"If one surrenders oneself there will be no one to ask questions or to be
thought of. Either the thoughts are eliminated by holding on to the root
thought 'I' or one surrenders oneself unconditionally to the Higher power.
These are the only two ways for Realisation."
     "Surrender to Him and abide by His will whether he appears or
vanishes; await His pleasure. If you ask Him to do as YOU please, it is not
surrender but command to Him. You can not have Him obey you and yet think
you have surrendered. He knows what is best and when to do it. Leave
everything entirely to Him. His is the burden; you have no longer any
cares. All your cares are His. Such is surrender. This is BHAKTI. Or,
enquire to whom these questions arise. Dive deep in the Heart and remain as
the Self. One of these two ways is open to the aspirant. " Bhagavan Ramana
Maharshi in pages 343 and 515 of the
third edition of Talks with Ramana Maharshi.

AUM shaantiH

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