„Every facet, every department of your mind, is to be programmed by you. And unless you assume your rightful responsibility, and begin to program your own mind, the world will program it for you.” – Jack Kornfield
The human mind is amazing.
I guess it will be a recurring topic here, so let’s start with a short introduction.
I promised myself that I’ll speak from experience on this blog. Even if my findings justify something I read (which usually happens) I try to echo only those people whose thoughts I can really resonate with.
As for the human mind (my own mind) – I’ve been witnessing it as a separate entity only for a few years (2-3 years maybe). I admit I haven’t paid an undivided attention to it before. For the majority of my life I was somehow equal with my own thoughts, I identified myself with what I thought, I was thinking that I was what I was thinking. Got it?
But. And it’s a big but.
During the recent years something happened inside and I found myself separating myself from my own thoughts. For the more awakened boys and girls it is so obvious, but for me it was an amazing revelation. I happily kept repeating: “I do not equal my own thoughts”. That’s a big one, I’m telling you. It’s been changing everything. And now I update my first sentence:
The human mind is an amazing tool.
If I’m not what I’m thinking, then my brain, my whole mind is nothing but a supercomputer I own. I can use it, free as a bird! I can install apps, play games, erase old stuff, I can even upgrade my operating system at will. Oh yes, like it’s that easy!
Programming your mind is a hardcore act. Not easy at all, even when you’re a black belt warrior you face new challenges every day. This post does not have any chance of giving you fancy advice on how to jump-start, but I think the main idea is definitely worth contemplating. If you at least start considering your mind as a separate tool, if you spend a 5 minute meditation on it every day, it might be a good teaser.
Especially when you have a bad day. When you feel you are a disaster and everything is falling apart. That is the meanest but greatest moment to start contemplating. Tell yourself: „What if it is just my mind playing games with me? What if it’s an old unwanted program from my childhood that’s running now? What if that grumpy silly lady started this whole thing in the morning in the traffic jam and I have an even sillier reaction to that? What if today’s mood-domino is just built into my mind as an old habit, as a lame reaction? What if it’s just a frickin’ trick and I can make it disappear?”
It won’t. I warn you, the bad day won’t disappear immediately. But, if you keep reminding yourslef that this whole disaster might be just a creation of your mind and you might have a chance to change that reaction (move that old program to the trash and update it with a better one) … then, who knows?! One day you might be very, very surprised how much you can do, even for your own mood.
Tools are just tools. You give them meaning.
A hammer is a tool. A needle is a tool. Your mind is a tool. For what you use them is completely up to you. What you come up with is your creation. You can build a house with one tool, you can heal with another one or you can kill people or become a drug addict with the same ones. Or, you can build an amazing life for yourself with everything combined. It’s all up to you, as long as you accept the responsibility to (re)view and (re)program your own mind.
It is a huge responsibility and not a comfortable one. But, if you’d like to take the director’s seat, you’ll need this skill and the earlier you start the better chance you have to master this in your life. Actually, mastering your mind is mastering everything. From self confidence, through fitness to making a bunch of money – just to name a few popular ones, mastering most areas of life start with spending enough time on shaping and training your own mind.
Take 5 minutes to think about it.
(Image credit: Alex Grey – Nature of Mind series,
Quote from: Jack Kornfield – The Roots of Buddhist Psychology)