A Troubled Mind

Whose mind is troubled? Well, what walks on four legs, in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?



The Human Mind. The only thing that differs is our reaction to the pain in our lives. We really are not all so different, same earth, same species and all caught in the human experience, and I do not think there is any escaping that until the eagle finally takes us into his beak. Does anyone who is reading this feel themselves absolutely at home? Absolutely free? Or free one day and in chains the next? Who has felt their soul tortured simply on the whim of that oh so tyrannical mind? I know I am not absolutely free, I know I hold myself in bondage and yes, I do occasionally raise the whip. And yes my soul writhes in pain when that happens (why wouldn't it?). If you answered yes to any but the first question count yourself lucky because the first step on the path of freedom is to realize that their indeed chains around our ankles. And that our lives are not all they can be.



In Zen Buddhism they talk about the concept of non-attachment. To me it makes sense, I made those chains around my ankles, (and my soul and mind) by chaining myself to what more or less can be described as an idea of a permanent reality. The choice is attachment, or freedom; attachment seems to be where a lot of pain comes from. Attachments (if my experience of being alive is remotely like yours) are everywhere. Attachment to our perception of reality. Attachment to the things in our lives. Attachment to our perceptions of ourselves. Attachment to events in the past. Attachment to our dreams. So many attachments I sometimes forget to just live my life and let time unfold as it will. But if you want to know what hurts the most, it is when I am feeling bad because of some attachment that isn't going my way and then I become attached to the way I am feeling. Why me? My life sucks. Why do I have to feel like this? What I am coming to see now is: I am feeling this way because I am feeling this way. It is just an emotion (I say that with a grain of salt) my brain acting a certain way at a certain time and in actuality it is not me, but just an experience I am having in that particular moment. In turn it makes sense to enjoy that feeling because who knows? In the next moment I may not have the pleasure of feeling it.


Some final words of wisdom (or at least I think they are).

"You do not even start to consider the truth until everything is possible"
Adyashanti

"What is reality? Is it what you can touch and feel? If so all reality is is a series of chemical responses in your brain" -Morpheus

"If the solution hasn't been to look at yourself, how do you expect to find it anywhere else?"
-Immortal Technique

Pertinent Reading:

Zen Mind Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
Or you can just watch the Matrix...