Yesterday we celebrated the World Egoless Awareness Day. How was it? Did you experience love? Gratitude, perhaps? Or, alas, mind attacks?! Sharing these things definitely made me feel very blessed and whole. Nothing else was needed. That moment was perfect “as is”. The, that moment turned into one of these “epic” days. You know, where everything flows and you, your mind, body and entire being all swim with the current. It’s when you’re smiling…and the whole world smiles with you. You are high on life. Ok, I am stopping here.
Another “Aha Moment”, another perfect moment
Writing this post also reminded me something important. It’s about why keeping a personal diary or journal can be so helpful with enlightenment. Here’s why.
Think about all these aha moments where all of a sudden, some super incredible wisdom came into your awareness. Pure genius! A moment later, you are trying to explain it to a friend, only to realize you can’t even fully explain it to yourself. What happened?
When you have a realization or “sudden download” kind of discovery, things can be very abstract. Still, at that moment, you totally get it. Without even trying. But, it appears that the human side of the human being still needs to catch up. Turns out, you still need to use words in order to fully grasp it on an intellectual “mind” level. The problem you may run into is that words or even thoughts may not truly reflect what you initially experienced. There may be gaps. I guess we humans are still in this evolutionary phase where we think and communicate in words. It’s limited.
Here’s where a diary comes to save the day.
There’s something magical that happens when you start to write down abstract experiences. You can better “explain” this to your mind. And, as you do so, you may notice that now you have a much more clear understanding of that new information. Think about it as if you are transforming from the world of “knowing” to the world of “understanding”.
This is very common. Especially, when the new information or messages come during meditation, where the mind is much less active or involved. So, when you write, you basically help your mind to better understand. And sometimes it may take awhile to fully and accurately convey the message. But, I can tell you, when this happens, I feel like my mind has being upgraded. And I am talking about a good upgrade. No bugs or useless features. Just the good stuff you always wanted!
Now, after the “upgrade”, your mind can use the new information together with other memories, beliefs, etc. I often witness thoughts that have a new vibe or energy attached to them after a new writing. A fresh point of view or way of thinking, if you will, that is reshaped by these new insights. In fact, this benefit is one of the first things I noticed when I started to write. It didn’t take long.
So clever, this human mind
Witnessing my mind over the years has never ceased to amaze me. The way it gathers new information, and so cleverly link it to existing information. How does it even know these are related? How did it recognize that seemingly small insignificant detail and knew to connect it to a problem I was trying to solve for two weeks?
For example, I may read something that at first appears completely random and new. And, before I can even forget about it, just a second later, a new realization or memory may pop. All of a sudden, it is clear to me that this new random piece of information is totally relevant to me. And it may even be something that someone said 40 years ago. Literally, kinder garden stuff.
Here’s the thing. I didn’t even have to do anything in order for this to happen. Being aware of this, however, made me see how remarkable this is. Now, is it just the mind? Is it consciousness? is it the mind plus consciousness? Who do we need to thank for? And who is this who tries to figure who to give the credit to? 🙂
Of course, I am not just talking about my mind. This is something we all human and other species share. I like to think about it as the intelligence of life. It is something we can witness in our inside world, and also, in the world around us. A true wonder.
The plot thickens….Is the human mind an obstacle to enlightenment?
Considering my state at this moment, I can go on and on about why I feel so grateful for having this privilege of witnessing this wonder we call the mind, the human body, life…Back to the world of words, however, there’s something in me that wants to go someplace else. If the mind is so clever, how come it so often than not becomes such an obstacle for awakening? In fact, many would even say the mind is the biggest obstacle for spiritual growth.
Now, over the years I have considered many possible explanations. And this can become one giant rabbit hole. One, that may carry over many lifetimes. Things like what’s life purpose, why are we here, are we living in a simulated universe, etc. All belong to this bottomless rabbit hole. With that said, after a while, there was one question that kept coming and made my mind spinning. And at the same time, kind of stopped me from going to the mind trying to figure out this mystery:
Can the mind solves this puzzle, where it is the subject in question? Or, perhaps this is more like a consciousness kind of “inquiry”?
And here’s the thing.
When I go deeper and witness, when I give enough space around this, the mind becomes very quiet. After blaming conditioning, social manipulations, my parents and others potential “offenders”, there’s just silence. Intelligent, loving, stillness. Love for the mind, love for the self, and love for all. Even for the egoic modern human mind with its aggressive tendencies.
Because the truth is, my friend, there are no obstacles for enlightenment. There’s only the idea that there can be any. Remove the idea, you remove the obstacle. Then, when the smoke screen clears, there’s only one universal infinite love that we all have. That we all share. That we all are.
The only way to find freedom, is to realize you are already free. And if a conventional post would end this as “think about it”, we can simply not say anything at all. 🙂 Now, I am sure my mind will think of something clever to say in the background. So, to show my appreciation to the human mind cleverness, I won’t publish this post until after dinner tonight. Let’s see if something will come. 🙂
Merry Christmas and happy new year. Aloha and love.
8:23 PM Its after dinner, and my mind is still quiet and in peace. No sarcasm, no comments, no suggestions. Awesome!
So, we’ll sign off with a loving silence. 🙂
