Let us continue with the main issue of the thread.

After reading what i said about daily introspection practice at night and the relation and working of conscious and subconscious minds, one is entitled to ask a question how all that fits in the context. So, first of all i must make it clear what is purpose of all that.


If we take a closer look at the mind, we would find that mind mostly remember things via references or markers. That is a quite natural phenomenon. As it stores a lot of memory, many times more that we assume, thus, it cannot be put in any unorganized manner scattered all over the place. There has to be some kind of order otherwise it would be very difficult to recall any old memory when it is required immediately. This arrangement is quite similar to that of a big library, where books can be placed either alphabetically or according to the time frame, but there has to be some order to enable the locator to find the required book in real tine. in the same way, the mind uses a small reference or marker to remember a long event. It is its default mechanism and cannot be overruled in any case.

To explain this phenomenon further, i would like to put forth an old folklore from Hinduism.

Once there was a very learned and famous sage, and people used to come to him for learning and help in issues from all over. He also had a son, who was stupid and lazy but wanted to get the benefits from the knowledge of his father. So, one day he asked his father to teach him the mantras for immorality. The sage refused by saying that there are no such mantras, but the son kept on insisting. And, when his father continued to ignore him, the son gave up eating and said he would die fasting if his father did not grant his wish. Seeing no other option, the sage lastly agreed to teach those mantras to his son. The son became very pleased to hear that and also asked his father to teach mantras immediately. But, the sage calmed him down and said that he would teach the mantras tomorrow early morning just after taking the bath.

Next day, as asked by the father, the son took the bath in river and came to the sage eagerly. Then, the sage said that though he (sage) is telling the mantras to him (son), but also warned that there is still a small but necessary condition remains to be fulfilled. The son asked what it is, and the sage told that it is necessary that the remembrance of the monkeys should not come in one's mind at all while reciting those mantras, otherwise immortality could never be achieved.

Hearing this, the son laughed saying that as the thoughts regarding the monkeys never come to his mind, so it is a non issue for him. The sage told the mantras, asked his son to repeat 100 times, warned his son again regarding the monkeys, and left.

Now, as soon as the son started reciting the mantras, the first thing popped up in his mind, was a monkey. He became surprised and thought it is just a chance, but monkeys refused to vacate his mind. He kept trying to forget them, but the more he tried to forget them, the more they continued to haunt him. Years passed, but neither monkeys left the son nor he became immortal.

Obviously, the story is not true but fabricated only, but its moral is absolutely true. That happens in reality because that is how our mind works. And, my suggested mental exercise is based precisely on the moral of above mentioned folklore.

We use to come across to many different circumstances daily, and quite obviously, we have to somehow deal with those too. But, our way of dealing does not always happen to be in such a way what it ought to be, even according to ourselves. And, for meditation, that intent is the first thing to have. It is not the issue here what is right or wrong according to one's thinking. That is still to be known by one, but one must be committed to follow honestly what he considers right. My focus is on the intent of being right, not much on the right deduction of being right. If the intent of being right will be there, being right will follow sooner or later. And realize, that this what it ought to be is not regarding only societal issues, but all verticals of the life like business, profession, job etc.

But, in the loud noise of ambiance, and also because of that much fast pace life we live today for whatever reasons, we never get the chance to reevaluate what we have been done, thus lose the opportunity to correct it too. This mental exercise will certainly help in that regard.

But, the question, how it can help, is still unanswered.

When we would start reevaluating our every day's actions and our frame mind while doing those also, that would slowly but surely start creating a reference/mark in our mind about our intents and actions. Of course, we will judge (or came to know later through experience) some of our intent/actions right and some wrong, but every such reevaluation would darker the reference in our subconscious mind by one notch. And, if one keep doing it for long enough and continuously too, that will create a default warning system in the subconscious mind, and whenever that very situation arises again, it would tell conscious mind immediately how to handle that situation.

It is something like what we have safety software in our phones and computers. Whenever that software finds any bug, or we try to do anything such which may harm the device in any way, safety software immediately warn about the danger, and we correct the course too. The same this mental exercise can do for our mind. Though, our mind still uses this mechanism, but only sparingly, not always.

With this, i think have covered all questions that may arise pertaining to what i have been said till now, thus I will move to the basics of the meditation methodologies/exercises from the next post.

with love,
sanjay