Have you observed the words you speak, your hand gestures and your intonation? All of them are repetitive. Yes! That’s true. Our mind is in a contraption of its own making. This means every interaction is necessarily a rearrangement of what you have stored in your memory. There is nothing new. We are reproducing the past or reflecting our memories into the future.
Looking into your past, you only see how it could have been better. The net result of the thoughts leaves you unhappy and agitated. If you do not learn from your past, you will want to get even whenever your ego hurts.
Many of us feel that we are not egoistic. The ego is a summation of our thoughts, feelings, behaviours, habits, judgments, beliefs, perceptions of right and wrong, good and bad, etc. Being angry, unhappy or afraid are all parts of our ego. The problem is that we are stuck, and we don’t know it and don’t accept it.
Here’s a trivia. Do you know where our thoughts, feelings, behaviours, habits, judgments, beliefs and perceptions are stored?
The Manas is the plane of awareness that vibrates in and around us, where everything we think and feel is stored. It has unlimited frequencies. The Manas has two roles. One is to reproduce thinking, and the other is to attract similarities. It uses the body as a magnet. Pain attracts pain; happiness attracts happiness. Have you heard of the phrase, like attracts like? Most diseases are born out of our emotions. Simple examples prove this. When you are angry, you get hyperacidity and migraine. Anxiety causes an urge to defecate or may even constipate you. It creates a desire to eat mixtures and other fried foods. Unhappiness can cause you to put on weight and craves sweets. Prolonging these emotions causes bodily abuse; eventually, an illness sprouts. Living in the past arrests your ability to contribute.
Today can be better. Practice rising above the mind and stop living in the past. Attract new possibilities into your life. It is possible now. You can begin practising for as little as 12 seconds, and it will bring newness into you. Why twelve seconds? Because that is the attention span of the mind.
Place your hand on your thigh, or better, on the table before you hold the thumb up. Now observe the thumb for merely twelve seconds. If a thought occurs, stop the practice and begin again. When you have accomplished it, you will realise the mind was silent, and you just rose above the mind. Regular practice will get make your days better.
— Dr Mahesh Krishnamurthy
