The illumined Man

12 Aug The illumined Man

“When you keep thinking about sense-objects,
Attachment comes. Attachment breeds desire,
The lust of possession which, when thwarted,
Burns to anger. Anger clouds the judgment
And robs you of the power to learn from past mistakes
Lost is the discriminative faculty,
And your life is utter waste.”

The Gita is a dialogue between Sri Krishna and his friendArjuna, a warrior prince who represents anyone trying to live a spiritual life in the midst ofworldly activity and conflict. This translation is by Eknath Easwaran, from hisBhagavad Gita for Daily Living (Petaluma, California: Nilgiri Press, 1975?85).

Spiritual life here for me represents living with awarenessin the midst of every day activity and turmoil. For example, being conscious of the activity of the mind and how it canbecome dysfunctional during times of conflict and how it can affect yourdecision process. How we can easily losethe ability to make the right choices when the mind loses attention.

The mind that suffers from attention deficit or ishyperactive, is lethargic and untrained is recognised as dysfunctional andbrings unwanted suffering. The mind that is relaxed and gives attention at Yourdirection is a trained mind.

To discipline the mind is a difficult task but in thepassage, Krishna encourages us that it is possible and makes reference to how wecan recognise when our mind is not being functional and the kind of mind weshould aspire to. We only have toobserve our uncontrolled senses; our scatterbrain; or observe our erratic emotionsand thoughts.

Drawing awareness of the activity of our mind is the firststep in enlightenment. Doing somethingabout it is the next, and carrying forth the practice over and over again leadsto good discipline that changes the efficiency of our mind and therefore ouractions.

TASK:

ú Having checked the state of your mind how wouldyou re-address the balance of your mind?

ú Underline all the phrases or words that describea dysfunctional mind?

ú Underline phrase or words you aspire to andwrite this down over and over again.