Name: Chris
Location: San Diego
There seems to be a fine line between a quite mind and a controlled mind. After many years of practice I’m often able to completely suppress the words in my head. It’s like I’m the parent of a young child, a child who incessantly fills every moment with some commentary, always interrupting to offer some narrative, using words and concepts to describe the world. As a loving parent, I hold him close, and with love press my finger to his lips and stop the noise. Then the true experience is allowed to take form, without words and concepts. Francis, I’ve heard you say that thoughts themselves come from the infinite and that true acceptance is realized when these thoughts are allowed to come and pass naturally. What then is the difference between a dis-quite mind and a mind free to indulge in every thought that arises?
Dear Chris,
Mind control, even as “a loving parent”, is not loving. What takes place then is not the true experience but a caricature of it. devoid of any perfume, and most certainly of the perfume of freedom. Such an experience can never become permanent because it is not our natural state, but rather an artificial state created through effort. We have to eradicate first the root cause of the disquietness of the mind, which is the belief and the feeling that we are a limited, mortal entity. Then the mind and the body will gradually and spontaneously relax, revealing the peace and causeless joy that belong to the background of Presence. We can knowingly cooperate with this revelation, not as a person, but as this presence itself. At all times, the mind is free to indulge in every thought that arises, whether we are aware of it or not, because the mind is this very thought that arises. But the mind is still only if we naturally abide in the Self, as the Self.
Love,
Francis
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