What your phone can teach you about your mind
Phone
The most ubiquitous of external devices What we anyway think of, use it to think of spiritual truths
Mind – many meanings
AttentionIntelligenceIntellectual person Non-material side
What is the mind?Gita’s tripartite model of the selfBody – Hardware Mind – SoftwareSoul – User
Distance for difference
The mind is inside us – and outside us too See from soul’s perspective, not body’s perspective
Default setting
Eg auto-correct goes incorrectLook at the mind before you look with the mind
Default setting
Change your browser’s home pageEg whatsapp message with link
Delusion
Improving hardware can’t treat corrupted software Physical progress can’t bring mental peace
Mind-brain
Mind – softwareBrain – CPUHeart – Soul – source of emotions
Origin: Who is the inner activator?
“The brain is a computer . . . But it is programmed by something that is outside itself.” - Wilder Penfield The Mystery of the Mind,
Starting point for emotions
External / physical stimulus Mental recollectionSpiritual inspiration
Brain & emotions
Every action has a physical componentEvery emotion has a neurological component
Brain & emotions
Every action has a physical componentEvery emotion has a neurological component
Chemical nirvana?
Pathologizing every human problem Eg. Cracked – Why Psychiatry is doing more harm than good by James Davies
The other extreme
Spiritual & material – complement, not replacement Eg Japa for fresh breathStructural
Mental problems
Don’t position medication for the mind & devotion as competitors Different minds have different needs
Painkiller – Antibiotic
Don’t campaign for or against the painkiller – focus on the curative medicine
Bhakti = Anti-virus program
Grants Higher wisdom&Higher happiness
Energy drainer apps
Energy draining thoughts, emotions, habits
Willpower – Finite
Don’t waste willpower on unnecessary battles
Gita 2.58
Don’t just battle over your choices – choose your battles
External adjustment: valuable starting point
Out of sight is out of mind provided the mind is out of it
Redefining freedom
Freedom comes not by having facility for unlimited choices, but by ability to make wise choices
Redefining freedom
Freedom for vs Freedom from
Redefining freedom
Freedom comes by respecting the right restrictions, not by rejecting all restrictions
Free love – self-contradiction
Love is the bond that frees us to bring out our best
Bhakti-yogaRe-condition yourself by:RepetitionPurification Revelation
Accept yourselfChange begins with acceptanceIf God had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made someone else
Repetition What we do, we tend to do – the law of inertia
PurificationMind like wall with graffiti?Scrub off?Repaint? Re-manifest
RevelationKrishna’s glories enlighten even the enlightened (10.09)
First things firstFocus on the war for devotion, not the battle against temptation
Spikes of desires What happens during the spikes doesn’t matter as much as what happens between them
Hope – fruit of faithSeek counsel from
Krishna, not the mind VSN: animish, nimish
The best youWhat we are is God’s gift to us; what we become is our gift to God
To know more
Questions www.thespiritualscientist.comDaily spiritual reflections:www.gitadaily.com