How to Get Out of the Mind?
Questioner: In the middle of a storm with the agony of not getting what I want, I can get out of the mind only by holding on to your videos and writings. Rest comes again only to be swept away in the next moment. It feels like an impossibility to crack this nut.
Acharya Prashant: See, existence love nuts. That is why you have such a great diversity of them everywhere. We have a prolific variety of nuts here in India, in Asia; your place, the Netherlands, there are other kinds of nuts. There's nothing wrong with being a nut. Now, decide what really makes you restless — the nut-ness or the resistance to nut-ness?
Who taught us that we must be sane, civilized, cultivated, polished, good-looking, manicured? If the mind swings this way and that way and sometimes both ways concurrently, let it do that. Why else are we born? What is the point in living? Do you want to live a safe, protected life like a drawing room, bookshelf? Furniture pieces last as long as human beings do, sometimes even longer and there is nothing insane or wild or uncooked about them. They are so precise, so courteous. They never really lose their moorings.
If you are going through agony, keep going through it. If you are going through darkness, keep going through. And not with the hope that darkness will end. This is what we are born into. Stay with it. I am not even asking you to tolerate it or accept it. I am saying this is it. This is the world. It is not the world that displeases us. It is the idea that we have of our ideal world. The seesaw is all right, the swing is all right, the roller coaster is all right. They are not even all right, they are all that there is.
Is there frustration ever without expectation? Please answer this. Can you be frustrated without having a concept of what things should be like? You are frustrated only when you see an option. You are frustrated because you see that other option not materializing. I want to say, there is no option and the moment you see that there is no option, the moment you see that there is no escape, you escape away!
It's a strange thing but you will understand. The moment you see that there is no reality except this world, another reality descends upon you. Is that reality different from the reality of this world? Probably yes, probably no, probably no answer, probably move. What is certain is that that other thing is not a matter of thought. You cannot compare this world to that. If you keep comparing then there is only vexation.
Let me reread what you have said, 'Middle of a storm, agony, not getting what I want, swept away, unable to crack this nut'. Do you see what is common between all these expressions? A feeling that you know what you want. You have said, 'I am not getting what I want'. How do you know you are not getting want? For that, you must have a certainty of what you want. How can the mind ever be certain of what it wants? Has it ever been certain?
We have an image of what we want. That image is, firstly, not really what we want. Secondly, if you do not achieve what that image displays, you will feel you have a justified agony. You will say, 'I knew what I wanted and I am in pain because I could not get it. So, my agony is justified.' And if you, unfortunately, somehow manage to realize that image, if you can somehow manage to get close to that image, your frustration will be even greater, because now hopelessness will be added to the disappointment and disgrace will be added to defeat. Not only are you now hopeless about the future, but you are also seeing that all the effort that you put in to reach the dream castle of your imagination has gone waste. One turns bitter. One feels the entire life has gone waste.
Also, and it's dangerous so please pay attention, if you come to my recordings or writings with any kind of notion, you will not get the real taste of what I am cooking and serving. Here in India, we not only clean and rinse our mouths after meals but even before meals. Do you know why it is important to rinse your mouth before meals? So that you can get the real taste of the food. Similarly, it is very important to rinse one's mind before one goes to a scripture or to a teacher. Otherwise, the tastes will get all mixed up.
One day you will die then you will miss the swing, then you will miss the nuts, the nuts are not there to be mound. They are there to be celebrated. Where else will you get the nuts except in this life? When this world would be bidding goodbye to you then the same randomness, the same madnesses, the same storms, the same agonies, they will start appearing so precious.
Have you ever had nitwit friends? Not the wise ones. The nuts, the ones who keep making mischief, the ones who keep troubling everybody. One scolds them, one rebukes the movement one entered their friendship and when they are gone, one feels as if a part of oneself is gone.
When we were kids, the class would appear so lifeless and bland, almost comatose on the days when the nuts would be absent. And when the nuts would be there then everybody would be wishing them ill. The teacher would be saying, 'Get out of the class, raise your hands, and stand there'. The teacher would be saying, 'I curse the day you were granted admission in the school'. Today, those are the ones who are the most sorely missed on the alumni groups.
Come with whatever you have, come with whatever you are. Don't come to me with the intention of gaining something or getting rid of something. Rinse yourself of all the expectations, all the knowledge, all the intentions. The mind is not ugly, the mind is just mischievous. It is often one's relationship with the mind that is ugly. I never say attack the mind or suppress the mind or kill the mind.
I have always likened the mind to a monkey. The monkey is naughty but not evil. It's your relationship with the monkey that must be proper. When you start chasing the monkey in order to tame it, then you, by the effect of the company of the monkey, become a monkey much bigger than the actual monkey. It is then that the house appears earthquake hit or cyclone hit.
Now, you are a bull of a monkey. A monkey is a small monkey but when the ‘I’, the self starts chasing the monkey for whatever purpose, you can chase the monkey because you are attached to it or you can chase the monkey because you are troubled by it. You can run after somebody either because you are attached to the person or you can also run after somebody because you are deeply troubled by that person. In either case, you are attached to that person.
So, when you start running after the monkey, then you become a bigger monkey because now you will be doing exactly the same things that the monkey is doing. If you are really chasing a monkey and the monkey climbs a tree, what will you have to do? You too will have to climb the tree. So, now you too are a monkey. If you are chasing a monkey and the monkey jumps from one table to the other, then to chase the monkey you too will have to jump from one table to the other. Now you are a bigger monkey. The original monkey was fifteen kilograms. You are sixty-five kilograms. Now think of the condition of the house. I said, 'Cyclone hit'.
Those who do not know themselves chase the mind because they feel there is a great pleasure to be had by associating with the mind. Those who start knowing themselves chase the mind because they think that the mind is the centre of all mischief. So, they dislike the mind, they want to follow it and disband it and abandon it and whatnot.
Do neither. Let the monkey be. Purge yourself of all intentions with respect to the mind. Hold no intentions at all. Mind goes west, let it go west and see how far will it go. Mind goes east, let it go east and see how far it can go. Go!
You know, the mind loves you. It will come back. It cannot go too far sans you. Like a child who does not like when the mother accompanies him because it's not fashionable. The child says, 'I must go solo. I'm a big man and big men aren't accompanied by mommies.' But if you really let him go solo, half an hour later he comes back, and he says, 'You know, you mind coming along till the grossers? Yeah, maintain a safe distance. Don't want Sam and Jack to know that, you know, I walk with women like you'.
That is love! That is witnessing! That is wisdom!
