How to get out of the stories in one's head? || Acharya Prashant (2019)
Question: If one lives in stories, the stories that are conversations with oneself, how does one get out of them?
Acharya Prashant Ji: Check! Check!
All your stories are about objects in the universe. Your stories have no fresh elements at all. All the actors, all the players, all the settings, all the props, are coming from experience. It could be conscious experience or latent experience.
So everything that is there in your story, is actually present in the universe as an objective element as well.
So check!
(Acharya Ji pointing at the audio recorder kept on the table) For example, you looked at this, and then your story this is some kind of a supercomputer. And this supercomputer is enabling you to become the President of the world.
And from there your story is really taking off. You are doing all kinds of magical things, and forcing your whip upon every second person, and all those things. What is the entire story based on? It is based on the negation of a fact. What is the fact that your story is deliberately distorting? That this is a supercomputer.
Every element in your story would be something present in the universe. Go, check! This is there. This is the basis of your story. Pick this up and check. Check whether this is really a supercomputer. Your story will be punctured, immediately.
You are fantasising – When I will meet that man, such and such great things will happen. And now we are having coffee, and now we are watching the movie. And the movie is wonderful – and the entire three hour movie you are visualising.
What is at the basis of the entire fantasy? That the man is prepared to spend a day with you. Go check out on him.
Ah! The show stops.
When you are in your fantasy, the fantasy involves someone, right? Why not check out the person? Why not really enquire? And you will receive a response that will totally flatten you. And you know that.
To avoid devastation, you decide all the more to remain oblivious of the fact.
So it is the Wimbledon final, and you are matching Roger Federer. And you are serving your hundredth ace. You are serving your hundredth ace. And that pumps you up. Why not step on a real court and try serving even once, at 150 miles an hour? Or even once, at half that speed.
Check the fact out. But you won’t check it out.
On the court you can’t beat even the neighbouring Pintu. And Pintu is in standard six, and plays with a half-size kid’s racket. And he will beat 6-0, 6-0, 6-0. But not checking the fact out allows you to remain in your daydreams.
That’s the one thing dream-lovers strictly avoid – checking the facts out.
So I advise you often to check on your facts, and also know what is happening in the world. That will help you stay clear of illusions.
You must know the system of your body, you must know your capabilities, you must know your intentions, you must also know what is happening in the locality, in the community, in the country, on the entire planet, in the entire universe. If you know all these things, imaginations remain in check. Otherwise a mind bereft of facts, is very susceptible to imagination.
