How Can the Mind Be Quiet?

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How Can the Mind Be Quiet?

When you say that your self and your body have to go together, that is clear to me, but mind goes somewhere else. Mind doesn’t go with you all the time. You are sitting here, but mind can be elsewhere, so that can be separate at times. At times it can be with you. This is my first question, and afterwards–

Let’s go one at a time.

Your mind also doesn’t go anywhere. It is here, thinking about something. Does it go somewhere? Your mind doesn’t go anywhere. It is here and thinking about something else, but still it is here. Isn’t it? Neither your body goes somewhere, nor your mind goes somewhere, nor you go somewhere. They’re always one composite whole. If you want to do anything, you have to do something that works for all of them. You can’t handle this separately, that one separately, and this one separately. They’re always together. Isn’t it? Your mind doesn’t go anywhere. Did you lose it? It is just that you’re being deceived by the imagination of your mind. It is sitting here and imagining something. It is not going anywhere, but you are so identified and lost that you think the mind is going somewhere. Mind doesn’t travel anywhere. It’s very much here. Isn’t it? You need to understand this.

Why? Your mind is going along with uncontrollable, endless thoughts. You’re identified with things that you are not. The moment you get identified with something that you are not, then mind is nonstop activity. You’re identified with too many things, and you’re trying to stop your mind. I’m telling you, if you try for a million years, it’s not going to happen. It cannot happen. If you take away your wrong identifications, then you will see this moment, mind will be just like a mirror, not saying anything, just reflecting everything. That’s how a mind should be. Your mind is a mechanism, works best only when there is clarity in it. Isn’t it? Isn’t it so? Your mind is not here to think of all kinds of fancy things. That’s a distraction in life. Your mind is here to give you clarity and penetration into life, but, right now, mind is just a huge ball of confusion simply because you got identified with so many things that you are not, and now you’re trying to hold it back. There is no way to hold it back.

You ate very bad food. Now there’s gas in the stomach. You can’t hold it. You eaten bad food. The consequence is there. You got wrongly identified with too many things, now this is going on endlessly. You cannot stop it. It doesn’t matter what you do. You think of God, God, himself, will go to take you to many places. Now you’re sitting here and you’re trying to meditate, but you’re thinking of your bar, or restaurant, or friend, or cinema, or something. Now people told you, “Think about God, everything will be okay.” If you think about Rama or Krishna, then you will find you will go to cinema with Rama. That’s the nature of the mind. Rama, himself, will take you to the bar. Rama, himself, will take you to the restaurant. You can’t stop it, because you’ve gotten yourself identified with things that you are not. No way to stop it.

What’s being done here is not about controlling your mind to bring an awareness as to what you are not. Right now, to start with, the most fundamental identity is your body. You’re identified with your body, the clothes that you wear, your hairstyle, your goatee, also, aren’t you? Very much identified, isn’t it? Your wife, your children, your family, your education, your religion, endless number of identifications. With all these identities, you want a quiet mind? There’s no such thing. That’s why we gave you a simple device called shunya, where you create a little distance from the mind. Once distance happens, even if it’s a noisy mind, still it doesn’t matter. Disengaging from the mind. Once you’re disengaged from the mind, you’re disengaged from all identity because it’s the mind which manufactures identifications. Isn’t it? Don’t think of all kinds of things, just employ the device. Things will happen. Things that you have not imaged will happen.