Dear Diary,
At the beginning of the week I watched yet another video in which a fellow, also fond of explaining the inexplicable, lectured a group of people on his insights about the mind. About its speeds, weights and levels, to be precise. The highest, lightest and fastest (or perhaps simply high, light and fast, since there might be additional cosmic ones up there) level a person reaches when their mind falls completely silent and begins looking at the surrounding world through pure, uncontaminated human wisdom. A fabulous state, aiding both in programming and in quiz shows, when you simply look at the screen and your hands, aided by your eyes, pick the juiciest fruits from the array returned by the function currently processing the relevant problem. A fabulous state when into a moment of quality rest threaded with threads of bliss you can plunge even on Ašigalio Street – you no longer need to search for it in other corners of the world, and a simple linden tree blooming right on this street captivates and enchants you more strongly than any overseas palm. A fabulous state that I’ve been trying for a good decade to describe here for you (and most likely for myself), sticking various “meditation”, “here and now” and other labels and names onto it.
Then the mind appears. The mind appears when we fill the inner world with one object or another visible on the outside. And, roughly speaking, the mind is simply all the surrounding objects relevant to us, squeezed into a form, description, analysis and opinion. Having firmly shut the shutters to the beauty of the outer world, we begin a sad and dreary existence in our own self-created copies of the world. And it appears not all at once, but little by little – each object that enters our field of vision and analysis becomes a little anchor that begins slowing the mind and dragging it down.
Gradually those little anchors grow ever more numerous, they merge into far more massive anchors and a person, mired in love for their possessions and objects and their analysis, becomes what we, after a few minutes of interaction, designate with the familiar word “stupid”. Stupid – that’s a person whose mind, due to the anchors holding it, has slowed to a minimum and reached its lowest levels. After all, you remember that stupid boy from the neighboring staircase in childhood, always getting in your face with his “Look, what a soldier my dad bought me. Look how many models I already have. Do you have a video yet? We got one, but we’ll look for a better one!” So many anchors!
Seeing this in yourself helps quickly unhook if not all, then at least a mountain of truly pointless, heavy and unnecessary mind weights, thus allowing it to spin faster and higher again. Allowing you to enjoy more and longer those moments when those weights and, correspondingly, the mind itself are simply absent. Allowing you to smile an inner smile when in a group of friends the mind tries to latch onto an overheard word or situation, seemingly begins its analysis, a light disagreement is born, but the thread holding the new, forming anchor is rather fragile and after a moment simply snaps, thus turning the mind’s latest attempt to grab hold, slow down, become viscous and stupid into nothing.
Have an absolutely crazy Friday – both for those working and those on vacation! :-)
