Your Only Problem Is Your Own Mind

Article Shared with Permission from the Galactic Free Press, Article written by Will.  Also check them out on facebook here!
Where does fear exist? Does it have any physical existence, can you hold it in your hand? Same with judgment, where does that exist? How about hatred, jealousy, all the negative emotions? Where do all these things “exist”? Are not all these things the cause of enormous pain and suffering for people? It seems understanding the nature of their existence is extremely important.
The answer is obvious, they exist in the mind, and they have no existence outside of the mind. You may see things like violence happening around you, which is an expression of anger, but violence isn’t anger itself. You may see the expressions of negative emotions happening in the world, but the negative emotions themselves are only in the mind.

The mind is the source of all problems, you may believe that someone losing the use of their legs is a physical problem, but the reality is that the problem is still in the mind. There’s people with physical disabilities who curse each day they’re alive, and there’s people with the same disabilities who have learned to live with them and are much happier because of it. Physically, it’s the same situation, yet mentally it’s vastly different. It’s the difference between happiness and misery, simply because of a mental attitude. The way things are is the way things are, it’s the mind that judges that as being a problem or not.
Since suffering only exists in the mind, it seems obvious that the mind is the source of suffering. In fact the mind is what creates all the problems, the whole idea of a “problem” is a concept within the mind. None of these things should be too difficult to accept, at least mentally, but it seems application of this knowledge is something people struggle with. I say this because most people are still trying to solve their problems using the very thing that created the problems, their mind.
How often have you heard that you can’t solve a problem using the same kind of thinking that created the problem? Yet all day long, every single day, people attempt to do precisely that. That kind of unconscious creation makes life very difficult, you can easily create two more problems for every problem that is “solved”. The mind is what creates the problems, it cannot transcend them.

All of the religious and spiritual systems, all of the political, economic, scientific, and psychological systems, all of those things the whole world is run with, are based upon using the mind to solve the problems the mind created. It’s not going to work, yet people foolishly put their hope into such an impossibility. It inevitably results in more mental suffering, and I recommend realizing this as soon as possible. Unless people collectively come to this realization, the same patterns will continue to occur.
I have no doubt that many of the people reading this right now, probably most of the people reading this, are looking for mental understandings. That’s simply the nature of the paradigm most people are living from, and it’s why people have so much difficultly transcending illusion. People want to use an illusion to try and escape from an illusion. This is why so much of spirituality, especially the new age stuff, is nothing more than fantasy. If you try to use the mind to see beyond the illusion, you’re just going to create more illusions.
If you cannot solve the problem of the mind with the mind, what then? Since most people live almost entirely from their minds, this seems like a paradox. We have all these spiritual practices that are supposed to solve this issue, but spiritual practices, and in fact all spiritual knowledge, is still mind-based. It may help some, but it doesn’t solve the root problem. It’s inherently limited because it’s still part of the mind.
This is why it’s often repeated to get out of the mind, and into the Heart. The Heart doesn’t have judgment, so the Heart doesn’t have any problems. You may believe that the Heart suffers, but it’s not really the Heart that suffers, it’s the mind’s unfulfilled desires that create suffering. It’s the mind that creates the illusion of separation, and it’s the mind that mourns a perceived loss, which is really the mind feeling sorry for itself.
The mind can create the illusion of healing, in fact this is what’s known as the placebo effect. Since the mind created the suffering it has enormous control over the suffering. If you really believe in your mind that something will make you feel better, chances are it will appear to end the suffering. If you don’t understand that the mind is what created the suffering in the first place, this might lead you to believe the mind has enormous healing  powers. Of course, the patterns that originally created the problem are still there, and chances are the suffering will return in one form or another.
The more you get out of the mind, the closer you get to God. This is the whole point of meditation, yet this is often missed and people get all caught up in meditation techniques and systems, more mental creations. Simply Being Present is the most effective meditation, yet that’s too simple for the mind. The mind needs to complicate things, as complicating reality is how the mind exists in the first place.
You don’t need to get rid of the mind entirely, that will happen sooner or later anyway. The key is to stop associating your self with your mind. You awareness doesn’t originate from your mind, your mind is only one subject of your awareness, one of many. The key is to understand the uses of the mind, and also its limitations. If you want to write a book, you need the mind, if you want lasting peace and happiness, do not use the mind to try to get there. It cannot, only Love can truly satisfy your Soul, trying to find peace through the mind is why there’s so much conflict in the world. The mind is the source of conflict, it cannot truly understand peace, it only sees peace dualistically, as a lack of conflict. Peace is so much more than that.
Understand that you need the mind to be a part of society. Without the mind there is no society, society is one of the mind’s many fabrications. I don’t recommend disconnecting from the rest of humanity, so I don’t recommend attempting to eradicate the mind altogether. Fighting with the mind only strengthens it anyway, as conflict itself originates from the mind.

I am not my thoughts but the awareness behind them..

Balance is found by not associating your self with the thoughts in your mind, by no longer attaching to them. Simply observe them and let them go, don’t get caught up in them. Then you’ll begin to expand your Consciousness into the more subtle feelings that are usually drowned out by the loud, unruly mind. It’s through seeing beyond the mind that the Divine is found, and where real Love, fulfillment, and peace are found.
Article Shared with Permission from the Galactic Free Press, Article written by Will.  Also check them out on facebook here!

Understanding the nature of illusion

Article Shared with Permission from the Galactic Free Press, Article written by Will.  Also check them out on facebook here!

How can someone be free if they can’t even see their own cage? Even worse, what if they believed the very thing that was keeping them caged would someday set them free?

And what is it we want freedom from? Wants, needs, and desires? Fear, pain, and suffering? Daily toil, drudgery, and boredom? Money problems, relationship problems? All our problems? Wouldn’t that be nice to not have to worry about all those things?

Let us go to the core, what is the root of all these issues? Simple, every single problem we have is a thought in our minds. A physical situation may exist, but it is the mind’s reaction that makes it into a problem. Our own thinking turns it into a problem and through this we become slaves to the thoughts in our minds.

A prisoner who knows nothing other than prison would simply think that’s the way life is. A prisoner who has tasted freedom will suffer far more when locked away, even though the reality of the situation would be the same for both prisoners. It’s simply a difference in perception.

Because the mind can create the illusion that we aren’t free, the illusion that we are dependent upon the body, mind and ego, the mind may seem very powerful. It’s not powerful at all, but to a person who can only see through the filter of their mind, it’s the most powerful thing in the world. The Being Within is where the power comes from, but that power is unconsciously given away by feeding into illusions.

Your Consciousness isn’t meant to be bound to any specific thought, but that’s exactly what the mind does. The mind is all the thoughts you are attached to, and these thoughts are what makes up your illusionary world. It takes a lot of energy to keep thoughts static, to hold them in place, and because of this all your attachments greatly weaken your energetic body. These problems with your energy body then manifest as disease in your physical vessel.

The mind seems like it has the solution to your problems, it seems like your problems can be solved through your mind by thinking about them. In a sense this is true, but it’s because the problem was created by the mind in the first place. The mind is the master of illusions, in fact, the mind is the illusion.

All suffering, all problems, all hate, ugliness, fear and desire, the only place these things “exist” is in your mind. All the things people want to escape from, are just thoughts in the mind. When seen this way, one can see the insanity of trying to use the mind to escape these things.

The mind is the servant who tricked the Master into becoming a slave, and this was done through the ego. The ego is the mind-self, the “self” that exists solely within the confines of the mind. To the ego the mind is god, because the mind has immense control over the “reality” the ego experiences. Anything that contradicts what the mind believes is simply ignored. This is why many people believe they create their own reality, when they really just manipulating the illusionary world they’re trapped within.

There’s the belief that we need to go beyond the ego to find God, and that’s true, but the approach most people take is flawed. They try to use the mind to escape the ego. On the surface it seems like progress is being made, but unconsciously the mind wants to keep the ego. The ego and the mind are deeply connected and the mind’s power depends upon the ego’s survival. Instead of really clearing out the ego, the mind just makes the ego more subtle, more clever. Complete and total surrender to Spirit is an infinitely more effective approach than using the mind to get past the ego.

The mind presents itself as the path to salvation, the path to freedom. You could call this religion. True Awakening is impossible through the mind, you don’t find Reality through illusion, and the mind has no intention of actually setting you free. If that happened the mind would go back to being the servant, so the mind gives you this false path that keeps you very busy and makes everything far more difficult than it needs to be. This is the reason Enlightenment is so dang difficult for people, they seek freedom from illusion through illusion.

So many spiritual teachers will give you paths to freedom that subtly contain the teacher’s own limitations. Perhaps that should be the motto of the “spiritual” mind, freedom through limitations. The new patterns may be less limiting than the old ones the person was stuck within, so to them it appears that they’re becoming free, but it’s still not True Freedom. You just keep getting a little closer without really taking the Leap.

One of the huge mental limitations that masquerades as a path to freedom is this idea that you have to purify your body to raise your Consciousness. Utter nonsense! It’s completely backwards thinking. Not that I’m against keeping your body healthy, but the belief that it’s a requirement is materialism pretending to be godly. As if your Consciousness is dependent upon your body! That belief is one of the more damning ones, yet here’s all these “spiritual” teachers subtly promoting it. Raise your Consciousness, and you’ll naturally bring health to your temporary physical vessel. Begin by clearing out the poisons in your mind though.

Reality simply is, very simple, natural, effortless flow, Tao. The mind makes it complicated. The waves have no conflict with the shore, yet someone’s mind can come along and turn this into a problem. In trying to solve the problem with the very thing that created the problem, more problems are added. It’s a vicious cycle, and exactly why the human world is in the state it’s in.

You dont have to keep repeating these mistakes though. You can free yourself. The absurdity is that you’re only freeing yourself from the illusion that you’re not already free. See the ridiculousness of the mind! Stop taking it so seriously and you’ll stop giving it so much power.
What do you think about the illusions of the mind?  Let us know in the comments below & thank you for reading.
Article Shared with Permission from the Galactic Free Press, Article written by Will.  Also check them out on facebook here!

Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (The Real Reason For The Forty-Hour Workweek)

By David Cain / raptitude.com

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Well I’m in the working world again. I’ve found myself a well-paying gig in the engineering industry, and life finally feels like it’s returning to normal after my nine months of traveling.
Because I had been living quite a different lifestyle while I was away, this sudden transition to 9-to-5 existence has exposed something about it that I overlooked before.
Since the moment I was offered the job, I’ve been markedly more careless with my money. Not stupid, just a little quick to pull out my wallet. As a small example, I’m buying expensive coffees again, even though they aren’t nearly as good as New Zealand’s exceptional flat whites, and I don’t get to savor the experience of drinking them on a sunny café patio. When I was away these purchases were less off-handed, and I enjoyed them more.
I’m not talking about big, extravagant purchases. I’m talking about small-scale, casual, promiscuous spending on stuff that doesn’t really add a whole lot to my life. And I won’t actually get paid for another two weeks.
In hindsight I think I’ve always done this when I’ve been well-employed — spending happily during the “flush times.” Having spent nine months living a no-income backpacking lifestyle, I can’t help but be a little more aware of this phenomenon as it happens.
I suppose I do it because I feel I’ve regained a certain stature, now that I am again an amply-paid professional, which seems to entitle me to a certain level of wastefulness. There is a curious feeling of power you get when you drop a couple of twenties without a trace of critical thinking. It feels good to exercise that power of the dollar when you know it will “grow back” pretty quickly anyway.
What I’m doing isn’t unusual at all. Everyone else seems to do this. In fact, I think I’ve only returned to the normal consumer mentality after having spent some time away from it.
One of the most surprising discoveries I made during my trip was that I spent much less per month traveling foreign counties (including countries more expensive than Canada) than I did as a regular working joe back home. I had much more free time, I was visiting some of the most beautiful places in the world, I was meeting new people left and right, I was calm and peaceful and otherwise having an unforgettable time, and somehow it cost me much less than my humble 9-5 lifestyle here in one of Canada’s least expensive cities.
It seems I got much more for my dollar when I was traveling. Why?

A Culture of Unnecessaries

Here in the West, a lifestyle of unnecessary spending has been deliberately cultivated and nurtured in the public by big business. Companies in all kinds of industries have a huge stake in the public’s penchant to be careless with their money. They will seek to encourage the public’s habit of casual or non-essential spending whenever they can.
In the documentary The Corporation, a marketing psychologist discussed one of the methods she used to increase sales. Her staff carried out a study on what effect the nagging of children had on their parents’ likelihood of buying a toy for them. They found out that 20% to 40% of the purchases of their toys would not have occurred if the child didn’t nag its parents. One in four visits to theme parks would not have taken place. They used these studies to market their products directly to children, encouraging them to nag their parents to buy.
This marketing campaign alone represents many millions of dollars that were spent because of demand that was completely manufactured.

“You can manipulate consumers into wanting, and therefore buying, your products. It’s a game.” ~ Lucy Hughes, co-creator of “The Nag Factor”

This is only one small example of something that has been going on for a very long time. Big companies didn’t make their millions by earnestly promoting the virtues of their products, they made it by creating a culture of hundreds of millions of people that buy way more than they need and try to chase away dissatisfaction with money.
We buy stuff to cheer ourselves up, to keep up with the Joneses, to fulfill our childhood vision of what our adulthood would be like, to broadcast our status to the world, and for a lot of other psychological reasons that have very little to do with how useful the product really is. How much stuff is in your basement or garage that you haven’t used in the past year?

The real reason for the forty-hour workweek

The ultimate tool for corporations to sustain a culture of this sort is to develop the 40-hour workweek as the normal lifestyle. Under these working conditions people have to build a life in the evenings and on weekends. This arrangement makes us naturally more inclined to spend heavily on entertainment and conveniences because our free time is so scarce.
I’ve only been back at work for a few days, but already I’m noticing that the more wholesome activities are quickly dropping out of my life: walking, exercising, reading, meditating, and extra writing.
The one conspicuous similarity between these activities is that they cost little or no money, but they take time.
Suddenly I have a lot more money and a lot less time, which means I have a lot more in common with the typical working North American than I did a few months ago. While I was abroad I wouldn’t have thought twice about spending the day wandering through a national park or reading my book on the beach for a few hours. Now that kind of stuff feels like it’s out of the question. Doing either one would take most of one of my precious weekend days!

The last thing I want to do when I get home from work is exercise. It’s also the last thing I want to do after dinner or before bed or as soon as I wake, and that’s really all the time I have on a weekday.
This seems like a problem with a simple answer: work less so I’d have more free time. I’ve already proven to myself that I can live a fulfilling lifestyle with less than I make right now. Unfortunately, this is close to impossible in my industry, and most others. You work 40-plus hours or you work zero. My clients and contractors are all firmly entrenched in the standard-workday culture, so it isn’t practical to ask them not to ask anything of me after 1pm, even if I could convince my employer not to.
The eight-hour workday developed during the industrial revolution in Britain in the 19th century, as a respite for factory workers who were being exploited with 14- or 16-hour workdays.
As technologies and methods advanced, workers in all industries became able to produce much more value in a shorter amount of time. You’d think this would lead to shorter workdays.
But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work.
We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing.
Western economies, particularly that of the United States, have been built in a very calculated manner on gratification, addiction, and unnecessary spending. We spend to cheer ourselves up, to reward ourselves, to celebrate, to fix problems, to elevate our status, and to alleviate boredom.
Can you imagine what would happen if all of America stopped buying so much unnecessary fluff that doesn’t add a lot of lasting value to our lives?
The economy would collapse and never recover.
All of America’s well-publicized problems, including obesity, depression, pollution and corruption are what it costs to create and sustain a trillion-dollar economy. For the economy to be “healthy”, America has to remain unhealthy. Healthy, happy people don’t feel like they need much they don’t already have, and that means they don’t buy a lot of junk, don’t need to be entertained as much, and they don’t end up watching a lot of commercials.
The culture of the eight-hour workday is big business’ most powerful tool for keeping people in this same dissatisfied state where the answer to every problem is to buy something.
You may have heard of Parkinson’s Law. It is often used in reference to time usage: the more time you’ve been given to do something, the more time it will take you to do it. It’s amazing how much you can get done in twenty minutes if twenty minutes is all you have. But if you have all afternoon, it would probably take way longer.
Most of us treat our money this way. The more we make, the more we spend. It’s not that we suddenly need to buy more just because we make more, only that we can, so we do. In fact, it’s quite difficult for us to avoid increasing our standard of living (or at least our rate of spending) every time we get a raise.
I don’t think it’s necessary to shun the whole ugly system and go live in the woods, pretending to be a deaf-mute, as Holden Caulfield often fantasized. But we could certainly do well to understand what big commerce really wants us to be. They’ve been working for decades to create millions of ideal consumers, and they have succeeded. Unless you’re a real anomaly, your lifestyle has already been designed.
The perfect customer is dissatisfied but hopeful, uninterested in serious personal development, highly habituated to the television, working full-time, earning a fair amount, indulging during their free time, and somehow just getting by.
Is this you?
Two weeks ago I would have said hell no, that’s not me, but if all my weeks were like this one has been, that might be wishful thinking.
Photo by joelogon
via filmsforaction.org

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