The Window of the Mind

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Excerpts from the book: The Mind: Its Projections and Multiple Facets

by SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa (aka: Yogi Bhajan)

I want to share with you a few concepts and some practical techniques that open the window of your mind. With your mind you can view every thought, every feeling, and every part of your life. But you can cover that window with so much dust from your ego that you cannot see your soul at all. You can forget your own concept, standards, and who you are in the reality of life.

Each of you knows that when the body is not cleaned, it eventually stinks. To prevent that you shower and clean yourself every morning. It is an act of self-respect and a duty to your consciousness. Do you know it is exactly the same with the mind? When the mind is not cleaned, it eventually stinks. So much dust can accumulate you cannot see anything at all and someone will smell the stink if they just think of you! The entire house of your personality gradually becomes a garbage dump if it is not cleaned.

What is it like to have the mind clear so you can see through it without distortion? It is very easy to feel and say, “I am very happy.” It is also very easy to feel and say, “I am very unhappy.” In reality you are neither happy nor unhappy. “Happiness” and “sadness” are your mental concepts. They are constructions of your mind and its projections. When the mind is clear it serves you. If you are unhappy, your mind should give you the way to be happy. If you are happy, the mind should just remind you that there is a possibility to become unhappy. You can never always be happy and you can never always be Unhappy. You must see and understand the fluctuating pros and cons, and then live through the diagonal on the line of the soul and reality between them. A clear mind helps you walk that diagonal path and be consciously you. You are supposed to remain you, come what may. That is the actual strength of your mind when it is clean and clear.

There are many ego trips in the spiritual world. And spiritual ego is one of the worst, most intractable of all egos. Very few spiritual people speak to you straight and blunt. Most speak like this, “Humm. Yeah, I see you are a beautiful and wonderful person. I feel a great light around you. You must be a healer and had great past lives.” They inflate your spiritual ego and make it even harder to see through the window of your mind. It doesn't help you with the job of cleaning. It is better to tell the student what they need to do.

The spiritual world is not calm, quiet, and peaceful. It is not a special realm that is minus ego and minus the mind. They are still people, and they must still deal with the mind and the ego. The problem is when you go with the ego and inflate it, deflate it, and depend on it. I don't want to offend your ears with something I should not say. You all know what happens to any meal, even to a gourmet meal. It goes through you and ends up coming out in the rest room. No matter how inflated the gourmet and grand the meal, it will come through the same as a humble meal. You should just let it go! It doesn't matter what the meal is and it doesn't matter what the words are, spiritual or political or economic. It is not you. And you must find a simple diagonal line of life through it.

Your spirituality is basic and authentic. Its natural authenticity does many good things for you. It is the light of my soul that can carry me. It is my statement, my depth, and my impact from the heart. You think it is your environments and the things in those environments. You become a prisoner of them and they will never carry you anywhere. With no duality, with innocence and genuine spiritual integrity, you flow with the flow of your spirit. Then your mind will just serve you and life will be creative, elevated, beautiful, and authentic. And when it is authentic, you will be trusted. You will be direct, speak the truth, and never need to manufacture anything negative to manipulate or control anything.

Mostly you train your mind to listen to “inflations.” You love the pleasing sounds that praise your ego. These ears listen so much to inflated lies they can not recognize the truth when it is spoken. If the window of the mind is dirty, if the mind is shallow and you have not refined it, then you can speak truth to such a mind and it can not hear it or take it in to experience.

We habitually spin lies in the name of truth. We have become accustomed to this as a fact and even admire it like marketing. This is how our mental games drop us. We fall from our own innocence and descend from our own elevation. We are very beautiful and creative people. We are made in the image of God. We have the fastest and the most wonderful power - our own mind. It can take us to God. It can take us to ourselves. It can take us deep into our self or far out into the Universe. When clean and open the mind can do anything that we want.

If we can remember this one little thing and take it to heart, then we can solve our problems a hundred percent. Just remember: the mind is given to us, we are not given to the mind. It is a simple thing.

The window of your mind can be cleared or fogged over by the words you use and how you use them. There is a gap between what you say in words and what you intend to communicate. That is why you are so often confused. That is why we have to learn to honestly talk with each other. That is why we need to learn to notice when our mind has split off with the ego and emotions. The only thing that is communicated and is heard as it is at the same time is the truth. That is a power of your mind. It can penetrate the subtlety and intention behind someone's words and it can project and fill yours with a truth beyond any fear or need.

Your soul gives you awareness and the language of love. Your mind gives you consciousness to sense all the differences and the lines drawn. The teacher warns you and helps keep your mind clear, so that you can be guided by the light of awareness and use the power of your consciousness.

It is mental forgetfulness and your fears that close the window of the mind, so you do not see the beauty and reality of your self. That is what causes all these unwanted and unnecessary ego troubles. You have the ability and intelligence and consciousness. You are just scared. That is why you need to practice meditation, naam simran and jappa, to cleanse the fear out of the mind. You can tune up your mind with a sacred tune of God, with the words of truth from the Guru that penetrate your heart. The maximum percentage of your brain you can use consciously is about five percent out of a hundred. But if you use only point three percent of your brain capacity consciously, intelligently, and without ego, everything will go smoothly. You are the master of your destiny. You are the leader of your day. You are the light of your life. You are nothing but a representation of God on this planet. That is the Will, and the decree, and that is God. In God you dwell, and God dwells in you.