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Restless mind

A practical teaching on understanding the mind to improve meditation.

"These desires from the subconsciousness come up like smoke or steam to the conscious mind."

"Therefore, control the senses, not the mind."

A spiritual teacher explains the mechanics of the mind, detailing how the five senses gather impressions that become stored desires in the subconscious, which then surface to disturb meditation. Using the example of desiring a mango, he illustrates how unfulfilled wishes replay in dreams. He concludes that peace in meditation comes from limiting sensory input and desires, thereby allowing the subconscious to empty, rather than trying to control the mind itself.

Recording location: Australia, Townsville,Queensland, Australian Tour

There are many practical questions about meditation, and one of the first is: what can you do if your mind is always restless when you meditate? First, we should know what the mind is—with what we are dealing. We have ten senses: five senses of action and five senses of knowledge to receive information from the outer world. These five senses of knowledge give us information about the outer world; there is no sixth one, only five. These are the first two: the eyes. They give us information about color and form. The information we receive through our eyes goes to our subconsciousness. The subconsciousness is like a tape recorder; it records everything. Our eyes are like a camera; the camera takes all pictures that are in front of it, and your eyes see everything. Your conscious mind does not see something sometimes because you are not present, not aware. But the eyes see everything, and everything is recorded. The second is our two ears, which receive sounds—all kinds of sounds and vibrations. When you hear someone's voice once, the next time someone telephones, you will say, "Oh yes, I know who is speaking," because it is recorded in your subconsciousness. The third is the nose, for smell. In this room, if someone brings a nice mango—you know what a mango is? You have mangoes here also? Okay. A very nice ripe mango smells in the whole room; you say, "Oh, it is a nice mango." You do not see it. But you know this is the smell of the mango because you have smelled it before. If you have never smelled a mango, and it comes for the first time, you will say, "Maybe it is some fruit, but I do not know what it is." The fourth is tasting: sweet, sour, bitter, salty. And the fifth is touching. These are the five senses which give us information. Day and night, these five senses are active, receiving information from the outer world. That is called impressions, and these impressions from the conscious mind go to the subconscious mind. When an impression goes down deep into the subconsciousness, it begins to work there. This impression then becomes a desire. These desires from the subconsciousness come up like smoke or steam to the conscious mind. The consciousness is connected with the intellect. The duty of the intellect is to give judgment, to divide. When the smell of the mango is here, your mind will go down and ask, "What is this smell?" From there, immediately comes out: it is the smell of the mango. The intellect will say it is the smell of the mango. Now, the mind is the process; mind is a function which operates between the subconsciousness and consciousness. The duty of the mind is to go to the subconsciousness and bring all the information which is stored from the past and bring it to the consciousness. The consciousness is connected with the intellect, which gives the judgment: "This is the mango." Now you have a desire to eat the mango. So the intellect gives information that this desire—this smell of the mango, this taste—belongs to the tongue. Now you want to eat a mango. You go to the market, but mango season is over. You want to eat very much, but there is no mango available. You sleep at night. Again, your mind is so faithful that it goes to the subconsciousness and brings this smell and picture of the mango, but the consciousness is not there; you are in sleep. So the mind puts you from deep sleep into a dream. In the dream, you see the month of February or January in your country, and such a nice mango. In your own garden, you pluck one beautiful mango and want to eat it. You go to your kitchen, clean the mango, cut it, and take a spoon to get a nice saffron-colored piece. The spoon comes near your lips, and the alarm clock rings; you wake up. Not even in the dream could you fulfill your desire. What happens to that desire again? It goes back to the subconscious, and it will come out again and again; it will come in dreams. Direct your mental power towards that particular aim. Try to limit your needs, limit your desires. This means: do not give your senses too much freedom. Then your mind will be peaceful during meditation. Otherwise, the mind is very faithful because you put so many rubbish things inside; now the mind has to pull all of it out again. Only at certain times—either in dreams, during meditation, or prayer—does the mind have the chance to empty the subconscious. Therefore, control the senses, not the mind. Recording location: Australia, Townsville,Queensland, Australian Tour

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt, what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

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