4 lessons about our mind from our phone – Distortion Discretion Determination, Devotion
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
I spoke today about what your phone can teach you about your mind. And I started by talking about distortion, the example of how for the thrill of one good selfie, people are ready to risk their lives. So the phone can distort our perspective, the mind can distort our perspective.
I talked about the medical student who committed suicide just because of the fear that I may not come first in class. So we all can look at our mind and see how sometimes we make small things very big. And how do we avoid the distortion? We need discretion.
We need to use our intelligence. This is on the phone, a hundred messages may come, but we use our discretion, our intelligence, who is sending the message. And then we decide that I will click on this link or not.
Similarly, whenever thought comes in the mind, it's not that we have to think of that thought. We don't have to dwell on it. We have to use our intelligence.
Is this a valid thought? Is this a worthwhile thought? Just as if there are people who are very negative and pessimistic, we stay away from them. If the mind comes up with negative thoughts, you have to stay away from it. How do we stay away? For that we need the third D, that is, does anyone remember? Determination.
Determination means that we use our willpower to execute what we want to do. I talked about how ransomware can take up the computer and lock it. So like that, our own desires when they become compulsive, as addictions, they may lock our mind.
But then somebody may say, I don't have any determination. But actually, we all have determination. Just like a phone always has a charge, it's how I'm using it.
So a determination is there. Addiction is simply misdirected determination. So if you just understand, okay, my determination is misdirected, let me redirect it properly.
And how do we do that? And the last D? Devotion. Yeah. So just as if I have to lift a big weight, which I can't lift on my own, I use a lever and then the big weight gets lifted.
So like that, devotion helps us to tap our inner power. We can't say no to the mind, don't think about this, we have to have something which we have yes to say to. So that yes is a connection with our source.
So that happens through prayer and through meditation. Prayer is when we speak to God, meditation is when God speaks to us. And when we connect ourselves with God through devotion, that acts like an antivirus software.
So just an antivirus cleans subconscious without our awareness or sometimes with our awareness and concept. So like that, we'll find that by devotion, your negativity, anxiety, insecurity, substantially it will go down, you will ask some surprise, how I so calm in situation. And even if sometimes we do get agitated, we'll find that just by consciously directing our thoughts towards God, consciously chanting mantras, consciously praying, consciously cultivating spiritual knowledge, we'll find that the agitation will calm down.
So sociological surveys have shown that the religious people, people not just nominally religious, but practitionerly religious, who do some tangible religious practices, they have better mental health than their non-religious counterparts. So there's a resolution that can enable us to stick to all other resolutions, is the resolution to increase our spiritual commitment. By so doing, we can access the power of God and no matter how powerful the negativity within us may be, but the power of God is far greater.
By connection with Him, we can overcome the negativity and bring out the latent positivity within us. You know, all of us are meant to make positive, valuable contributions in life. And by learning to manage our mind, to not be trapped by our mind, but to tap our mind, every one of us can bring out our best and we all can fulfill the destiny that God wants us to fulfill.
Thank you very much.