How to think effectively – ACTS acronym

[Talk at Taco Tuesday, Krishna House, Gainseville, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much.
In the end, we are going to try to see how these insights can help us. So, thinking about thinking. What is thinking? At the first level, we can say that thinking is acting at the level of thoughts.
It says there is physical level of reality. There is a mental level of reality. So, we could say that if we look at the inferior vertex, I will give you some sense of why we are adopting this model.
Let us consider this simple model that there is a three level reality, body, mind and consciousness. So, this is similar to a computer system or a phone, where you have the hardware, the software and the user. So, now the software is like the mind, the hardware is the body and the user is the consciousness.
So, when we talk about the word thinking, even the word thought, which can transform your thinking, the word thought means it in two different senses. I just had a thought. I have given this a lot of thought.
So, when you have made this point that when I just had a thought, something just popped up in my head and I have given this a lot of thought means I have analysed this. So, we could put these two senses thought together using the same phone metaphor. Say, on our phone, some notification pops up.
That is like a thought popping up in your head. Now, not every notification needs to be noticed. In fact, if we start noticing every notification, we will be overwhelmed.
So, similarly, not every thought needs to be known. Not every thought needs to be thought. So, right now, we are sitting here and some of you may be feeling slightly cold, some of you may be feeling uncomfortable sitting on the floor.
Some of you may be feeling hungry for tacos. Now, if we see simultaneously, there are so many thoughts popping up. And if we are to do anything constructive, we need to focus on certain things.
So, thoughts can have these two senses, something that just pops up within us and something that we give our attention to. So, thinking about thinking, that is our topic today. So, what it means is that when the many thoughts pop up within us, which thought do we give attention to? That’s thinking about thinking.
So, in general, what is thinking? Thinking can either refer to just the thoughts popping up and just passively observing them and getting carried away by them. Or thinking can also refer to our consciously focussing on a particular thought and analysing it. It’s both senses in which, say, you are using your phone.
Now, you could use your phone to have a serious conversation with a friend or read some serious book or do something worthwhile. Or you could use your phone to just get distracted. One Facebook notification, another Facebook notification, one WhatsApp message and this and that.
And some other YouTube video, next YouTube video. We could just be mindlessly surfing. So, in both cases, we are engaged with the phone screen.
But it’s not the same in both cases. In one case, it’s productive. In another case, it’s just distracting.
It’s unproductive at best. Sometimes it can be even counterproductive. So, in that sense, thinking about thinking means analysing how we are engaging with our thoughts.
It’s like, how am I using my phone? Am I using it constructively or am I using it constructively? So, to be able to do this thinking, let’s consider another question. Are our thoughts powerful or are our thoughts powerless? How many of you feel powerful? Powerful. How many of you feel our thoughts are powerless? No one.
Okay, let me ask you another question. Suppose, you see someone sitting late at night peering out of a window instead of sleeping. What are you thinking? So, I am thinking whether the sun should rise tomorrow or not.
The sun is going to rise whether you think about it or not. What is the use of such a thought? So, you see, many of our thoughts are not like this. They are of things over which we have little or no control.
Maybe who will win this baseball match or who will win this basketball match or even who will win the elections in this country or in this state or whatever. We have little or no control. So, thoughts, are they powerful or are they powerless? Now, in one sense, this example I gave, this thought is powerless in the sense that it is not going to change the outer reality.
Whether I think about, however I think about the situation around me, sun should rise or not, my thought is not going to change that. So, in terms of influencing the outer world, that thought, that particular thought is powerless. Having said that, what about its capacity to influence us? Every thought that we have, does it have power to influence us? Yes, it has, a more precise one would be, it has the potential to influence us powerfully.
But it is important to understand that a thought has no power till we give it thought. A thought has no power till we give it thought. That means that notification, it cannot change anything on my phone unless I click it.
So, at one level, we do need to recognise the power of thoughts. I will talk about that aspect soon. But let’s begin first with this understanding that thoughts are simply like notifications.
And in themselves, many thoughts or you could say most thoughts have no power. And they get their power to the extent we give them our thought, our attention. So, for understanding this, we can envision thoughts to be like, say notifications can come broadly in two ways, many ways, but broadly we could say.
Notification can come as a text, as a text. Your friend has updated their Facebook profile photo. That’s a notification.
It comes as a text. Sometimes, it can come as a sound or an image. So, it’s a text, a sound, the phone rings.
Oh, what’s happening? Okay, someone has just come or something like that. Or it can come as an image. You see something.
So, we could say broadly three ways, text, sound, or image. And it depends on, so similarly within us, our thoughts, they may pop up. For most of us, our thoughts may pop up as depending on the kind of prominent thinkers we are.
Some of us are verbal thinkers. Some of us are visual thinkers. Some of us are more of a sound thinkers.
So, verbal thinkers means we could envision thought as a string of characters on your email screen, on your mind. Or it could be an image. Or it could be like a radio, a voice in your head, a voice inside you.
But none of these can affect you. I would say not none of these, I would say most of these. Because some notifications may be about something that is about to happen.
Your phone is going to restart now. That’s something which is going to happen. But if you consider, most of the notifications are not about, are more something which we need to act on for things to happen.
So, similarly, most of our thoughts are just pop-ups on our email screen. To get a further sense of this, let’s consider a thought exercise. So, wherever you are, you can sit comfortably and then you can close your eyes.
After closing your eyes, you can take three deep breaths. Now, with your eyes closed, look ahead in front of you and notice what you see. Because your eyes are closed, you can’t see what is physically ahead of you.
There is some kind of screen inside you, on which you see various things. So, that screen, when you are noticing it, on that screen you might see this room, you might see your home where you stay, you might see a pen, you might see your phone, you might see your college, you might see various images coming and going on that inner screen. Or you might see just a dull haze of colours over there.
Whatever it is that you see, you see on a screen inside you. While you are looking at that screen, try to take a step back and catch sight of the person who is observing that screen. I repeat, while looking at the inner screen, step back to catch sight of the inner seal of that screen.
Try once again. Step back and see the seal. No matter how much you step back, the seal steps back with you.
What you are looking for is what you are looking for. So, that inner seal is you, your consciousness. And that inner screen is your mind.
You can take one deep breath and then you can open your eyes slowly. Thank you. So, when normal perception happens, right now you are looking at me, I am looking at you.
When this happens, three things need to be aligned. The inner seal, the inner screen and the outer seal. So, you are part of the outer seal for me, I am the outer seal for you.
And you are looking at me, I am looking at you. So, when this happens, it is when the inner screen is focused on the outer seal. That’s when you perceive things.
But, say on the inner screen, some other notification pops up. Some other idea pops up, some other thought pops up. Say, you are hearing this talk.
And then suddenly a thought comes up. Did I lock my room when I came? I don’t think I did. What if somebody robs? I don’t remember what happened.
What did I do? Did I lock it? And that one thought pops up. And then the inner screen goes to that inner seal. And then, you may be physically here, but you are as good as not here.
So, essentially, when we are thinking, so we are the inner seal. The Bhagavad Gita, I talk about this three level reality, body, mind and consciousness. The Bhagavad Gita says that we are meant to be aware of our position as consciousness.
We are not the physical reality around us. We are also not the thoughts that we think. We are the thinker of our thoughts.
And thinker means we sit behind and we observe our thoughts. So now, based on observation, we can choose which thoughts to focus on. So, most of the time, there are broadly two possibilities.
When we are thinking. Now, here I am thinking in the sense that what are we investing our consciousness into focussing on? We will be caught in the physical reality. The consciousness is here, the mind is here, the physical reality is here.
So, now, say if you are driving through a crowded road, then who is coming from where, who is in which lane? As you are observing that, your thoughts are completely caught in the physical reality. That’s when we are focused on the outer world. There are some times when we say we are lost in thought.
That means we are caught in the mental reality. Now, that could be in two ways. One is that you are consciously thinking seriously about some subject.
And that’s how, so we are giving, I have given this a lot of thought. So, we are giving something serious thought. The other is, we just get lost in thought without being aware.
Sometimes, we can concentrate and get absorbed in something. And sometimes, I get distracted and get lost in something. But, when we think, we will be thinking about the physical reality.
And our consciousness will be caught in that. Whatever is happening at the physical level. Or, we may be at the mental level.
And we may get caught in that. However, thinking is not so simple. In the sense that, most of the times, our thinking is a combination of some stimulus at the physical level.
And some stimulus at the mental level. That means that each one of us, sometimes the same thing happens. And different people react very differently to it.
Say, somebody snubs us. Three people are similarly snubbed. One person may say, it’s a road cover.
Next time, in public, in front of everyone, everyone snubs us. Lost in fantasies, burning. Second person says, there was one philosopher who asked, he was an atheist, and he asked, do you believe in hell? So, I said, of course.
What do you mean? If you are an atheist, how do you believe in hell? He said, hell means other people. He had such negative experiences with people, probably. It’s good.
You know, one person might snub, and someone might snub. I saw one car, boarding. The more I get to know people, the more I love my dog.
So, that’s one possibility. So, one is, first is that we cultivate revenge fantasies about that person. Second is, all humanity, people are different.
The third is, we can think. If you see, each of these things is the same, but the experience is very different. At the physical level, what happened is the same.
But, the event at the physical level has stimulated thoughts in different ways. So, when we start thinking, it’s a combination of what happens at the physical level, and what happens at the mental level. So, depending on what we could say, broadly, our impurities are, what is stored in our mind from the past, from the way we have experienced life, that will get triggered.
And that’s how each one of us will perceive things differently. Say, each of us has a phone, and each of us has some data in it. Now, if I search for some word, fool, maybe I have some cartoon images of people who are fools, or maybe I have some article about it.
If I search on my phone for the word fool, I might find something. If you search for the word fool on your phone, you may find something entirely different. You will probably find something quite different.
And somebody else searches for the word fool, might find something different. So, now the world, the food that we eat at the physical level is the same for everyone. But, what is there in the phone is different.
Similarly, for all of us, we may experience the same thing physically. Like, data in the phone is stored at the mental level. Similarly, there are various impressions stored at the mental level.
And the same thought, the same physical perception may trigger different thoughts. And I talked about all these three. These three could be just, all three could be unhealthy thoughts.
Revenge fantasy towards a deaf person, pessimism towards all of humanity, or self-loathing, inferiority complex about oneself. Or, maybe this person just caught in their own thoughts. And they didn’t notice it.
It happens with us sometimes. We are lost in our thoughts. So, we might not be able to identify with it.
The next time around, it tells us what happens. So, basically, for each one of us, we can’t change, to a large extent, what happens in our out world. We can’t change how people will behave.
What happens to us doesn’t affect us directly. Every experience that we have is a two-step process, not a one-step event. That means, somebody snubs me, and I feel upset.
And I think that’s just a one-step event. But it’s not a one-step event. Somebody snubs me, and then that is a physical stimulus, and that is into the mind, and then it triggers something over there.
And after that, something happens. I experience something. So, a simple example to illustrate this, say, suppose after this programme, there is food.
Well, there is no support. Food is there. So, now suppose there were a desert.
Now, most of you are young. But suppose somebody is here. They loved a particular desert.
And then, they came to know that. Gulab jamun is an Indian delicacy. Round sweet balls.
Super delicious. So, now suppose somebody loves gulab jamuns. And then, they have just seen, they have heard that this is, in this Atal’s talk, there are no gulab jamuns.
But just a few days before, so now they are longing, longing, longing for gulab jamuns. And then the menu is served, but there are no gulab jamuns. Actually, the cook made a mess of things, he couldn’t find the gulab jamun.
They are probably disappointed. Now, suppose somebody else has just got, they also love gulab jamuns, but they haven’t diagnosed with diabetes. So, nobody is eating gulab jamuns, and I am only allowed to eat it.
It will be a torture. And then they, the food is being served, and they hear, there are no gulab jamuns. Big relief.
So, what happened over here? The event is the same, but the experience is different. There are no gulab jamuns. So, the way that the experience is different, because they are coming from a different context.
So, similarly, any experience that we have, whether it is anger, or loneliness, or whether it is depression, frustration, grief, all these are not just due to the external things that have happened. Yes, the external things do matter, but it’s a two-step process. It’s the external event, followed by the way it is processed in our body.
So, if we are to be empowered internally, then we need to take charge of what is the processing that happens. And how could we do it? So, I talk about this in a four-part acronym, which I’ll conclude this talk. It’s called ACTS.
A-C-T-S. ACTS. So, what are we discussing? How can we change our thinking process so that we are not so negatively affected because of the events out there? How can we think in a more constructive way? Life determines our problems, but it is our mind that determines the size of those problems.
That’s just written in my life, but how I take it is up to me. So, ACTS is A-C-T-S. A is first, is analyse.
Now, these don’t necessarily have to be linear, whichever way it goes. Analysing is like, is this something that’s popped up on my email screen? Is this something which I need to pay attention to? Not every notification needs to be noticed. So, imagine we’re just going to a party, going to a party to get together, and there’s somebody’s number.
Annoying, isn’t it? But suppose you’re going for an important job interview, and there’s somebody’s number. You’re not going to pay much notice because you have much more important things to do at that time. You have to focus on your job interview.
So, let’s analyse this. Is this just something which I want to pay attention to? Or is this just something that’s popped up? You don’t need to analyse it. One way to analyse is to articulate.
So, there is a voice inside me which constantly keeps speaking. But if we speak the same thing, what happens? Now, that voice inside me may say like that. But when we articulate it, nobody cares.
As soon as you start articulating, you have to think about it. And once you start thinking about it, it’s not true. Some people don’t.
So, analysing means that we apply our intelligence to the thoughts that are popping up. And as I said, these four steps are you could say synergistic. Next is, C is commit.
Commit means that we need to have something to focus on. So, suppose you are alone in a room with someone. And that person you just don’t like at all.
And you don’t want to talk with them. And now, and you don’t have any phone to distract yourself. Now, if you are all alone in that room, and that person will say, what are you going to do? Are you going to look at the roof? Sooner or later, we’ll start talking with you.
But suppose, there is somebody else in that room. And then we start talking with that person. Then it’s much easier to neglect the person.
And we don’t want to talk with them. The same applies in our inner conversations. It’s almost impossible to not think of some thought.
Okay, that thought has come up as a notification. And I won’t think about this. In the mental world, not thinking is just not possible.
It’s very simple. Suppose I tell you, for the next 30 seconds, please don’t think of a pink monkey. Except for a pink monkey, you can think of whatever you want.
In your entire life, you may have never thought of a pink monkey. It can fall into pink paint. It’s genetically mutated.
So, we can’t not think of this. So the first step ahead is? The second is? Commitment. Commitment means that we need to have something worthwhile to think about.
Something worthwhile to do. And then, when we have notification, it will keep me so away. If I say, I won’t think about it, it won’t work.
But if I have something more constructive to do. And this commitment also requires us, in a sense, to contemplate about what is important in our life. So, basically, if we have something worth committing to, each of us can find out things that we are attracted to.
And we can consult them. And say, it’s like, suppose this is a circle of things you like to do. And this is a circle of things that are good for you.
And these two circles are identical, life would be so enjoyable. But, these two circles don’t have to be entirely known intersect. They do intersect.
You may like music. There are different kinds of music. But there might be some music that you like.
You might like to read. But you can read different things. You can see some toys.
You can do something else. So, now, find out something which is at the intersection of these two circles. What we like to do.
What is good for us. And committing to that becomes easy. So, analyse and commit.
So, when we start overthinking, what happens is, we don’t analyse. We just get caught in the thought. But analyse, this thought is not really worth thinking right now.
Analyse and commit. Very good. What is the acronym we are discussing? Tolerance.
So, T is Tolerant. Tolerant means, don’t expect that the unwanted thought will go. Sometimes you have a notification, and some notifications come, you just click across and go ahead.
Sometimes the notification is coloured in such a way, you can’t find a cross anywhere. Where is it? Some programmes are very intrusive. So, just follow this path.
So, like that. Sometimes we, the thought will still be there. So, Tolerant means, just because, we tend to think negatively of things.
Maybe we say, I am pessimistic. Think. Okay.
Now, pessimism is always not bad. Non-optimism is always good. Because pessimism, if it’s habitual, then it’s bad.
But people who are pessimistic can also be cautious. They are not just being impulsive about it. Optimism is good, when you look at the positive characteristics and everything.
But optimistic people can also be utopian. They can be polyadic. I am very optimistic.
So, I am a writer. So, you see, both this, you could say optimistic and pessimistic side are equal. The optimistic side is where, you clearly come up with many ideas to write.
The pessimistic side is where, this idea doesn’t work. This is not working so well. So, we need both.
Not that pessimism is bad or optimism is good. But, what is it? Habitually, is focused on one side, is fixated on one way of thinking is bad. So, Tolerant means, if you are, if you don’t want to be pessimistic, then, don’t be worked up about it.
Fix it. Yeah, my thoughts will naturally go in negative direction. I am a little pessimist.
That’s all. There are ways in which people can go in that way also. So, don’t expect that thought to go totally pessimistic.
That is again, if you stay committed, say like, we are talking with one person, and some other person we don’t want to talk with. We keep talking, and we look, the person is not gone away still. And we keep talking, and we look, still not gone away.
And we keep talking, and still not gone away. And then, what do you want? And as soon as we pay attention, that person gets pessimistic. So, okay, let that person be there.
In the world of thoughts, in the world of, in the physical world, we could even have somebody evicted. But in the world of thoughts, we can’t evict anybody. But, we can choose what attention we will give.
So, tolerance is very important. Tolerance means, to accept the presence, without accepting the influence. This is present, to accept the presence.
I can’t resent or reject the presence. This is it. But, without accepting the influence.
And this is where, for tolerating, it’s important to remember that, thoughts are powerless in and of themselves. Thoughts have no power. Till we give them power, by giving, by thinking about it.
By giving them thought. So, that is, T. What is the, what is the acronym once again? S, is the last one. S is, Spiritualise.
Spiritualise, is what? Spiritualise means, that, all of us, have certain impressions, in our mind. Each of us has some data in our phone. So, whatever I search, at a different time, objects will come up, depending on what’s on my phone.
Similarly, now, spiritualise means, that we expose ourselves to spiritual stimuli, and we form spiritual representations. For example, we did Kirtan, the Bodhisattva. It’s musical meditation.
There are different forms of meditation. There is reading spiritual wisdom texts, coming in the association of spiritual people. Among these, we create spiritual impressions.
And, when we spiritualise our consciousness, say, by daily practise of meditation, by regular reading of wisdom texts, but periodically, coming in the association of spiritual people, by that, the impressions in the mind will change. And, not only the impressions in the mind will change, when you spiritualise, two things happen. One is, the impressions in the mind, they change.
And, secondly, we are repeatedly reminded, that, I am the spiritual consciousness. I am not my mind. I am not my thoughts.
So, spirituality, makes us more self-aware. So, when we become more self-aware, it is that we rise above our thoughts. We rise above our situations, and we rise above our emotions.
We spiritualise, and the thoughts may come, but we can say, okay, this thought is coming, let it come. Spiritualising is more of transforming. Spiritualising is, when we transform our inner world, by changing the inside.
And, when we do this, then we will find, that we will be able to tap our inner power of thinking, much more effectively. And, each one of us can, by choosing our thoughts more carefully, we can do more. Our thoughts get dissipated in hundreds of things.
If our thoughts were more organised, each one of us can tap our ability more and more. And, make a better and better contribution to the world. So, our spirituality increases our ability to tap our ability.
Each of us has certain abilities. But, when we are distracted, when our thoughts are going haywire, you may be good at singing, you may be good at sports, you may be good at math, whatever you are good at, your thoughts are distracted, you won’t be able to make good use of whatever you are good at. Sometimes, you may not even be able to discover, or realise what you are good at.
Because, we are so distracted. But, our spirituality, it will increase our ability to tap our ability. And, in that way, we can all become better human beings, and make better contributions in life.
So, I’ll summarise what I spoke today. Then, you can have a few questions. So, I spoke on the topic of thinking about thinking.
So, what is thinking? So, we talked about two understandings of the word thought. I got a thought, and I’ve given this lot of thought. In terms of the three-level metaphor, body, mind, consciousness, and the hardware, software, and user.
So, thinking happens when I use a software. If you consider a phone, too many notifications come up. That is, I got a thought.
Which notification we need, and we give due attention. That is, I have given this lot of thought. So, when we start overthinking, that means, some notification pops up, and we get lost in it.
And then, I talked about, for us to think about thinking, that means, we understand our thoughts are intrinsically powerless. They are just either streams of images, or streams of string, or streams of sound, that come within us. When we focus on them, they get popped.
And then, we did the thought exercise, a little bit about how the inner screen, inner seer, inner screen, and outer seer. Inner seer is the consciousness, inner screen is the mind, and outer screen is the physical reality. So, we may, our thoughts are often an unpredictable combination of the physical stimuli and the mental impressions.
It is because if we are smart, each of us react differently. So, our experiences are not a one-step happening. They are two-step.
The external event, and how it is processed by our mind. I will discuss how we can change the way we process what happens to us in life. Before that, I discussed the acronym.
What was it? ANALYSE. So, A was? ANALYSE. Means, when a thought pops up, is this a notification that needs to be noticed? So, one way to do it is to articulate it.
Just speak it softly to yourself, that you took up a thinking. Then, C was? COMMIT. Means, A, if we don’t want to talk with someone, unless we have someone else to talk to.
Similarly, in the thought world, we can’t not think of a thought. If we have certain values and purpose that are important for us, something that lies at the intersection of things that we like and things that are good for us, then we can commit to that. B is? TOLERATE.
We can’t eliminate thoughts from our world. We can’t evict thoughts from our inner world. But, we need to accept.
They will be there, but they don’t need to be so detached. And, like S was? SPIRITUALISE. Spiritualise means, that we change the impressions within our inner world by exposing ourselves to spiritual stimuli and by increasing our awareness that we are spiritually being different from our mind.
And when we thus apply acts in our life, we’ll find that we can increase our ability to tap our ability through our spirituality. And thus, we can move forward to grow and contribute as human beings in the life to come. Thank you very much.
Great, Krishna. So, any questions or comments? You’re still thinking? Yeah. Okay.
I’ll follow your lead. … … … … … … That’s true. Some thoughts are overpowering.
How does that happen? You could say, every thought is like a snowball. I had gone to Calgary, University of Calgary, on top of a hill. So, we actually saw how snowballs had formed.
So, at the top, it is just a tiny snow pebble. It’s not even a ball. And somebody could just flick it with their toe, and it’ll break apart.
As it keeps coming down, down, down, down, such a thin mass and movement, it becomes a snowball. By the bottom of the hill, it becomes a snow boulder. And the same person who could have knocked it off with a toe, they will be knocked over.
Similarly for all of us. At the initial level, it’s just a snow pebble. It’s one notification.
So, we all periodically get what you could say, a snack attack. A desire to have a snack. We’re attacked by a desire for a snack.
It’s a snack attack. When we get that, at that time, it’s just one desire. But if we’re given to it, we might do one thing, two things, three things, four things, and then we get frustrated.
Why did I do that? So, what happens over there is, it starts as a small pebble. Now, we know that different hills can be of different slopes. Inclinations.
Some hills might be gentle slopes. Some hills might be rough slopes. So, that inclination is determined by habits.
The stronger a habit, the sharper is the form. That means if somebody, let’s say, doesn’t have much of a habit. If somebody, say, is too in a condition, maybe they’re seeing somebody smoking marijuana or taking some drugs or whatever.
Maybe you take once. No, no, no. I don’t want to take it.
Let’s try once. So, it’s almost at that time there’s no inclination. So, it’s almost like a flat surface.
It’s only when somebody pushes you, you take it. So, it has to roll down very gently. But suppose somebody’s an addict.
Addict means, basically, there’s very little distance between impulse and reaction. The thought comes up and immediately the action. So, it’s like the floor has become, the inclination has become a steep cliff.
So, as soon as something comes, force. So, for all of us, depending on the kind of habits we have cultivated, certain things we will do very effortlessly. They can be good things as well as bad things.
And certain things may require some effort. So, for us, we all can look at what is it that we do impulsively, which we shouldn’t do. And if the slope has already become very, very sharp, then we need to do one thing absolutely to protect ourselves.
That is, create a fence. Create a fence around the top. And somebody whose slope is very gentle, they will not need a fence.
Suppose somebody is an alcoholic and they want to recover from their alcoholism. And their home is on top of a bar. However much determination you have, we can all be determined, but we can’t have the same level of determination 24 hours a day.
Sometime the impulse will come. And if the opportunity to indulge is readily available, we will succumb to it. So, what we need is, create a distance, create a fence.
I used to use the word wall, but now the word wall has got a different connotation in America. I’ll use the word fence, not a wall. But we need that.
So, once we create that, then we protect ourselves. Does that answer your question? Yes. Yes, please.
Hi. Just a quick one. This whole topic there, mindfulness and mindfulness, I’m thinking about the application of mindfulness in this kind of process of, you know, these thought-guiding issues we’ve been looking at.
And, you know, there’s this difference between power, thoughts that we have and thoughts that we don’t have. You know, we need more attention than we say, do. And so, I was wondering if you could talk about how it was, you know, like, recognising that we’re always going to have these thoughts, and that there’s kind of mindfulness because of that kind of self-impact.
It’s going to get, you know, these thoughts more and more, but how can I kind of acknowledge them and let them go on with me? So, I was wondering if you could speak a bit on mindfulness and maybe that would be a good way to start. Oh, yeah. So, what I spoke today was, what I spoke today was largely mindfulness itself.
But mindfulness from a more spiritual perspective. So, within mindfulness, there are many different traditions, different schools of thought. Most of them focus, mindfulness basically focusses on becoming more aware of our situations and our emotions.
So, our physical reality and our mental reality, what’s going on with it. But we focus, or let’s focus on, what are we as conscious beings? So, if you understand that, then it becomes a more holistic understanding. But mindfulness is a very powerful tool in and of itself.
In mindfulness, often that last part, see, ACT can be common, but spiritualised, well, that’s not what we’re talking about. So, how I like to put it is that if somebody’s sick and they’re in pain, then a good physician would give them both analgesics and antiseptics. Something to deal with the pain, and then something to cure it.
If you only give pain medication, it appears that the pain has gone away, but it’s only been covered, not cured, it’ll come back. So, we need the antiseptic also to cure it. Similarly, there are many ways in which you can calm our mind.
And mindfulness can be very powerful in calming our mind. But in many ways, it’s like an analgesic, like a pain medication. Unless we change the impressions in our mind through spirituality, spirituality with antiseptic.
If we combine both together, mindfulness helps us to, when the unruly thoughts, emotions, desires pop up, we can use mindfulness to distance ourselves. So, there is pacification of the mind, and there is purification of the mind. So, what mindfulness can do easily and effectively is pacification.
But purification will happen when we expose ourselves to pure thoughts. The spiritual reality is the ultimately pure reality. So, mindfulness combined with spirituality can be a very powerful package for self-transformation.
Yes? You made a suggestion that, obviously, we’re living right on top of a wall, and this is something that isn’t… You can’t build a fence. No. Well, my question was, how would you build a fence? If, say, distancing yourself is bad, avoidance could be some sort of fence, or maybe it’s the best way.
Of course. There’s a better way. So, what’s the better way? Avoidance is not the best.
Yeah, avoidance is just a process. But it’s often essential process. Let’s take another example of the same thing.
Like, instead of inclining from a hill down, if you consider a room, say, the room floor is inclined this way, and you have some electronic equipment, which is not waterproof, and the water spills over it, and it goes and damages the electronic equipment. We don’t want the water to go over it. So, what do we do? Drain water.
Don’t go there. It’s not going to help. So, just don’t think like this.
It’s not a very helpful… Okay, that’s it. That’s how we do a strategy for one moment. So, broadly, we’ll do three things.
First is, let’s let you build something around it by directly, maybe a small wall or something, by which you soft protect the equipment. Then there is redirection. You have a mop, have some cloth, have some brush, which will push the water in the other direction.
And the third is reconstruction. Reconstruct the floor so that it’s inclined this way, so that the water will not go here and go there, when you want it to. So, similarly, restriction is the first step.
So, we need some kind of fence so that the impulses, when they come up, for all of us, we have various urges. Maybe the urge to over-eat, the urge to over-spend too much time on social media, the urge to do the on-internet, so many urges. The urge to gossip.
Now, these urges, they have surges. That means, we all may have certain human anger, we may have greed, we may have various sexual desires. So, these are at a particular level, and sometimes they shoot up.
Now, when they shoot up, if at that time the opportunity to indulge is very easily available, we will start. So, we need a fence. Fence, it could be the first level of defence.
Then, what I’m talking about, finding what we commit ourselves to. Finding something which is at the intersection of what we like and what is good for us. That will become our tool for redirection.
When your thoughts are going in that direction, I don’t want them to go there. So, say we are hooked to something, addicted to something. I need something else to think about.
How do I push my thoughts in other direction? That can be our tool for redirection. And then, spirituality is the tool by which we reconstruct humans. As we practise spirituality, as we start practising, say, mantra meditation, or bhakti yoga, and we find that our inner desires are transforming.
That what we naturally think about, in itself changes. So, that’s our reconstruction, sorry, restriction, redirection, and reconstruction. Does that make sense? Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.
So, one of the things I think about, and I know I’m in the process of, is this worth working out? Because sometimes I feel like I can’t figure out what is it worth focussing on? Okay. Good question. How can we decide what is worth focussing on? One of the best ways to deal with the mind is to not say yes, and not say no, but to say wait.
Well, it’s simple. Let’s take the notification. Say, suppose a friend sends you a video.
To watch the video, you should not watch the video. And it’s 10-15 minutes, and it’s one hour. Now, how do you decide that? Usually what happens is we are always looking for newness.
And the natural urge is, if something new comes up, let’s watch it. Let’s get into it. So now, it could be that what the video they have sent is useful.
It could be that it’s of no use. We don’t know in advance. And at that time, in the heat of the moment, it is very difficult to decide.
So at that time, the best policy is yes or no. Okay. Maybe tonight.
Not now. Tonight I’ll do it. Or tomorrow I’ll do it.
Keep a 24-hour gap. What will happen by that? The idea of newness that goes away, it’s not so important. Recently, I changed my laptop, and I imported my bookmarks from Google.
And look at the list of several hundred articles that I want to read. And look at them. Where did I want to read it? It didn’t seem interesting at all.
Maybe something came up in the feed somewhere. And let me read it. So what happens? At that time, it’s almost impossible to process.
You don’t even try. Unless it’s a very urgent thing. And then we just go by the year.
Let’s do it and see what happens. But usually, best thing is to defer. Bhagavad Gita talks about a concept called the modes.
Modes are basically subtle forces which shape the way we interact with the world. So generally, so you could say that these modes, we call it reflective, impulsive, passive. So usually, when we are doing our things in the world, we are in the impulsive mode.
We’re doing it in the heat of action. Do this, do this, do this, do this. So when we are impulsive, it’s very difficult to be reflective.
That’s why this kind of decisions, it’s very difficult to do at that time. So just defer it. And then, generally in the early morning hours, we are usually more reflective.
When we are tired, we just pass it. So when we are impulsive or passive, at that time, it’s very difficult to decide what to pay attention to. So better have something to do and focus on that.
And when you are reflective, maybe later in the day or maybe the next morning, I mean, think about it. When you need to focus on that, then it’s much more, much easier to say that. Does that make sense? Thank you.
Yes, please. Yeah, please. Okay, good question.
We’ll actually take this question. Last question? So sometimes we have dreams which are so vivid, we feel like we are interacting with people. So is this also, it seems as real as our physical reality.
So is our physical reality also a product of the mind? Is it also like a dream? There are three levels of reality. There is, as I said, consciousness, which is spiritual reality. There’s the mind, which is the mental reality.
And there’s the body and matter, which is the physical reality. So now all these three are real. And the physical reality is not solely a product of the mind.
Our experience of physical reality is a product of the mind. But physical reality itself exists. If I say everything is just in the mind, and I try to walk through the wall, bang! Then the pain I feel is also a product of my mind.
But it’s a real experience. And I probably will have a real physical swelling on my head afterwards. So the physical reality is also real.
You could take it this way that the mental reality is also real, the physical reality is also real. The difference is that we are different from both of them. Instead of saying that either of them is not real, so are our dreams real? Well, how do you exactly decide? For us, it’s a real experience.
Sometimes we may imagine we are being chased by a tiger, and we wake up panting and heaving. So what we saw in the level of the dream had physical effects. But this is not that simple.
So the idea is that we are conscious beings who are experiencers of both the mental reality and the physical reality. And this is a big subject, I’ll just mention it briefly, that we are all conscious beings, we are souls. And the soul is on a multilayered journey of spiritual evolution.
And the soul, in each life, the kind of actions that it does, it is called karma. And the kind of actions the soul has done in the past determines the situations that they face in the present. Some of us may be born in a wealthy, loving, comfortable, harmonious society.
Some of us may be born in a much more difficult place. Now, why the difference? The difference in the physical level are based on what the soul has done in the past. So similarly, just as there are differences in the physical level for all of us, similarly there are differences in the mental level.
I was in New Zealand, and one person came to me and said, I have great fear. Many people talk about fear and how to deal with fear. I tried to use my voice.
He said, I have great fear of sleeping. It’s strange. Why? He said, as soon as I sleep, I start getting nightmares.
It’s strange when you go to rest and relax, when you start getting nightmares, it’s very painful. So what has happened over here is, each of us has to neutralise some karma we have got from the past. And sometimes we may go through physically painful situations.
Sometimes we may go through mentally painful situations. And some people may have very vivid painful dreams. Some people may have vivid joyful dreams.
So, sometimes we say, oh, it was like a dream. That means it was so wonderful. But actually not all dreams are wonderful.
And, even in our dreams, we are not always in complete control. In our dreams also, some of our dreams are just observers. Some of our dreams, we are participators.
But in none of our dreams, I am the sole controller. Now, how other people behave, we don’t control that always. So the idea is that, just in physical reality, we can’t control our situations.
But we can control our responses. The same is the case with the mind also. Some of us have more real dreams, more vivid dreams which we remember.
Some of us may have dreams which we don’t remember. Some of us have dreams which are negative. Some of us have dreams which are positive.
So the idea in this is, tolerate. So, whether it is real or unreal, or the degree of reality that we experience with it. With respect to dreams, we don’t have much control.
So, for somebody who has very vivid, painful dreams, so I suggested to him that he can have spiritual music going on constantly. We just have a spiritual music going on next to him. And he found that quite helpful.
One of the names of the Divine in the Bhakti Yoga tradition is the Swapna Nashana. One, the Divine is the destroyer of bad dreams. So, if you invoke the presence of the Divine through some sacred music, that can help us to also deal with unwanted dreams.
Thank you very much for your attention and participation. Hare Krishna.