Understanding the mind and how it makes us unconscious
[“Live consciously” retreat, session 1, at Brisbane, Australia]
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Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
turn out to be wrong. So, I spoke about what does live consciously mean? The three parts, what makes us unconscious? Then, or rather, first is how we live unconsciously? What makes us unconscious? And then, how we can become conscious? So, to understand what, where our consciousness is directed, I talked about the mind. So, the mind is the inner screen on which the outer world is depicted.
The mind is like a big screen on which inputs from the five senses come up. And now, each of these windows on a big screen, they can also have sub-windows. And then, there is a big sixth window that is the recollection window.
And sometimes, the outer perception and the inner recollection, they can combine in unpredictable ways and suddenly they can start off a movie. So, although all of us may perceive the same outer situation, the inner thoughts that start within each one of us will vary. Because, what becomes prominent in our inner screen and how it combines with memories from the past, that varies from person to person.
So, the mind, when some unwanted window pops up, then we become conscious of that and we are no longer conscious of that, which is important. So, to live consciously means to be aware what is appearing on our inner screen and how it relates with what is in the outer world. Then, I talked about how what pops up on the inner screen varies in different people.
That is based on the instincts and the impulses. Instincts are like programmed intelligence. We all are good at something.
Some thoughts just come, whether it be language or music or aesthetics of a room or interior design or whatever, home design. Certain things just come to us instinctively. And that means that the inner screen just gives a proposition.
This is what we should do. So, our past impressions, our past actions, they become impressions and the impressions become propositions. So, I gave the example of Bollywood and Bhagavad Gita.
And the propositions may be good if it’s instincts which direct us in intelligent ways or they can be bad if they are impulses. Impulses are usually short term and they are concerned with immediate pleasures. And they are non-intelligent or anti-intelligent.
So, it may be for somebody may be drinking so much that they just can’t think of anything else. That’s what prominently pops up in their inner screen. And they become desensitized to others basic needs also.
So, for each of us, when we want to live consciously, we need to understand how our mind works and how the mind sometimes allows us to see the things properly or sometimes it distorts our vision. So, to become conscious of our mind and to become conscious of the world and to become conscious of any mismatch between the two, that is foundational to living consciously. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions?