How to Control Mind?

[Sunny]

Swami Vivekananda

We have to seize this unstable mind and drag it from its wanderings and fix it on one idea. Over and over again this must be done. By power of will we must get hold of the mind and make it stop and reflect upon the glory of God.

• The easiest way to get hold of the mind is to sit quiet and let it drift where it will for a while. Hold fast to the idea, "I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I." Then see it think as if it were a thing entirely apart from yourself. Identify yourself with God, never with matter or with the mind. Picture the mind as a calm lake stretched before you and the thoughts that come and go as bubbles rising and breaking on its surface. Make no effort to control the thoughts, but watch them and follow them in imagination as they float away. This will gradually lessen the circles. For the mind ranges over wide circles of thought and those circles widen out into ever increasing circles, as in a pond when we throw a stone into it. We want to reverse the process and starting with a huge circle make it narrower until at last we can fix the mind on one point and make it stay there. Hold to the idea, "I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act', and each day the identification of yourself with thought and feeling will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself. When this is done, the mind is your servant to control as you will. The first stage of being a yogi is to go beyond the senses. When the mind is conquered, he has reached the highest stage.

• The flow of this continuous control of the mind becomes steady when practised day after day, and the mind obtains the faculty of constant concentration.

• The purer the mind, the easier it is to control. Purity of the mind must be insisted upon if you would control it.....Perfect morality is the all in all of the complete control over mind. The man who is perfectly moral has nothing more to do; he is free.

• Q--How is it that desires rise even after mental concentration is acquired? A--Those are the outcomes of the previous Samskaras (deep-rooted impressions or tendencies). When Buddha was on the point of merging in Samadhi (superconsciousness), Mara made his appearance. There was really no Mara extraneous to the mind; it was only the external reflection of the mind's previous Samskaras.

• The mind has to be gradually and systematically brought under control. The will has to be strengthened by slow, continuous and persevering drill. This is no child's play, no fad to be tried one day and discarded the next. It is a life's work; and the end to be attained is well worth all that it can cost us to reach it; being nothing less than the realization of our absolute oneness with the Divine. Surely, with this end in view, and with the knowledge that we can certainly succeed, no price can be too great to pay.

• Sit for some time and let the mind run on. You simply wait and watch. Knowledge is power, says the proverb, and that is true. Until you know what the mind is doing you cannot control it. Give it the rein; many hideous thoughts may come into it; you will be astonished that it was possible for you to think such thoughts. But you will find that each day the mind's vagaries are becoming less and less violent, that each day it is becoming calmer.

• Give up all argumentation and other distractions. Is there anything in dry intellectual jargon? It only throws the mind off its balance and disturbs it. Things of subtler plane has to be realized. Will talking do that? So give up all vain talk. Read only those books which has been writted by persons who have had realization.

• Think of your own body, and see that it is strong and healthy; it is the best instrument you have. Think of it as being as strong as adamant, and that with the help of this body you will cross the ocean of life. Freedom is never to be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.

• You must practise at least twice every day, and the best times are towards the morning and the evening. When night passes into day, and day into night, a state of relative calmness ensues. The early morning and the early evening are the two periods of calmness. Your body will have a like tendency to become calm at those times. We should take advantage of that natural condition and begin then to practise.

• Mentally repeat: Let all beings be happy; Let all beings be peaceful; Let all beings be blissful. So do to the east, south, north and west. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make ourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make ourselves happy is to see that others are happy. After doing that, those who believe in God should pray---not for money, not for health, not for heaven; pray for knowledge and light; every other prayer is selfish.

• The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful. When a man is gloomy that may be dyspepsia, but it is not religion. To the Yogi, everything is bliss, every human face that he sees brings cheerfulness to him. That is the sign of a virtuous man. What business have you with clouded faces? It is terrible. If you have a clouded face, do not go out that day, shut yourself up in your room. What right have you to carry this disease out into the world.

https://greenmesg.org/swami_vivekananda_sayings_quotes/#character

 

[Flamma Bellum]

I love to read this type of knowledge, thank you Sunny!

 

[Sunny]

I love to read this type of knowledge, thank you Sunny!

You are welcome TerKorian666! I recommend reading his books, they are very good. His book Raja Yoga gave me important understanding of the cosmos and spiritual energy. Thank you Swami Vivekananda, you are a man of valor, may you be immortal and eternal!

 

[Gearshift]

How come he states to in essence perform mindfulness or to be more specific relaxation of the thoughtstream.

And then he states to actively think or in this case imagine things.

I'm quite confused on meditation. I know we are not to turn our minds into mindless, thoughtless beings. But his statements seem like if you wish to control your mind. You must imagine this albeit in a relaxed manner and it's like, isn't it the opposite?

If I sit down and focus on my feelings or void, I'm actively turn off my mind, blanking. But he goes and states the opposite it almost makes it sound like meditation is relax and actively imagine for a period of time to calm the mind down?

It's almost like active imagination used by certain meditation experts to teach a action. Like imagine your thoughts being placed in a treasure chest and dump it in the sea.

How does the act of imaging help me control my mind. If my mind is actively being used thus producing and using more of my mind?

Perhaps I'm thinking to literally but it's like think to control thinking to stop thinking by thinking. Either we should be a total blank or the use of the mind. And there is a middle ground a place were your mind can think a bit and imagine a bit without throwing off the equilibrium and holding unto that control of the mind.

Again for someone who uses their mind actively all the time. I'm very surprised by reading this stuff as it seems like an utter contradiction. You posses a mind and it thinks and imagines it produces lights, sounds, and other properties. And then you need to use that property to control it but the very act of using that property creates more effects which seem to interfere in the act of controlling the mind.

As you can see I've struggled with the concept of void, mindfulness; thought control/relaxation/observation. I consider myself a thinker and it would make me feel empty and pointless to not think. It seems like I don't understand the concept of meditation from the preliminary aspect of it to make it seem like unless you live your life in a certain way. Don't think cause it's not the real property of stuff thus thoughtlessness is the most appropriate property because most people think and think and think and they are dis-personalized from reality. It almost seems like our minds are a hindrance rather than a evolutionary tool to better our lives.

Especially considering science considers rumination and overthinking with negatives of people's internal World.

 

[Head Guardian Blitzkreig]

We have to seize this unstable mind and drag it from its wanderings and fix it on one idea. Over and over again this must be done. By power of will we must get hold of the mind and make it stop and reflect upon the glory of God.

• The easiest way to get hold of the mind is to sit quiet and let it drift where it will for a while. Hold fast to the idea, "I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I." Then see it think as if it were a thing entirely apart from yourself. Identify yourself with God, never with matter or with the mind. Picture the mind as a calm lake stretched before you and the thoughts that come and go as bubbles rising and breaking on its surface. Make no effort to control the thoughts, but watch them and follow them in imagination as they float away. This will gradually lessen the circles. For the mind ranges over wide circles of thought and those circles widen out into ever increasing circles, as in a pond when we throw a stone into it. We want to reverse the process and starting with a huge circle make it narrower until at last we can fix the mind on one point and make it stay there. Hold to the idea, "I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act', and each day the identification of yourself with thought and feeling will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself. When this is done, the mind is your servant to control as you will. The first stage of being a yogi is to go beyond the senses. When the mind is conquered, he has reached the highest stage.

• The purer the mind, the easier it is to control. Purity of the mind must be insisted upon if you would control it.....Perfect morality is the all in all of the complete control over mind. The man who is perfectly moral has nothing more to do; he is free.

• Q--How is it that desires rise even after mental concentration is acquired? A--Those are the outcomes of the previous Samskaras (deep-rooted impressions or tendencies). When Buddha was on the point of merging in Samadhi (superconsciousness), Mara made his appearance. There was really no Mara extraneous to the mind; it was only the external reflection of the mind's previous Samskaras.

• The mind has to be gradually and systematically brought under control. The will has to be strengthened by slow, continuous and persevering drill. This is no child's play, no fad to be tried one day and discarded the next. It is a life's work; and the end to be attained is well worth all that it can cost us to reach it; being nothing less than the realization of our absolute oneness with the Divine. Surely, with this end in view, and with the knowledge that we can certainly succeed, no price can be too great to pay.

• Give up all argumentation and other distractions. Is there anything in dry intellectual jargon? It only throws the mind off its balance and disturbs it. Things of subtler plane has to be realized. Will talking do that? So give up all vain talk. Read only those books which has been writted by persons who have had realization.

• Mentally repeat: Let all beings be happy; Let all beings be peaceful; Let all beings be blissful. So do to the east, south, north and west. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make ourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make ourselves happy is to see that others are happy. After doing that, those who believe in God should pray---not for money, not for health, not for heaven; pray for knowledge and light; every other prayer is selfish.

• The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful. When a man is gloomy that may be dyspepsia, but it is not religion. To the Yogi, everything is bliss, every human face that he sees brings cheerfulness to him. That is the sign of a virtuous man. What business have you with clouded faces? It is terrible. If you have a clouded face, do not go out that day, shut yourself up in your room. What right have you to carry this disease out into the world.

All of the highlighted parts are just corrupted New Age attacks on the self, and this has completely over-complicated the idea of mental focus. He is basically saying to repress yourself in order to get focus, in order to literally merge with a selfless "One".

This is core New Age philosophy and very distinct from Satanism. We are allowed to be separate and distinct beings within the universe, with our own desires. This is not selfish, but is how the universe grows and expands. We our own unique pattern of expression with the universe; we can connect with other beings, but we are not literally them.

To claim that our desires are literally negative karma is outright destructive and would turn you into a zombie, if this is how you are aiming your workings, for example. The point of our focus is to help us achieve our desires, not to avoid them. This is how we manifest wealth, which comes through visualizations and intentions directly related to its achievement, not the avoidance of it.

 

[Sunny]

I love to read this type of knowledge, thank you Sunny!

I suggest you read these two books by Sadhguru, I liked them very much. The first one, Inner Engineering, which is a bestseller. And the second, Mind Is Your Business.

He says the mind does not need to be controlled but needs to be liberated. He also talks about meditation and wisdom for life.

 

[Sunny]

" post_id=439747 time=1682835597 user_id=21286]

We have to seize this unstable mind and drag it from its wanderings and fix it on one idea. Over and over again this must be done. By power of will we must get hold of the mind and make it stop and reflect upon the glory of God.

• The easiest way to get hold of the mind is to sit quiet and let it drift where it will for a while. Hold fast to the idea, "I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I." Then see it think as if it were a thing entirely apart from yourself. Identify yourself with God, never with matter or with the mind. Picture the mind as a calm lake stretched before you and the thoughts that come and go as bubbles rising and breaking on its surface. Make no effort to control the thoughts, but watch them and follow them in imagination as they float away. This will gradually lessen the circles. For the mind ranges over wide circles of thought and those circles widen out into ever increasing circles, as in a pond when we throw a stone into it. We want to reverse the process and starting with a huge circle make it narrower until at last we can fix the mind on one point and make it stay there. Hold to the idea, "I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act', and each day the identification of yourself with thought and feeling will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself. When this is done, the mind is your servant to control as you will. The first stage of being a yogi is to go beyond the senses. When the mind is conquered, he has reached the highest stage.

• The purer the mind, the easier it is to control. Purity of the mind must be insisted upon if you would control it.....Perfect morality is the all in all of the complete control over mind. The man who is perfectly moral has nothing more to do; he is free.

• Q--How is it that desires rise even after mental concentration is acquired? A--Those are the outcomes of the previous Samskaras (deep-rooted impressions or tendencies). When Buddha was on the point of merging in Samadhi (superconsciousness), Mara made his appearance. There was really no Mara extraneous to the mind; it was only the external reflection of the mind's previous Samskaras.

• The mind has to be gradually and systematically brought under control. The will has to be strengthened by slow, continuous and persevering drill. This is no child's play, no fad to be tried one day and discarded the next. It is a life's work; and the end to be attained is well worth all that it can cost us to reach it; being nothing less than the realization of our absolute oneness with the Divine. Surely, with this end in view, and with the knowledge that we can certainly succeed, no price can be too great to pay.

• Give up all argumentation and other distractions. Is there anything in dry intellectual jargon? It only throws the mind off its balance and disturbs it. Things of subtler plane has to be realized. Will talking do that? So give up all vain talk. Read only those books which has been writted by persons who have had realization.

• Mentally repeat: Let all beings be happy; Let all beings be peaceful; Let all beings be blissful. So do to the east, south, north and west. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make ourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make ourselves happy is to see that others are happy. After doing that, those who believe in God should pray---not for money, not for health, not for heaven; pray for knowledge and light; every other prayer is selfish.

• The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful. When a man is gloomy that may be dyspepsia, but it is not religion. To the Yogi, everything is bliss, every human face that he sees brings cheerfulness to him. That is the sign of a virtuous man. What business have you with clouded faces? It is terrible. If you have a clouded face, do not go out that day, shut yourself up in your room. What right have you to carry this disease out into the world.

All of the highlighted parts are just corrupted New Age attacks on the self, and this has completely over-complicated the idea of mental focus. He is basically saying to repress yourself in order to get focus, in order to literally merge with a selfless "One".

This is core New Age philosophy and very distinct from Satanism. We are allowed to be separate and distinct beings within the universe, with our own desires. This is not selfish, but is how the universe grows and expands. We our own unique pattern of expression with the universe; we can connect with other beings, but we are not literally them.

To claim that our desires are literally negative karma is outright destructive and would turn you into a zombie, if this is how you are aiming your workings, for example. The point of our focus is to help us achieve our desires, not to avoid them. This is how we manifest wealth, which comes through visualizations and intentions directly related to its achievement, not the avoidance of it.

In fact, the New Agers go to the extreme in the One and Spirituality. It is understandable but the matter is equally important. I am trying to take useful things. They really try hard and give useful and valuable things, but also wrong things unfortunately.

I have studied dozens of books on the mind and its aspects such as thoughts. I have read books by Swami Sivananda on the mind and thoughts in which he reveals many secrets of the mind and thoughts, he also explains concentration training very well. Another very good book on the mind that I have read is by Yogi Bhajan, he explains in a detailed and schematic way how the mind works.

Thank you for pointing out the wrong things. Vive was a good boy, he simply followed his teachers but had a good intellect. He knew about the importance of the physical body yet he did not take much care. Also, to give up the material dimension is foolish in my opinion, this dimension is also infinite and therefore one must advance infinitely here as well.

I really don't understand this meaningless thing of wanting to become homeless or savage in order to engage very much in spirituality. People like Sadhguru, Yogi Bhajan and Gurudev are much more balanced, wise and aware for life. Look at Yogi Bhajan for example; he went to America and created a few businesses for himself and gave others ideas for business.

 

[Flamma Bellum]

I love to read this type of knowledge, thank you Sunny!

I suggest you read these two books by Sadhguru, I liked them very much. The first one, Inner Engineering, which is a bestseller. And the second, Mind Is Your Business.

He says the mind does not need to be controlled but needs to be liberated. He also talks about meditation and wisdom for life.

Actually most books that I have is from him, when I was new to Zevism I was reading these a lot, inner engineering you mentioned I had read 3 times as I can remember, some of others also more than one time, because of him I started to move more straight in my life, and to think about it… because of father Satan I lost completely myself for truths. At Sadhguru’s teachings need to be looked carefully.

Sadhguru speaks alot of truth but after a point I started to notice some of corruption in his talks, especially where he promotes xianity, and speaks about xrist’s life and it’s teachings from a super positive and promotive perspective of his own… in Sadhguru exclusive you can find these, I love and respect his insights which are truthful, but parts where he promotes enemy teachings it is not acceptable. One of the reasons he is doing this, is to stay in media, and to not be kicked out from it. But by looking closer he is not so good as it looks. Sometimes yes he is nice I don’t say anything, but sometimes well…

 

[Flamma Bellum]

Here is also sermon from Pythia.

https://templeofzeus.org/Control.html

“ Establishing Control

Establishing control over one’s emotions is very important. Out of control, emotions can be detrimental to one’s health and well-being, and at worst can be lethal. In a situation where panic takes control and gives way to terror, where fear is completely out of control; one can freeze up when immediate action is called for and wind up dead. Out of control, emotions interfere with and even prevent rational thought. Here the panic/terror takes over one’s entire being. Control of emotions and having a calm mind can mean the difference between life and death.

Worry does nothing to change a problem. It drains energy and can cause serious health problems. Again, the mind is out of control, as the same thoughts compulsively repeat themselves over and over, accomplishing nothing but upset. Bad situations and problems need to be rationally thought out for possible solutions and then let go.
Constantly rehearsing a bad incident over and over isn’t going to solve the problem. This will only create other problems. Stress tears down the body and mind. Mental and psychological pain can be just as bad as physical pain. A strong mind can refuse this pain. When the mind is calm, often solutions will present themselves and problems can be worked out. We are also more open to the spirit world when we are calm, and often we can find help there. If we calmly ask our mind for answers regarding a certain problem before we fall asleep at night, we will usually have answers when we awaken, or sometimes answers will come to us in a dream.

Out of control emotions are the result of an out of control mind. Void meditation helps with detaching from negative emotions. When unwanted emotions arise, relaxing one’s mind and detaching one’s self from the feeling can be difficult at first, but with persistence, control can be established. Try softening around the emotion or focusing attention on the emotion/feeling, relaxing and letting go. Empty the mind. This can also be helpful in cases of depression.
Focus on feeling calm and relaxing inside.

When mastery over one’s emotions is established [this can take years of consistent meditation], the ability to stay calm in crisis situations can prove invaluable and can even be life saving. Animals will rarely, if ever attack someone who is not in any way afraid. Having a calm orderly and powerful mind comes from the regular practice of void meditation. Void meditation also strengthens our thought power for magickal practice. The next time you feel unwanted emotions; try to focus on detaching and relaxing. This can be difficult at first, but will come with time. We must completely master ourselves, for this is the path to becoming a god.

There are times when we have to just let go and vent. This can be done during a ritual. Father Satan always listens to us and sometimes it is a good thing to let it all out and get it all out, so that one can be at peace and not have to feel suppressed in any way. If extreme worry or other emotions cannot be brought under control, venting during a ritual is the often best way. Mastering one’s emotions, as well as the mind is something that needs to be worked on every day. In time, a sense of calm and confidence will take over and remain, so that the mind can be free for spiritual development and directed to the fulfilling of one’s goals and desires.”

 

[Sunny]

I love to read this type of knowledge, thank you Sunny!

I suggest you read these two books by Sadhguru, I liked them very much. The first one, Inner Engineering, which is a bestseller. And the second, Mind Is Your Business.

He says the mind does not need to be controlled but needs to be liberated. He also talks about meditation and wisdom for life.

Actually most books that I have is from him, when I was new to Zevism I was reading these a lot, inner engineering you mentioned I had read 3 times as I can remember, some of others also more than one time, because of him I started to move more straight in my life, and to think about it… because of father Satan I lost completely myself for truths. At Sadhguru’s teachings need to be looked carefully.

Sadhguru speaks alot of truth but after a point I started to notice some of corruption in his talks, especially where he promotes xianity, and speaks about xrist’s life and it’s teachings from a super positive and promotive perspective of his own… in Sadhguru exclusive you can find these, I love and respect his insights which are truthful, but parts where he promotes enemy teachings it is not acceptable. One of the reasons he is doing this, is to stay in media, and to not be kicked out from it. But by looking closer he is not so good as it looks. Sometimes yes he is nice I don’t say anything, but sometimes well…

Good, I'm glad to hear that. Of course you have to be careful when reading these books.

 

[Sunny]

Here is also sermon from Pythia.

https://templeofzeus.org/Control.html

“ Establishing Control

Establishing control over one’s emotions is very important. Out of control, emotions can be detrimental to one’s health and well-being, and at worst can be lethal. In a situation where panic takes control and gives way to terror, where fear is completely out of control; one can freeze up when immediate action is called for and wind up dead. Out of control, emotions interfere with and even prevent rational thought. Here the panic/terror takes over one’s entire being. Control of emotions and having a calm mind can mean the difference between life and death.

Worry does nothing to change a problem. It drains energy and can cause serious health problems. Again, the mind is out of control, as the same thoughts compulsively repeat themselves over and over, accomplishing nothing but upset. Bad situations and problems need to be rationally thought out for possible solutions and then let go.
Constantly rehearsing a bad incident over and over isn’t going to solve the problem. This will only create other problems. Stress tears down the body and mind. Mental and psychological pain can be just as bad as physical pain. A strong mind can refuse this pain. When the mind is calm, often solutions will present themselves and problems can be worked out. We are also more open to the spirit world when we are calm, and often we can find help there. If we calmly ask our mind for answers regarding a certain problem before we fall asleep at night, we will usually have answers when we awaken, or sometimes answers will come to us in a dream.

Out of control emotions are the result of an out of control mind. Void meditation helps with detaching from negative emotions. When unwanted emotions arise, relaxing one’s mind and detaching one’s self from the feeling can be difficult at first, but with persistence, control can be established. Try softening around the emotion or focusing attention on the emotion/feeling, relaxing and letting go. Empty the mind. This can also be helpful in cases of depression.
Focus on feeling calm and relaxing inside.

When mastery over one’s emotions is established [this can take years of consistent meditation], the ability to stay calm in crisis situations can prove invaluable and can even be life saving. Animals will rarely, if ever attack someone who is not in any way afraid. Having a calm orderly and powerful mind comes from the regular practice of void meditation. Void meditation also strengthens our thought power for magickal practice. The next time you feel unwanted emotions; try to focus on detaching and relaxing. This can be difficult at first, but will come with time. We must completely master ourselves, for this is the path to becoming a god.

There are times when we have to just let go and vent. This can be done during a ritual. Father Satan always listens to us and sometimes it is a good thing to let it all out and get it all out, so that one can be at peace and not have to feel suppressed in any way. If extreme worry or other emotions cannot be brought under control, venting during a ritual is the often best way. Mastering one’s emotions, as well as the mind is something that needs to be worked on every day. In time, a sense of calm and confidence will take over and remain, so that the mind can be free for spiritual development and directed to the fulfilling of one’s goals and desires.”

Thank you for sharing this excellent sermon by HPS Pythia.