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July/August 2002 Spirituality
The Tyranny of the Mind

by Michelle Mattraw, MA

The mind’s focus is simply to survive and to always find another avenue for that focus. The mind’s job is to move forward, pressing ever onward into the conditioned thought/reaction that it thinks will be "the answer". The mind is committed only to the preservation of itself. The mind is committed only to the achievement of the next perception of outcome as it thinks it should occur. The mind does not bring enlightenment. You have heard this for eons of time, or perhaps you haven’t. Nevertheless... the pathway to the awakening for which you seek so fervently, is not by way of the mind, nor has it ever been. It is also not by way of all the books you read or all the tapes you listen to, or the teachers you rotate through, hopefully seeking the "way". There is no way. Truly, there is no way. The answer ONLY lies within you. It only lies within you as source, as SELF. The "way" to get there is not by way of any tools you have learned, though they have been useful. It is not by way of any techniques you have been given, though they have been useful. The challenge here and now, is to give all that up. To meet the obstacles of your conditioning.... To focus only on the force which wants to "have you" and to bring you HOME. This is radical and ruthless and different from any spiritual technique or dogma which you have learned. It is beyond meditation, though meditation stills the mind. It is beyond your crystals and purple plates, and even it is beyond your prayers, though your prayers hold the desire and the space for this awakening to be known.

The mind will only know how to bring you forever into the same obscure future to obtain and get and "try" to project you into obtaining or figuring it out, or into the past to judge and evaluate, to regret and compare and lie. Yes, the mind lies. Your challenge here and now is to give all that up!! To be present and still within all the hope, all the pain, all the suffering and to simply meet the force of it and allow your mind to sink beneath it into the stillness of the SELF.

Close your eyes for a moment.... still the mind as best you can from its comments about what you have just read. Now, will the mind to slowly move down into the still quiet depths of the heart... or of the soul if you rather. This may be a challenge. Stay with it. With every inhalation, bring the energy or the mind, or the feeling of the mind down into the core of yourself and pay attention to how you feel. As you continue to do this, there is only stillness... there are no more thoughts. This is the place of the SELF. Go deeper and deeper. There is no other journey to the SELF. Only into the stillness of space in which you are... in which you BE. Practice this often. This is the place in which you meet the tyranny of the judgments and the conditioning. This is the place in which the suffering is transcended. Suffering is generated by thought. Thoughts of judgments, circumstances, previous pain, perceived and expected future pain as your outcome. Please hear me, YOU ARE NOT THAT!!! Who you are is present always. Who you are is not your mind or you patterns, or conditioning. WHO YOU ARE IS PURE LIGHT... PURELY DIVINE.... PURELY TRUTH.