How to declutter our mind? (Part1 of 2)

You know how it feels when you declutter a room. Suddenly you can find things and you can relax better and how ever little you throw out there seems to be so much more room!

Imagine doing that for your head!

We often encounter many unpleasant things in our life. Sometimes, they irritate us and make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt and make us bitter or jealous.

But.

Like the young monk of below mentioned story, we keep on thinking about them. And let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony.

Two Monks (Zen Story)

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were travelling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river.

There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river. The big monk offered to carry the pretty lady across the river on his back. The lady accepted. 

The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. "How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?" thought the little monk. But he kept quiet.

The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her. All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about the big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation. 

Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk. "How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite." 

The big monk looked surprised and said, "I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?"

We should let go off the "pretty lady" immediately after crossing the river, that is after the unpleasant event is over. This will immediately remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the unpleasant event after it is over.

This clutter of unwanted thoughts in our mind can prevent us from feeling good. We can’t focus. We feel like we are just spinning our wheels.

For a mind with less clutter, it is easier to find inner peace, to focus and to keep your attention on what is most important and meaningful in life. You can learn and absorb at a deep level how to deal with life smoothly and effectively. Allow the true you out, uncluttered by all that baggage.

“The problem is never how to think new thoughts, but how to get the old ones out.”

In my next blog, I will share 10 ways to delclutter our mind.

Sushant Tripathi

Divine Touch,

Exploring the divine within...

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P.S.: Please share your feedback/comment/questions below. Thanks.

Do you have a soul?

During my meditation sessions I often ask a question to the seekers - Do you have a soul? Answer received every time is a unanimous and instant reply -  Yes.  Then my next question comes: Do you have a soul or you are a soul having a body?

We all are divine souls who have come on this planet earth for spiritual growth and enlightenment. We are not human beings with spiritual experiences. We are spiritual beings with human experiences.
But we are so busy in our basic bodily needs like food, water, shelter, name , fame, money etc. that we have ignored our soul purpose completely.

Who are you? What is the purpose of your life? What do you do for a living? And what do you live for?

There are two types of people in this world. First, who are live and second who are alive. The difference between live and alive is of syllable "a". This "a" stands for awakening and awareness. Second category is awakened and aware of their existence. They know what is their purpose of life. They are aware that they are a soul and they are very well connected to the divine soul.

Our five senses through which we see, hear, smell, taste and feel are always there help us in experiencing the outer world. But, they are not meant to look within. Human body is a very complex machine beautifully designed by the God. But, through these five senses we cannot see inside our body, hear our heartbeat, taste the food in our abdomen, smell any odor inside our body or feel our skin from inside.

To explore the outer world we may need these five senses but to look within we need to stop all the five. Best tool for this exercise is Meditation. Meditation helps us in detaching our consciousness from these five distractions and to concentrate and connect with our soul. Once you reach the meditative state it appears to be a real world within and a dream or illusion outside. I often wonder what is real-  what we consider a dream or what we consider a reality?

Sushant Tripathi

Divine Touch,
Exploring the divine within...