A mind is a tool. We can use it for good or bad. It can trap us in misery or free us from suffering, lift our spirits and help us realize our inner potential. A weak, toxic and unfocused mind blocks the free expression of one’s true nature and, because of its defense and survival function, creates anxiety, depression, and many other psychological challenges. However, when the mind is freed from negative patterns, the mind is cleared and focused, becoming a powerful ally in achieving our true purpose in life. If we want to be happy, successful, or creative, we need to master our mind so that it becomes our servant, not our suppressor.
To use the power of our mind, we must first learn how it works. The mind is not just an abstract thing that is supposed to flow somewhere in the brain: we think a little, we remember something, we casually condemn someone, we make decisions, we scold and persist… People are often unaware of the mind’s immense power and use it mainly just for everyday thinking and survival. According to some studies, we use only four percent of our conscious mind; the rest is the automatic pilot that runs our lives from the unconscious. According to ancient yogic texts, humans have 16 dimensions of the human mind. These 16 dimensions fall into four categories known in yoga as manas, asmita, buddhi and chitta.
Manas is the most basic, distracting, and inefficient part of the mind responsible for receiving and managing the senses and is connected to the body’s memory. Asmita is the part of the mind defined in modern psychology by the ego, the identity, without which buddhi, the analytical and intellectual part of the mind, could not function.
Mastery of the mind is only possible with the intelligence of the heart. To live in touch with the higher intelligence, we must act from the heart, which requires a lot of courage, will, and self-reflection.
Buddhi, misunderstood today as intelligence, is merely a bank of data, of everything we have read and experienced, knowledge, experiences, and memories, which we relate to. Buddhi never goes beyond the information it possesses because it acts only with the information already there and has no access to new data.
Only the fourth category of mind enables humans to turn inwards to our true essence. Chitta is the most fluid and calm part of our mind. The last point of the mind connects us to the source of creation, to our consciousness. It represents the door to the higher intelligence that sustains life and guides us on the path of our life’s mission if we can hear it. Suppose you touch this dimension of your mind, the point where you can handle the universal consciousness. In that case, you will not only calm and master your mind, but you will truly become the best possible version of yourself, according to your inner potential. This is also the secret of so-called manifestations.
The path to true manifesting our life, which no one can achieve, is not just positive thinking and attitude or feeling the certain vibration of what we strive for, but persistent, serious, and deep work on your personal spiritual growth.
The intelligence of the heart
Many methods promise to teach the secrets of the mind. But if these methods do not touch your mind-heart connection, they are only methods of calming your mind, not transformation. Mastery of the mind is only possible with the intelligence of the heart, through the mind that resides in the heart. So to experience and live in contact with chitta, the higher intelligence, we have to act from the heart, which takes a lot of courage, will, and self-reflection.
Many people prefer to work with the intellect – analyzing, deducing, summarising, quoting – because they are afraid to dive into the wisdom of the heart, where the absolute truth lies. It is easier today to intellectualize than to act from the heart’s intelligence.
If we devote at least a little time each day to practices that direct us to the heart, we will become more calm and wise and ever closer to higher intelligence.
Obstacles on the path of full use of the mind
Not knowing oneself and one’s true nature is the first blockage we all experience today, and it manifests itself in a false personal identity. We are constantly trying to imitate someone else, to act and look like someone we judge to be better than ourselves. Wearing such kind of a mask never works—quite the opposite. We will use most of our energy to maintain a mask that we think is better than our true nature and suppress our gifts and talents. Strong blockages in the mind system are desires and expectations, everything we want for ourselves – love, money, a job, success, admiration. Desires and expectations create a mental whirlpool constantly demanding our attention and energy.
The same happens with rejecting what we do not want, such as illness. But the most potent inherited and collective blockage is fear, which is deeply implanted in our subconscious before we are born. Fear of expression, loss, our true nature, and life in general… constantly digs a bottomless hole in us and robs us of the time and attention we should be devoting to our lives.
The loosening of the mind’s knots
Undoing the knots of the mind that are deeply embedded in our energy is a challenging and complex process. Yoga, which follows traditional methods, uses a variety of procedures and approaches that precisely affect the different stages of the mind. Particularly effective in this regard is viniyoga – a yogic therapy that, with its ancient techniques, helps to balance the mind, emotions, and energy.
Deepak Chopra, author and alternative medicine advocate, said of one of The Chopra Foundation’s studies investigating the impact of mantra meditation: “A one-week spiritual retreat of mantra meditation and learning Patanjali’s yogic sutras resulted in participants having an increase in genes responsible for healing and self-regulation, and a marked decrease in genes responsible for disease and inflammation.”
In all my years of helping as a Viniyoga therapist, I believe now is the time to re-evaluate our values and lay a better foundation for the future. My experiences over the years of personal spiritual development have led me to realize that without energetic support, sharpening of the inner compass, and quietening of the mind, we cannot progress personally or as humanity.
It is not enough to think and dream of better times and become authentic and live a fulfilled life; it is necessary to embark on the path of our inner self-realization. To master the mind is to master our life. And to master our life is to live fully, creatively, and joyfully.