Mind Watching - 1

Mind watching is an Art and it takes a whole lot of practice to achieve some form understanding s to what it entails and how it benefits one. Most modern and ancient philosophers and teachings have been expounding and insisting that we watch our mind and understand how it works so that we can better manage our lives with better and not get trapped by the veils of ignorance that the mind has the tendency to lead us into every so often. It has taken me almost a life time to come to a point where i can see and feel how my mind works in deviating from any 'good' intentions i try to manifest, or come to any form of single pointed attention in my sense perception. The mind is like a carriage with four wild horses pulling it in four different directions and the charioteer has to be able to bring these beasts into acting in synchronicity in order to make any headway on the road. First one has to recognize who is the charioteer, who holds the rein and crack the whip.

A good charioteer will know his animals very well by the time he has them hitched to the chariot, he got to know his animals right from their very young age; from colts till they become stallions. He raised and trained them to obey his commands without any hesitation while on the road, they are his children so to speak. Horses are temperamental animals and have their own minds about who they are who they obey. There are horses that moves instantly at the click of the rider's tongue and there are those that moves at the sight of the whip and then there are those that moves after feeling the crack of the whip on its flank and worse of all there are those that refuses to move even when beaten to death. Hence to know your horses well helps a great deal in making for a smooth ride. 

To understand the mind is like training the four horses to act as one and when this happens the mind becomes more single pointed and has greater ability to perform and action spontaneously. However the mind is a whole lot elusive as it has more than just four horses with four different temperaments.Hence it takes a whole lot more to understand how the mind functions and how to put it to better use. The mind can work for us or it can be our biggest obstruction in not understood. To recognize the fact that I am not the body, nor am I the mind is one of the keys towards working with the mind. I do not need to go any deeper into this profess that i have made to myself a long time ago although I had to struggle in understanding its significance in the beginning, but over the years i learned the truth of the matter. I am not saying that i have mastered or understood my mind fully today, bu suffice to say i can spot myself getting wrapped up in my thoughts more often than before. One of the causes of this is the distraction I allow myself from various forms of external stimuli. Some i got so attached to that i have a very hard time to detach from them and they intrude upon my inner workings and these are the stubborn horses that needs more than just the flick of the whip to get them to disappear and allow my mind mind the freedom to act with better clarity.

Fear and anxiety is a major cause for the mind to become distracted from its course and pleasure too can be a source of distraction when over indulged. In the practice of Satipatthana;

Satipaṭṭhāna is the establishment or arousing of mindfulness, as part of the Buddhist practices leading to detachment and liberation.

Traditionally, mindfulness is thought to be applied to four domains, "constantly watching sensory experience in order to prevent the arising of cravings which would power future experience into rebirths,"^[1] namely mindfulness of the body, feelings/sensations, mind/consciousness, anddhammās.^[2]

there is a practice called "bare Attention" whereby one simply observe without attachment to what one observes. To put simply, when you see a lady walking by do not add thoughts like she has nice piece of ass or nice this or that, (being a man that i am). One just notices a person passing by and is gone once she is out of sight. This practice in all its forms helps to decrease the activity of the mental state, like in judgement and making choices; I like what I am seeing or I don't. It is a good place to start making for less distractions and attachments.

It is in our human nature to collect knowledge from whatever sources that comes our way and of our interest. The mind has the capacity to accumulate information much greater than the computer is able to and its memory bank is limitless and to access the mind all one need to do is trigger a thought process, an idea or simply allow for it to materialize these information without your help as most of us are doing all through our lives. Thoughts arises like waves upon the ocean or clouds in the sky, they come and they go; you are the ocean and the sky; the observer. Science has proven that the observer has an effect upon what is observed and from this we get the insight that we the observer has the right over what we observe and can make or shape it as we wish. When the observer becomes fully present and aware of what is being observed there is no more observer and the observed; all barriers is removed and the they become one and the same. Creative people like musicians and artist become one with their creations, the instruments and tools merely transports this phenomena into manifestation. 

In watching the Mind and understanding its functions and capabilities one can transcend all limitations the has been preconditioned into our lives from childhood till today; step back and observe. Drop all inhibitions and conditions and attachment or detachment and become one with the impeccable tool that we are endowed with; the Human Mind, HUMIND.