Notes to Myself ...

 "Imagination is the workshop of the mind it requires focus and clarity to operate, when you visualize your desires in silence you eliminate distractions..." ...N. Goddard.

In this day and age distractions is the norm especially is one is a City dweller and the kids are all computer wiz who spends their days with their faces buried into one kind of gadget or another from at the dinner table to the toilet seats. In this I include myself guilty as charged and so, how does one focus one's mind upon a single pointed attention like a Samurai blade maker or a classical pianist? The old saying that one has to run to the mountains or seek out a cave is not viable today unless one lives close to any of these, yet there are ways and means and all is a matter of how bad does one need to find the solution or resolution. This one has to ask oneself and if one is persistent enough and are willing to take the steps towards taking that journey of self discovery there is a chance that one can find the answer to one's dilemma before it is too late like yours truly where age and mental fatigue has taken a hold of one's senses

. Distractions not only stands in the way of concentration, they become an addiction that requires attention for most people.

                                    What is external is a reflection of your inner consciousness. 

Over the years of my Blogging I have emphasized on the fact that the human mind is like a sponge that absorbs all that it touches, sees and taste, it is capable of taking in things that we are not even aware of at a glance and store it within somewhere. These distractions will at one time or another pops up in the form of thoughts or in dreams and one is left wondering where it all came from. Then there those thoughts and memories that were generated and experienced in the past, that were mostly unresolved and is carried forward into our consciousness till today demanding attention when the is room in the mind to slip into in between the silence we try so hard to achieve, through all the practices we have learned like meditation and so forth. No matter how close we come towards attaining a state of  mental silence we find that there is always a thought or two floating around in the background of the mind itching to poke its head and announce its presence to be dealt with no matte how small or insignificant it may appear to be. How does one stop the thinking mind from creating thoughts; we cannot except through a lobotomy. The brain is by nature a sponge and it can never be squeezed dry no matter how hard we try once it is wet, only time and persistent will do the trick; leave it alone and it will dry up. The mind is not your enemy but a tool, an instrument that like the brain has no sense of purpose or direction unless you, the owner instruct it, guide it, nudge it accordingly. Everyone knows this but most do not make it a practice to understand and utilize the mind.

                                 Treat your external as your canvass and paint it with your heart.

I have been repeating the same old story about this mind of ours over and over not because I have run out of tales to tell but simply because I am telling the same narrative to myself so as to keep my mind from shifting into the same rut whenever I get complacent and I do get this way ever so often. One of the ways one can keep from drifting into this state of complacency is, I find, to remember your Maker or Creator or the Universe or whoever and whatever that you have your faith in out of a sense of gratitude for if nothing else, just to be alive and especially healthy. All great religions and spiritual ways have the same remedy where the mind is concern; do not allow the ego to ride and abuse the mind with impunity. The ego too is not the enemy and do not treat it as such as this will incur its retaliation demanding its space in one's life. Give it the space but know that you are the giver, the master and not the other way round. Most great teachings would insist that one try to eliminate the ego totally and this is ideal but it is not an easy task, for the more one tries to dismiss or remove the ego the more it clings to you, imposes on you and demands its right from you. The ego is as much a part of you as everything else that you have projected and part of being a human being is to have the ego as a companion that is like one's shadow. This shadow has no mind of its own but what you have put into it throughout your life, it is both a friend and a foe.  

                                 In the Silence of Consciousness You touch Nature at its Essence.