Mind is a Barrier for Enlightenment

A powerful weapon that a human being has got, in the process of evolution, is a powerful mind, which can imagine and manifest. It is through this mind we recognize what we see. For example, a flower is given in the hands of a Botanist and a Mechanic. Both have their mind conditioned in a different manner. If you ask both of them to write a page about that flower, you could see a great deal of difference in their writings. But, the flower is the same. How could it be? A same flower makes different sense for different persons! It is the play of the mind according to the conditioning. Both of them are seeing the same flower through a different lens (the conditioned mind). But, only a person who is capable of transcending the mind may see the reality of what it (the object that we recognized as flower) really is, without any lens.

The barrier

Mind becomes a barrier and makes us remain in ignorance which creates pleasure and pain. It does not allow us to enjoy the real bliss. Even though we always live in the present, mind does not allow us to completely participate in the present. It creates a past and a future and makes us spend most of our time in either the past or the future. It is only the current present which will have its impact in the future and it was the same present, long ago which has left some impact in the past. But, we ignore the importance of the present moment and are taken away by the past and the future which creates either joy or sorrow. Because of this, we react most of the time.

To transcend these duality of present and past, joy and sorrow, it is important to transcend the mind. It is the mind which creates this duality which is non-existent in reality and makes us ignorant of our real nature. When this great task is accomplished, we would become a better master of our mind and could call it to serve us, when we are in need of it. You could say, even now, I command my mind and have control over it. If that is so, you may try ordering it to stop its functioning for a while... Did you succeed? No thoughts popped up for a while? It may be a tough task, but not an impossible one to achieve.

The real freedom

If you could start observing your mind, it would be interesting to find that, there is a continuous flow of thoughts... continuous. When we start observing this flow of thoughts, the gap between the thoughts would become visible and it would increase in the due course of time. This process would take one to the inner stillness.

It is through meditation this could be achieved at ease and the grips of mind over us could be dissolved. When we are able to separate ourselves from the flow of thoughts and get a glance of the flowing thoughts, a great difference would come in. When this process sets in, we can start transcending the mind and enjoy the real freedom. Freedom from joy and pain! A feel of internal bliss!