The Mind Shaft🔗

Constantly you create shaft of thoughts with thoughts of pain, joy, pleasure, in your inner space.

In the picture, each block is an independent thought. First you have pain, then joy, then joy and pain mixed, then pain, then joy, pain and joy mixed, then pain, joy & pain mixed, joy - different thoughts. I am trying to visually describe - each block is one thought. By putting all these blocks continuously you create the shaft. You can name that shaft as the mind or ego or identity; whatever you want you can call it. Your inner shaft - your mind is made up of many independent thoughts. Unfortunately, you don't have awareness to look at your mind as it is.

Buddha says very beautifully, 'The original mind is Nirvana!' Mind as it happens is already unclutched! But unfortunately, you pick up from the independent thoughts and create your own small view about yourself, very narrow idea about your life. You don't look at your mind as it is happening. You don't look at your life as it is happening.

You either try to believe your whole life was pain or sometimes you try to believe your whole life was joy. One of the biggest achievements I feel proud and happy about is whenever I look back at my past, I don’t have any idea about it. I nether feel it was joyful, nor feel it was painful. There is no feeling at all!

Please understand, if somebody comes to me and asks, ‘Swamiji, please give me one gift, the best thing you have in your life,’ I will choose only this – the gift of not feeling your past as a chain of joy or chain of pain. Because I do not feel my past as a chain of pain or chain of joy, I just know my future is also free just like my past.

Unfortunately, every human being tries to develop an idea about their past as pain or pleasure. When you talk to others you try to create a shaft. Sometimes if you are in that sad mood you say from the birth I was abused. You connect the pain memories, pain thoughts and feel your life as a pain.