Bhuwan R Chataut
Leadership begins with resourcefulness, not resources. And, it fundamentally relies on the vibrant body, clear mind, stable emotions and art of channelizing energy as body, mind, heart and energy are four basic dimensions of one’s being. Here, this piece of writing will put focus on the mind and a way to tap its potential in brief.
MIND AND ITS NATURE
“Of all the perceptive capacities (senses) of being, I am the mind.”
– Lord Krishna, Srimad Bhagavad Gita
Our mind is the most significant faculty, yet mostly misunderstood. Moreover, it is the untapped or uncultured tool that we naturally possess since we are born. It is the center for imagination, thinking, reasoning, memory, willpower, emotions and intellect. Mainly, it produces thoughts nearly 70,000 a day on average with the help of the brain and nervous system.
So, we can call our mind a ‘thoughts manufacturing factory’. It keeps on creating any types of thoughts – positive or negative, necessary or waste thoughts continuously till the heart, kidney and brain stops functioning. Like the body keeps on breathing, our mind breathes the thoughts. If we sit silently for a while and observe our minds, we will notice there is a continuous bombardment of thoughts. As result, it consumes enormous energy in its functioning. More the thoughts are produced; more we get tired, exhausted and fatigued – consequently less joyous, less creative and less productive.
Interestingly, almost all our thoughts are either past-oriented or future-oriented. There is no any thought that keeps us in the present moment. Such hyper movement of thoughts moving randomly either on past or in future and the mind’s unrest were compared by the eastern sages with not just an ordinary monkey but a drunken one stung by a scorpion. Another tendency of the mind is it always works in alignment with various conditioning and conditioned experiences until and unless it is mastered by the individual.
Generally, we assume that the body and its organs and systems are enough to govern our life. But it is partially true. In reality, the mind surrounds the body and exerts its substantial impact on it. Yet, it looks a fact when a contemporary molecular biologist declares in a research paper, “The nose doesn’t smell—the brain does.” But in reality, the brain works only when the mind vividly exists to support the brain function. In other words, the mind controls and keeps its command over the brain and nervous system and their functions. For example, even having perfect senses, we simply miss the scene or fail to listen unless our mind is fully present.
TAPPING ITS POTENTIAL
“What you think you create, what you feel you attract, what you imagine you become.”
– Khaptad Baba, Bichar Bigyan
Mind is a miracle and a blessing if we really succeed to tame it. On the contrary, it would be the root cause of all suffering if not handled rightly.
Once, a royal couple was invited to a huge exhibition. They visited, and the queen queried to a chief organizer, “What is the most special thing in this fair?” He humbly replied, “There is a small box but of immense value and in front of it, the rest of the fair is like nothing.” The box was really very attractive, and she liked it. “Why is it so precious?” the queen further asked. He replied, “Your majesty, there is a powerful genie inside it and capable of accomplishing any given task in a fraction of a second.” With a bright face, she bought the box. After arriving at the palace, the royal couple started playing with the genie.
For the first few orders, they enjoyed it a lot as the genie was magical to execute the order. On the contrary, when it did not get an order it would say, “Give me order or I will gulp you.” For the royal couple, it was tough to engage the genie by demanding one more thing again and again, but they were bound to do so to save their lives. They found themselves very panicked and helpless over the night. Finally, they succeed to call their one wise minister to resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, the minister precisely identified that the genie is much powerful and needs to be disciplined. Intelligently, he ordered the genie to bring the tallest and strongest bamboo from the entire forest. Genie executed the order in a fraction of a second, and then, it was ordered to fix it outside on the ground.” “Now, you move up and down unto the bamboo pole until you get the new order from their majesties.” the minister commanded. Then only, they relaxed with long breathe.
TOP SECRET
“The mind is a beautiful servant but a dangerous master.”
– Osho, The Mind
The top-secret is our mind is exactly the same as the genie, we should discipline it otherwise it becomes the source of all sufferings. It is a miraculous tool if it is used deliberately, willfully, consciously despite its terrific nature and tendencies. If it is not mastered, it could be disastrous. If it doesn’t get enslaved, it naturally gets empowered with lust, anger, greed, attachment and identification. Eventually, we lose our inner peace, serenity and calmness of the being that obviously impacts our daily life, workplace performance and way of living.
Like the royal couple who enslaved the genie, we can enslave our minds. Like the genie was allowed to move up and down unto the bamboo pole when there was no order to execute, we can command our mind to move through the incoming breath and outgoing breathe from nostrils to the navel and the navel to nostrils. For it, we can manage ourselves to sit quietly for some time in a day and allow our mind to swing only on breathing by listening to the sound of breathing. Here, breathing can be used as an anchor to tame the mind though there can be many methods and techniques to discipline the mind.
In a nutshell, to realize that the mind is a miracle and blessing and a source of resourcefulness. Let us master the mind.
Chataut is Life-Leadership Coach at Life Awakening Foundation and Visiting Faculty at Shanker Dev Campus, TU.
