Mysteries of Mind

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Book Agency

Page 97

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THE MYSTERIES OF MIND
It is ordinarily believed that to close one's eyes is to refuse to see or to be engulfed in darkness. It is as good as to go to sleep. Closing the eyes has a different meaning for the spiritual practitioner. It means to remain wakeful. It means looking within or into the depths of his being.
Ordinarily we believe that the source of joy lies in the external world. The spiritual practitioner has no such misunderstanding. He believes that the source of joy lies within himself. Those who have never experienced the inner world run after the external world. Once you have started looking within, you come to feel that the joy which the inner world gives cannot be found elsewhere. The inner joy is self-absorbing and the spiritual practitioner cuts himself off from the external world. He becomes so much self-absorbed that he forgets his empirical self.
One who has never endeavoured to enter into himself will never know what is happening there. That which happens within cannot be logically explained. It can only be experienced. It is better to keep silent before those who are ignorant of the spiritual world than to argue with them.
The second consequence of self-exertion is the removal of misunderstandings and illusions. Like the physician, the spiritual practitioner employs the method of elimination also. He first discerns and then renounces. Discernment means analysis and renunciation means giving up. Renunciation brings in its wake the awareness of self-discipline. Self-discipline means to live within i.e. to speak as little as possible, to walk and do as little as possible. This encourages the concentration of the mind of the practitioner. He who commands the power of concentration does not come under the influence of external things. He becomes more or less immune to external influences. He develops a resistance to them as well as to evil influences coming from within.
Physical and mental health are a condition of a happy life. One who is not careful about his mental health cannot be careful about his physical health. In spiritual practice health does not concern the body only. Mental health is much more valuable than physical health. Spiritual exertion