Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

Page 94

62
VIPASSANA MEDITATION THE WAY TO SUBLIMATION
or tension can be cured only when we reach the mental thought processes which not only precede body or vocal action but produce sensations on the body that make us happy or unhappy.
The body sensations are a manifestation of interaction between mind and matter, a process that goes on continuously. The six sense doors (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind) when in contact with their respective objects produce sensation on the body. Our mind perceives and evaluates the sensations as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral and reacts on the basis of past conditioning. This continuous process of evaluation of sensations and reaction produces complexes which go deep into the subconscious mind and quite often we behave and react to a given situation according to the conditioning and stored complexes. We have craving for pleasant sensations and aversion for unpleasant ones. Our misery or agony is directly in proportion to the intensity of these cravings and aversions. Chain reaction is set in motion and all our energy is directed towards fulfilment of our cravings, for non-fulfilment is the cause of misery. We make all out efforts to achieve the desired goal and even cause violence to others. Major wars of history have been fought for wealth (including land) and women.
Conscious and The Sub-Conscious Mind
We all know that the conscious mind is only a tip of the iceberg and most of our actions are guided and controlled by the sub-conscious mind and the reactions in many situations take place even before the conscious mind is able to assess or weigh the situation. The deep rooted complexes and conditioning determine the reaction and to check such spontaneous response and to become aware of what we are doing, one has to reach the deep recesses of mind. It cannot be tackled by superficial means. Unless we are aware of our mental defilement we cannot cure them and for being aware one has to have introspection-an inward look to watch the mental process and its interaction with body. Most of the time we are unaware of mental defilement because we have no time for introspection. We are so much engrossed with the material world and accumulation of power and wealth that we hardly have anytme to pause and think as to what we are running after. When we have mental agitation, we adopt outward measures of prayer, visit temple and perform rituals in search of peace for the troubled mind but we fail to achieve the objective mainly because these cannot take us to the deep recesses of our mind. These can divert our mind temporarily but the root of the problem is not tackled. Mental defilement manifests in the form of anger, greed or