Transmutation of Personality through Preksha Meditation

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

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of the present moment constitutes the mind. Outside this moment, before or after, the mind has no existence, the moment of its origin is its whole existence. Consciousness is its conductor. Chitta, too, is a level of consciousness. The consciousness that is associated with the gross body is chitta. And an appliance of the chitta that works the brain, is the mind. As long as the mind is there, restlessness is bound to be there too. If the mind is stopped from coming into being, fickleness does not originate. But whenever the mind is activated, memories, imaginations and thoughts abound. And it is this abundance of memories, fictions and thoughts which produces disquiet. The only way to reduce mental agitation is to reduce restlessness. Memory, imagination and thought must be done away with or there is no way to end the fickleness of the mind.
If, at this level of consciousness, the mind is the only controlling factor, it can lead to a great disorder. Because the entity of the mind is made up of memory, imagination and thought, and the mind cannot be expected to jeopardise its own existence by reducing these. And the mind cannot accomplish it. If anything, the mind's functioning only serves to increase the role of memory, imagination and thought. Thus, the mind cannot control them.
Another point to note in this connection is that the mind has nothing stable about it. It is a kind of flow. Procreation and dissolution is its destiny. The consciousness of chitta controls it. The chitta is a durable element. To comprehend its consciousness is to understand the movement of the mind. Within man mature results of past actions and tradition, and these serve to confuse the world of the mind. These are also the elements that create the complications of memory, imagination and thought. Thus, the secret of the mind's fickleness is laid bare. Apart from this fickleness, there is no separate entity of the mind. Nor can the mind be rendered stable.
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