From Don: As I began to move through my day the mind was actively engaged in trying to persuade me that my life is going all to hell and that all I can look forward to is worsening health and a bleak future. Suddenly these words came clearly:
“Observe the mind. Observe the mind.”
The voice of the speaker was familiar but I couldn’t quite place it: Eckhart, Adyashanti or some other wise teacher, I couldn’t tell, just that it sounded like a male voice rather than a female one. That voice helped me to remember that the mind is always trying to gain ascendency over, to feel like it is better, stronger and wiser than any other voice or any other influence on my behavior and my mood. Meditating on these words that came unbidden I remembered that the mind is a trickster, a fraudulent creation: vapour trying to appear solid. The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. I don’t remember who said that but it rings true for me. The mind can be very helpful as a secretary, reminding me of what I need to do and when I need to do it. But when it gains ascendancy and takes charge of my life, my actions, and the way I feel, then it becomes a dictator. It becomes a menace to good order and decent behaviour, because it’s whole raison d’être is to feel superior, and it does that by doing it’s best to make me feel inferior so that I end up feeling that I need it’s assistance. Let me add that without the mind’s attempts at sovereignty life manages to live itself without difficulty, and without distress or fear or any of the so-called negative emotions interfering. When the mind gets into the game of trying to control my behaviour is when things can turn to shit. Having said all that, it still doesn’t quite capture what I’m trying to express about the mind and it’s devious ways.
“Observe the mind.”
Watch it in action. It’s goal is always the same: to try to make the me feel inferior and therefore in need of assistance from the all-knowing, all powerful mind. It achieves its purpose by creating worries and fears. Problems only arise when I believe the mind is who I am, which, in my case, is almost all the time.
“Observe the mind.”
That’s the key to all this. The mind is a creation. Does it have any existence separate from the human brain? I suspect not. So how does an individual prevent the mind from dominating the inner reality and external behaviour? By observing the mind and not believing its tales of gloom, doom and disaster. The more one observes the mind’s activity the less likely one is to be deceived into believing the stories it tells.
“Observe the mind.”
I’m still having symptoms of a viral infection, and I can feel the mind wanting to make this a big deal and pull me down into a hole about my health, about what we are doing here in Cyprus, about what are we doing with our lives, about our finances, about anything and everything that can possibly cause me to feel less than happy and grateful for this marvelous present moment that’s filled with sunshine and warmth, and excellent accommodation, and good food and a loving wife.
“Observe the mind.”
I remember hearing Adyashanti quoting what one of his Zen teachers had said to him: “If you go to war with the mind you’ll be at war forever.” Adya went on to say that you couldn’t outthink the mind; you can only become increasingly aware of its activity, and stop believing what it is telling you. The mind in it’s own way is like the Devil: a persuasive voice in the head that seeks to keep you in thrall to its lies. The way out is the way through: not by trying to stop the thoughts but by hearing them, listening with discernment, and refusing to believe the lies contained within them.
“Observe the mind.”
Give thanks: I need to remember to keep giving thanks for all we have been given, particularly for what we have received and are continuing to receive since we made the decision to sell our home and go travelling. So many miracles, such a cornucopia of riches showering down upon us everywhere we go. I find myself from time to time having a lack of trust in The Mystery, and this certainly does not honour what we have been receiving on an ongoing basis since we became nomadic. So time to give my head a big shake and continue to acknowledge the gifts and opportunities we have received.
“Observe the mind.”
There’s really no end to this, to the need for awareness of the messages from the mind. The mind will continue to do what it does, and trying to stop the thoughts as they arise is counterproductive. The best that I can do is as follows:
“Observe the mind.”
Not feeling very good physically, but I’m still able to be aware of the mind’s attempts to have me go into a place of despair about my current health problems: my eyes feel tired and foggy, and my energy is quite depleted. Awareness allows me to just let things be as they are without buying into the mind’s story of despair.
“Observe the mind.”
Photo of the day: street art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
All words and images by Alison Louise Armstrong unless otherwise noted
© Alison Louise Armstrong and Adventures in Wonderland – a pilgrimage of the heart, 2010-2015.
Adventures in Wonderland 
Hello Don and Alison,
My husband forwards your blogs to me on a regular basis, and I always enjoy reading them. Fabulous pictures, too!
Your entry today, Don, touched me, because we all struggle with the all-pervasive mind telling us abysmal stories. You’ve got it right: don’t believe what it tells you, keep observing it. I have a suggestion, though, because, to me, that’s only the first step. The second is a question: what are you replacing it with? I know you are familiar with Ramana Maharshi. One of his “grandsons”, Mooji, who is an advaita teacher in the lineage of Ramana, talks a lot about leaving the state of person, and living in and as awareness. And he always asks: what is your position? Person or awareness? He suggests to “go to” or to “become” what he calls the I AM or beingness — becoming aware of “I exist”, “I am” – thus dropping all the baggage of personal identity.
What I am trying to say is that the observer by itself is not strong enough to stop the mind from doing its thing. We need to find the “new position” where we also find home — hopefully eventually permanent home.
I hope you don’t mind this reply from someone you don’t even know. I am passing on what I have found extremely helpful in weakening the mind’s activities.
My husband and I are in your “age group”, and we are in awe at the stamina you’ve shown in keeping up your lifestyle. We’ve also done a lot of traveling, notably to India and to Tiruvannamalai, but we are telling ourselves that it’s become too hard. However, we also know that this is just another mind story!
Hoping your health and your spirits will perk up soon.
All the best to you and Alison.
Tanya Schubert
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Hi Tanya,
I appreciate your thoughtful comments and thank you for passing on Mooji’s recommendation about finding a “new position” to live in.
Also good to hear that you’re enjoying the blog. Ali and I do get tired from time to time, but we get energised again as soon as we’ve had a rest and then get going on some new adventure.
Thanks for your good wishes,
Don
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Hi Don,
Do you mind (pun intended?) if I continue this conversation a little?
In your reply to Kate you specify about the “mind-made self” and its agenda to “make me feel less than”.
Who is this “me” that the mind can make feel less than? How many “me’s” are there?
Tanya
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No I don’t mind. The whole question of how many me’s there are remains a puzzle to me :). In an earlier draft of this post I wrote “Observe the mind.” Watch it in action: it’s goal is always the same: to try to make the human being feel inferior and therefore in need of assistance from the all-knowing, all powerful mind. It achieves its purpose by creating worries and fears in the mind of the human being. Wait a minute: the mind creates worries and fears in the mind?! WTF? Does that mean that the mind fools itself? Not for a minute. So who or what does the mind fool with its lies and half-truths? A good question indeed, to which I don’t have a ready answer. “Observe the mind.” That’s the key to all this. The mind is a creation. Does it have any existence separate from the human brain? Hard to say really: I suspect not.
That’s as far as I got in thinking about this knotty problem of the human mind(s?).
Any further thoughts would be welcome!
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How about this: the mind creates worries and fears. Period. Mind is not talking to mind. Mind is just talking! Mind is thoughts, and it creates thoughts as its way of staying alive, and if you believe what it says, you usually end up having a problem! I’m not sure why you think that mind wants to make “you” feel inferior, and I want to ask you again, “you who?” And why inferior? Someone else might believe that mind is there to protect you from the “big bad world” ….. see where this is going? Those are all stories.
The way I understand it, there is small mind (thinking, feeling, etc.) and Big Mind or luminous mind (Buddhism).
There is small self (the person) and Self (Spirit, Consciousness, etc. per advaita teaching).
The advice of all spiritual teachers and teachings is to make our home in Big Mind, to learn to ignore (transcend) small mind.
I read in one of your replies that you used to work in the field of psychology? In this field there is indeed talk about sub-personalities talking to each other, often at war with each other, etc. and maybe that is where your confusion about the “many minds” is stemming from?
Mooji and others differentiate between the psychological mind (that would be the one just mentioned) and the practical mind. The practical mind is needed in daily life. The psychological mind is mostly unnecessary baggage. As Adyashanti says: “no thought is true”.
For me, stopping everything for a moment and becoming aware of the simple fact that I exist — I am — takes me to the place prior to “I am a person”, “I am Tanya”, “I am a woman”, etc. It shuts up the small mind instantly, because there is no more room for thoughts. It is similar to Eckhart Tolle advice to practice inner body awareness. There are many other ways.
I don’t know if any of this is helpful. Just remember: it’s all story!
Greetings,
Tanya
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Hear hear! or better yet, “here here”!
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That’s Brilliant Tanya: clear and succinct. Thank you for persevering until the truth of being finally penetrated my thick skull.
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Well, that was easy! Can’t have been a very thick skull! (or are you being sarcastic?)
Anyway, kidding aside, I only reminded you of what you knew already, right?
All the best to you and Alison.
p.s. We live on Whidbey Island …… if you ever come that way …….
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p.s.
I hope you’re not taking offense at my use of the word sarcastic, Don. No offense was intended, for sure. What I meant was that maybe you were ‘teasing’ or ‘kidding’. This is the downside of e-mails, one cannot always quite “read” the other person’s intent or mood.
Be well.
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Thanks for sharing this fascinating riff on mindfulness, apparently written mid-experiencing it. Your journalizing in This Nomadic Life is very special, you know?
I want to have a big discussion with you about this post and these thoughts, ideas you’ve shared! Here is not the forum for that, I guess. I feel for you and understand the internal struggle you seem to be having. I read here what I’ve experienced myself many a time… when we stop everything physically to take a much-needed rest, the mind gets an opportunity to be heard in a way it doesn’t get heard when we’re busy and on the go. It can be annoying and disturbing at times.
Can I offer some additional thought-directions? Things I’ve observed about “mind” are that it’s where intuition arises, where creativity expands after hatching in the soul, where ideas lightbulb themselves, where recognition flashes or dawns, and so many more positive awesome things! Mind, to me, is not the devil, but rather, *integrated with my heart and soul*, a part of my personal nest for my higher self to rest and await upon my calling upon her.
Yet your question is a fair one: “how does an individual prevent the mind from dominating the inner reality and external behaviour?” Like a child, the mind simply seems to need equal billing to heart, soul, creativity, higher self. In my experience and beliefs, the mind wants to be integrated rather than separate or lesser-than. Your mind, that petulant child, is bugging you to listen… and perhaps, just perhaps, it isn’t really trying to make you feel inferior or create worries and fears so much as it’s trying to guide you to, or enhance, your inner wisdom/intuition about those physical realities of tired eyes, depleted energy, and whatever else. Your body’s needs and your mind’s messages and your emotional responses to those are perhaps working as one, to your greater good?
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Hi Kate,
I had a feeling that I’d be getting a long and thoughtful reply from you to this post, and I wasn’t disappointed!
As you surmised, it was initially written piecemeal on consecutive days in my Morning Pages, and then reworked with help from my faithful editor (AA).
*WARNING* DUALISTIC THINKING AHEAD. I realised while reading your comments that I should have used Eckhart Tolle’s phrase “the mind-made self” instead of just saying “the mind” while I was talking about the trickster aspects of mind. The mind-made self is the part of consciousness that thinks it is real and in charge of my life. I see this as separate from the intuitive aspects of mind that you make reference to: the inspirational ideas that come unbidden, the dreams that provide insights and greater awareness, and the revelations that come out of nowhere.
Despite your persuasive arguments, I still don’t accept that the mind-made self is acting in anything other than it’s own self interest with it’s own agenda to feel superior and hence to have me feel less than.
Thanks Kate, your comments are always stimulating.
Don
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It’s a lot of double-think (is that the same as dualistic-thinking?) and over-think. My “persuasive arguments” were about trying to say that full integration of all aspects of Self would seem a healthier approach than separating all those aspects, like mind vs the one observing mind, not to mention all the other aspects of who we each are. Your mind-made self, as you call it, IS part of yourself. Like the idea of chakras, each aspect of ourselves complements and enhances the other. Sometimes one is the “main feature”, depending on what we’re dealing with externally at the time, but yet they’re integrated. You say your mind-made self is making up stories and creating illusions. In my experience, mind-made self is as valuable as, for example, emotion-made self, heart-made self, soul-made self, etc. Each of those stories and what you call illusions (I won’t admit to them being illusions) are part of the “insight” experience we can have if we’re open and aware.
I feel like you are being so “mean” to what you call mind; you are calling it names and dissing it, etc. If your mind is acting in self interest, I kind of don’t blame it… it must be feeling very defensive. So I wanted to remind you that it’s you, it’s all You! Yet, all that said, I don’t really believe mind is an “it”, separate from the rest of you. Seems to me that the work here is to integrate all of who you are and to be more gentle with all aspects of yourSelf. As others have said, you just need to rest… and by that I don’t just mean your body.
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To quote a wise man (my boss 🙂 ) – you are exactly where you are meant to be…
just let things be, when you feel better physically you will feel better – trust me on that xx
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As always, thanks for your comments. I’ve no argument with them, but I also don’t want to let the stories of the mind-made self (see previous reply to Kate) create the illusion that anything is worse than it actually is in this or any other moment.
Don
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I agree with you about the mind, Don, but it mostly sounds like you need to rest and get well. Things always look up then. I’ll be thinking of you at Salmonberry this weekend.
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Hi Kay,
You’re absolutely right, I do need to rest and get well, and as long as I don’t listen to the stories made up by the mind-made self (see my reply to Kate above) everything is always okay. Thanks for your kind thoughts.
Don
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Always a delight to hear from you, Don. My favorite line is “time to give my head a big shake.” Indeed. Thanks for sharing your process.
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Hi Kelly,
Glad that you enjoyed the post. It’s always helpful, as I’m sure you know, to get stuff out of my head and down on paper, and then share it with others.
Hugs from me,
Don
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I think about the mind as well Don and being mindful (no pun intended) is very important. I loved reading “Who’s in charge?” by Michael Gazzaniga. It’s discussions of “you” and free will are very enlightening. If you’ve not read it you might enjoy it.
Thanks for sharing.
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Hi Suzie,
Thanks for the reference to Michael Gazzaniga’s book, Who’s in Charge?. I didn’t know that he was still writing. When I was a young neuropsychologist many years ago I was fascinated by his writings about the so-called split-brain patients of neurosurgeon, Joe Bogen: talk about divided consciousness! Turns out that he is still writing about them 45 years later (http://people.uncw.edu/tothj/PSY595/Gazzaniga-Split-Brain%20Research-NRN-2005.pdf).
Don
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Glad it was of some interest to you Don. Stay well. Take care Suzie
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Hi Don –
So refreshing to note that a “man of a certain age” is thinking deep thoughts and continues to investigate his inner self — instead of parking his bottom in front of the TV with an adult beverage in hand.
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Thanks for the feedback Pam,
I went that other route when I was in my Twenties – didn’t work out too well. This way feels so much better.
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Such a big lesson here for all of us to read. A very useful read for me at this point in my life. A big thank you to you and Alison. Sending you peace and strength 🙂
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Hi Anyes,
Many thanks for your kind words.
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oh….I certainly know the feeling. I turned 60 in December, and I think the warranty on my body expired at that point (that’s what my mind is telling me). Keeps saying that things are going to go downhill from now on, life is over. Things that never bothered me before–now hurting.
Sigh … Observe the mind!
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60? 60? You young thing! When I was sixty I was still running marathons.
Actually that’s a complete fabrication, but’s what has been true for me is that the less attention I pay to what the mind has to tell me the better I feel.
Keep on observing the mind and stop believing whatever it’s telling you.
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Reblogged this on Fresh Thoughts On Forest Walks and commented:
A very thought-provoking piece, on one of the all-time classical blogs.
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Hi Managua,
Thank you so much for reblogging our post and for your very kind comments.
Cheers,
Don
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Hey, I really value your thoughts here – and all the photos you guys post. I’ve started my own travel blog, and am hoping that, with time, I can develop it into something like this. http://travelbaseuk.wordpress.com/
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Hi Justin, nice to meet you. Thanks so much for your kind words. You’ve made a great start on your blog. It looks really good.
Cheers, Alison
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Amazing realizations here – I especially like “The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.” How incredibly true.
It’s very inspiring to read these oh-so human and relatable thoughts. This is everyone’s challenge, to observe the mind and not let it overtake, perhaps THE challenge.
Beautifully written – a lovely share.
~Andrea ❤
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Hello Andrea,
Thanks for your kind words. Turns out that the phrase about the mind being a terrible master comes from Robin S. Sharma, the author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. I never read the book, but being a fan of Formula 1 racing, I loved the title!
Cheers, Don ❤
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Thank for the inspiring words/messages. These are definitely words that create challenges in everyday life that we need to over come. The mind is a powerful thing. Look forward to following your page for future posts.
Cheers,
IUworldtraveler
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Hi there,
Many thanks for your thoughtful comments and for following the blog.
Cheers,
Don
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