Minding it!

The Mind which is the conscious, experiencing, faculty present in us is made up of four components, namely the logical Intellect and the intuitive mind, similar to the Left and the Right brain, and the Memory which is a container of things and events of the past, and fourthly the intriguing aspect of the ego.

The mind with a lower case 'm', is the wavering, oscillating, trembling, worrying, suffering, anxious, euphoric tendency of the Mind. It is the one that jumps up into the sky upon something that rejoices it, and it is the same mind that gets you down in the doldrums when things do not go the right way. In a way it is the real experience-r. one can say it is the very experience. Experiences are interpreted through emotions, otherwise every event is a mere information bundle.

The ego aspect of our Mind is the false thought or identity of our self with this Mind and Body complex. The notion of I as the individual is ego. This aspect of the Mind is the root of all our experiences.

Most of the time the ego identifies our Self with this trembling mind aspect of the Mind. One can observe that when the mind trembles we tremble, as the mind rejoices we rejoice. A long sequence of events and the framework called life has several elements that evoke several emotions in the mind. With the aid of the reservoir of Memory the mind finds itself in several situations, and takes us in the journey of its emotions, each time convincing us that it is our own emotion.

In this equation of,  M = ego + mind + Memory + Intellect, our only hope is the Intellect. Intellect is the one that can control the mind, a controlled mind lets go of the ego, and will relieve us from the memory. The Intellect has the ability to discriminate, has the ability to analyse, has the ability to see. The primary tool to control the mind is Meditation. Meditation is the process of stopping the tremble of the mind, and the vibrations of thought that the mind is. A silent mind eventually is dissolved, and the intellect gains enough strength to understand that the ego and the memory, as well as the mind are unreal. Eventually it figures out the intellect is unreal as well, and hence in conclusion an unreal Mind!

With the realization of the falsehood of the Mind which is the experience-r, all experiences are negated. Both the good and bad, the likes and dislikes negated, and with nothing to experience, and knowing that all these apparent experiences are a mere play in an unreal mind, takes one to the real Self. This real Self which is essentially experience-less-ness  is also known as Bliss. 

Remember it all began with Meditation.

Sunday Night Blues

I have heard of the Monday Morning Blues, but have never really experienced one. But I have always had this depressive state of mind during the late Sunday afternoons and evenings. As the bright Sunday moves into the noon and past noon, a sense of sadness, an indescribable feeling of discomfort sets in. I have consciously felt it and wondered if it was some sort of a disorder. 

I recently came to know that its a well known phenomenon among 9 to 5 workers, and it seems it is due to the fact that one begins to feel that the weekend is getting to a close, and the anxiety of the week ahead sets in. They call it the Sunday Night Blues!

There are plenty of articles on the subject ranging from 6 signs of Sunday Night Blues, to 11 ways to beat it. Keeping busy and planning some fun stuff during the week are some common methods to deal with it. I found a solution to it, by actually beginning my week on Sunday evening. kind of cheating the system, but it worked, at the cost of a reduced weekend. I would start reading mail and get going on some work later on the Sunday and that took care of this.

I have also had a related problem of getting into a depressive mode at several situations when some fun activity came to an end. Be it a movie, or more often on the way back after a long drive, or while returning from a vacation. I wouldn't be able to put a finger on the exact pulse of the reason, but a definite state of sadness would kick in. perhaps there are some remedies to it too. 

Most often planning, keeping busy and a feeling of staying ahead takes care of these.

While this and depression in general have remedies of various kinds, including exercises and the effect of Endorphin, it also makes one wonder why all this in the first place?

Depression is the opposite of elation or Euphoria. The fact is Euphoria cannot be experienced except with an experience of the lack of it! One may never get elated and feel the full pleasure of it unless one gets depressed! Though appearing a little contradictory one can in fact reduce it to be a Tautology!

Simply knowing this liberates one from depression, and it is a mere choice where one can simply be and let the depression pass by, or try and fix it with whatever technique that works.