Do You Try to Tame Your Mind?

Do you love your mind? I’ve never met anyone who did. The mind is the hardest part of ourselves to love because we feel trapped inside it–not all the time but in those moments when trouble breaks in. Fear has a way of roaming the mind at will. Depression darkens the mind; anger makes it erupt in uncontrollable turmoil.

Ancient cultures tend to echo the notion that the mind is restless and unreliable. Metaphors won’t get you to a place where you can love the mind; you have to find the actual experience of peace and calmness on your own.

The secret for doing that is to free the mind. When it is free, the mind settles down. It gives up its restlessness and becomes a channel for peace. How, then can you set your mind free? You need to understand how it became trapped in the first place. Freedom isn’t a condition you can simply step into by unlocking the door or breaking a set of shackles. The mind is its own shackle.

When they tried to understand how the mind traps itself, the ancient Indian sages devised the key concept of samskara (from two Sanskrit word roots that mean ‘to flow together’). A samskara is a groove in the mind that makes thoughts flow in the same direction.

Buddhist psychology makes sophisticated use of the concept by speaking of samskaras as imprints in the mind that have a life of their own. Your personal samskaras, built up from memories of the past, force you to react in the same limited way over and over, robbing you of free choice (i.e., choosing as if for the first time).

Samskaras are not silent. These deep impressions in the mind have a voice; we hear their repeated messages as words in our heads. Is it possible to figure out which voices are true and which are false? This is an important question because it isn’t possible to think without hearing some words in your head.

Adapted from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).

Read more: Deepak Chopra's Tips, Spirit, mind, samskara

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Beth M.

6:23PM PDT on May 4, 2012

..identify..the inner dialogue....endless tapes on loop..frantic yet benign..Like hand prints in the cement of soul..nothing more than a distraction?...great for inner practice if one can see it as a tool rather than an enemy....Walk on..one step ..one step..thru the mayhem and madness of that part of ones mind..neither one side or the other.....It is ur testing time..the path widens with each successful navigation...for us all...x

send a green star

jayasri a.

5:17PM PST on Mar 5, 2012

All I can say is Thank You

heather g.

1:13AM PST on Dec 31, 2011

I've seen Deepak up-close and was enthralled to hear one of his talks .... However, I didn't have the occasion to tell him that I love my mind.
If one spends most of one's life-time being disciplined about meditating and dare I say, reading certain books by Deepak and other inspiring writers, one reaches the stage of life when it is possible to love one's mind.
I love my mind so much that I enjoy sweet dreams each night .....don't suffer from a bad conscience. When others have been nasty it does play on my mind a little, until I remind myself that that their behaviour relates to their unfortunate state of being, not mine.
Admittedly, I've reached a time in my life where my memory needs a bit of oiling on occasions with regards to quiz question answers, names, etc. It's not the worst thing that can happen.... breathe deeply and clear the mind !!

Darren G.

10:41AM PST on Dec 29, 2011

Journal writing taught me how to listen to my own thinking. The key is to simply write to hear your thoughts inside your head. Do not judge-do not censor. It's from here I was able to BEGIN to make conscious choices about what I mull around-and then take better control of my actions in living. It may take professional guidance to help ourselves with this. I used to fall into the trap that "stigma" assigns to seeing a "psychologist" or a "shrink". Toss any worries aside and find someone to guide you should you discover how painful your own thinking can be! We don't need to hold on to our journals as treasures and risk the pain of someone betraying a trust-it's okay to write stuff down-just to hear it and "get it out" and ceremonially burn, each day, the paper we've written on-with a prayer for God to take this from us! It works!!!!

Diana G.

6:13AM PST on Dec 24, 2011

take out the trash -- the trash that's in your mind!

Uma C.

7:04AM PST on Dec 23, 2011

To my way of thinking: Mind is part of the Infinite All That Is, an extension of Omniscience, All Mind, one of it's three determining factors. My mind, the part I identify as my self, an extension of the divine we are all extensions of. My brain is a product of my mind, not vice verso.Consciousness isn't an accidental vapor arising from the bubbling brain but rather creation proceeds from the subtle to the gross.

9:55AM PST on Dec 22, 2011

it springs up. Stripping off layer by layer constantly having it reappear before us ,blocking our desire, is like peeling an onion it makes you cry and there is no center. We seem to have no luck in that most needed and desired area, always blocked and realizing that it is our own pattern that misinterprets the gaining of the desired end as more dangerous to us than not having it no matter how miserable it makes us. Devoting out whole consciousness to ridding our psyche of the monster and find that there is no rational process that part of our self will regard brings us to total despair and rage. The monster tells us " you are not worthy and will never have...whatever" and we can't stand it anymore. We have hysteria, tantrum, dancing up and down in the two year old's two step. "I do too!!!" and the center core implodes, is gone forever, and we experience Renaissance blessed in all the lacking areas and everything that is a part of them for the rest of our lives, forever more. The reason is that that core belief is so primitive that it can't recognize or respond to reason and rationality. When that peak is reached that part of ourselves gets the message that it will be blessed, not destroyed, by what it protects us from and it stands down.

9:34AM PST on Dec 22, 2011

I never thought of my corner of mind as separate from myself so it was hard to get a handle on this idea of loving ones mind. When I thought of taming mind it was about getting it to do what and when I wanted instead of running off on tangents. I used to have my mind chit, always babbling on about really nothing, voices chattering to fill space, to give form to white noise of many voices, the same way a stupid lyric will run in the head which I finally fixed by studying something new to me so that when my mind wanted to float on something it would have some sacred sound to do. There was a point when my mind stopped chattering and I'm not sure when that was. I used to hear many voices in my head and couldn't tell which were my own because they were in my head. When I mastered my yogic exploration finding the bottom line of "who am I" I was able to tell my thoughts from others because I could "taste" the difference. I was thinking of those Samscaric echoes recreating themselves as the part of the consciousness that is trapped around a negative core belief.When stripping away nasty misery making thoughts and concepts no matter how many you rid yourself of always comes the moment of "NO..not again...I thought I was through with that" like the mythic hero finding that with every head she/he lops off another springs up. After seeing how a nasty thought pattern creates self fulfilling prophesy and having determined it not being "true" we watch ourselves to deny the pattern whenever

2:51AM PST on Dec 22, 2011

....every mind is tamed..in the correct enviroment....Open the door to ur own personal conciousness..and u will find every thought ever thought by every one ever..a noisy place...a terrible place if that is where ones focus is..or a peaceful place if that is where one chooses to rest..yet the loudest noise will always come from deep unresolved hurt or angst....deal with that..and the door to peace opens...x

Jennifer H.

5:01PM PST on Dec 21, 2011

I think that we all have times when we battle with our own minds; for example when we try to stop thinking negative thoughts, or try to stop obsessing about something. In those moments, it's hard to love your own mind. Finding one's own strategies to overcome moments like these can be very satisfying and help one appreciate the strength of one's mind. I need to incorporate more time for relaxation and peacefulness for my mind as well as my body. I'd imagine I'm not alone in that!