We now have some understanding of our minds and its bearing within us. We know that our lives are a constant stream of experiences played in our minds. Our waking and dreaming states can be clubbed into a single state of dream, while the dreamless sleep is one where we get the experience of no-experience.
Why do we have a never-ending stream of experiences in our minds?
Why are our minds so restless? The reason being that our minds are a real time construction
of our interactions with external objects and internal constructs (thoughts,
ideas, memory etc.). For lack of better word, we will henceforth refer to the
internal constructs as internal objects. Since our lives are a constant stream
of interactions with external and internal objects, we have a constant stream
of experiences played in our minds. Our minds are restless because we are
restless. The only time we don’t have any experience is when we fall into a
dreamless deep sleep. We say that our minds sleep only when we enter the deep
sleep phase.
How do we control the dance of experiences in our minds? From above
we can say that we can reduce the stream of experiences, calming our minds, by
reducing our interactions with the external universe and minimizing our interactions
with internal objects. If you close your eyes, then the entire universe of
vision will go away. If you can reduce the sound getting into your ears by
sitting in a soundproof room, then the experiences related to the auditory
signals will disappear. Same is true with the sensations of taste and smell. It
is, however, difficult to remove the sensation of touch completely because we
cannot levitate in air and hence the sensation of touch associated with the
seat where we are sitting quietly or the bed where we are lying down cannot be
done away with completely.
It is relatively easy to do away with sensations coming in from our
sensory apparatus, sans the tactile sensations, through mechanical
interventions, i.e., close your eyes, sit in a soundproof room that does not
have any odour and keep your mouth shut, to achieve desired results. However,
eliminating interactions with internal objects is a very difficult game.
Elaborate processes have been developed for this purpose which are collectively
known as the process of meditation. It has also been observed that breathing
plays an important role in calming the minds. Calming the mind through
breathing techniques have a scientific explanation and is now well documented
in the annals of neurosciences.
It is also important that the body is healthy when one is trying to
reduce the sensations in the mind or else the body will send signals of
discomfort or pain. Patanjali’s yoga postures are based on the principal of
holding a particular posture for maximum amount of time, so that when a person
sits in meditation in that posture then the body will not send internal
sensations for that duration.
Let us try and understand what happens as one starts reducing the
stream of sensations into the mind? With steady decrease in elements of the
experience universe, the mind slowly calms down, till the stage is reached
where there are almost no sensations felt. Initially, the mind assumes that it
has drifted into the deep sleep state, and one invariably sleeps off. However,
with a lot of practice, the mind can be made to remain alert in the
no-experience state. Those who have experienced it say that it is a blissful
state which is almost addictive in nature. One wants to stay in that state for
longer and longer durations. Another end game in the practice of meditation is
to have only a single sensation, either visual or auditory (a vision of a deity
or of a sound) for a prolonged duration. Those who have experienced this state
of a single sensation also say that it is a blissful state which is addictive
in nature.
Calming the mind also has many biological advantages. It is always
associated with reduction in stress in our bodies which means no creation of
glucocorticoids in our adrenalin cortex and activation of the parasympathetic
nervous system. Reduction in stress in our bodies is always associated with
good health and longevity. In fact, most of the lifestyle diseases has a
positive correlation with high stress levels in our bodies. Secondly, calming
of our minds is possible only when our physical health is above a threshold.
Holding of postures as defined in the yoga system, has a direct bearing in
improving our overall health.
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