How Your Mind Manipulates You

Think of the stereotypical spoiled child, what happens when they don’t get what they want? They scream and cry and generally make things very difficult for their parents until their parents cave in. It’s a form of manipulation, they hold peace and quiet hostage until they get what they way. If their desires aren’t fulfilled, they’re going to make everyone else miserable too. Of course, you can’t blame the child too much, because in most cases the parents were foolish enough to start rewarding this type of behavior.

Your mind is that spoiled child, even if you don’t behave that way outwardly. Your mind holds your happiness hostage and demands that its desires be fulfilled if you want any of that happiness. Your mind throws hissy fits just as obnoxious as any child when it doesn’t get what it wants, but for the most part these stay hidden within so you can at least keep up the appearance of maturity.

When you fail to get what you desire, you suffer for it. Even though Peace is inherent to your Being, your mind screams and rants and repeats and repeats and repeats and repeats and repeats… Every time you cave in to the demands of the mind, you strengthen these patterns too. Your Perfect Consciousness is still there, it just becomes obscured by all the mind’s chaos. Surrounded by illusion, Peace seems like something far away, while confusion, anxiety and suffering almost seem normal.

It’s usually in early childhood that the desires of the mind eclipse the Joy of Being. Your life is no longer about Living, you become consumed by desire.  Your happiness becomes a carrot on a stick that’s controlled by the mind, and even though every once in a while you get a little nibble, your mind can create new desires a thousand times faster than you can fulfill them.

Your desires aren’t wrong or evil, let go of those negative judgments. Your desires are like fire. When coupled with awareness, and when in harmony with your Soul, they can become a fiery passion in your life. However, in your innocence you handed this fire over to a spoiled child and now your whole house is on fire. Not only that, but you keep adding fuel to the fire! Desire is something to be used with care and attention, or else you’re going to get burned.

Is what your mind desires more important than your own peace and happiness? Which would you rather have? Well I have some good news that your mind believes is way “too good to be true”. In letting go of your desires, you gain what you desire most, which is Love. Love is your default state of Being and happiness is ever present, but you go on missing it because you’re chasing after minor things. Your vision became very narrow, and you have trouble seeing anything outside your own mind. Love is all around you, but you only get glimpses of it through the smoke and fire that you carry with you.

To start seeing more clearly, meditate, cultivate awareness. When you meditate, you stop adding fuel to the fires of desire, you stop rewarding the mind. You slow down, you give yourself a much-deserved break. This can be done in any moment, regardless of what you’re doing. A deep awareness becomes integrated into every aspect of your life, and you gain something far more valuable than anything in your mind.

Of course, what happens to the mind, the spoiled child, when you stop playing it’s game? It throws a fit. So meditation becomes very difficult and one is tempted to give into the mind’s tantrums to at least create the illusion of peace. Don’t fall for that trick though, don’t be the bad parent, just watch the tantrum. Observe it without getting caught up in the mind’s fits, and something magical happens. A gap starts to form between your Consciousness and the mind. More and more you step into the natural and peaceful Flow of Consciousness and the chaos and suffering of the mind starts to subside.

The Galactic Free Press
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