1.26.13.21: Yellow Cosmic Sun

Lack of Mind Training – The Number One Problem on the Planet Today

excerpt by Valum Votan

Dear Velatropans,

In consideration of the lack of peace in the world as well as the general confusion in human relations, the moral chaos that pervades society, and the uncertainty and emotional instability that plague virtually every human on Earth today, there is no question that the number one problem affecting the planet is the human inability to control the mind.

Where does war begin? In a thought the mind could not control. If everyone on Earth truly practiced mindfulness, there would be no war.

The problem of controlling the thoughts generated by the mind is compounded by immersion in the cybersphere and industrial society in general.

Just consider this: How many hours a week do you spend in front of your computer screen – surfing the internet, writing e-mails, or any other business, data processing task, graphic work or writing you may be doing on the computer? 10-15 hours, maybe more.

How many hours do you spend in front of the television screen watching regular programming or by playing video games every week? Another 10-15 hours?

How many hours watching a feature length video or movie per week ? Maybe 6 to 8 hours? How many hours driving your motor vehicle each week?

Depending upon where you work, maybe another 10-20 hours. Take an honest inventory and tally that up? Anywhere from 30 to 50 hours a week is probably average.

That’s how much time a week you are placing your mind in the control of a machine or a machine dominated process.

Better put, that is how much time a week the mental screen of your mind is controlled by what appears on a monitor screen – or the windshield of your motor vehicle. This is not to mention the people whose jobs are dominated by the computer – and that is a rapidly increasing number.

Humans at the bank, the check-out counters of stores, data and information processing work stations, etc., are all chained, as it were, to the computer. So the number of hours the average human spends with a virtual reality mental screen replacing his or her natural mental screen is enormous.

The point isn’t to demonstrate how much time we are dominated by the machine (though it is instructive to actually become conscious of this), but to consider, by contrast: How many hours a week do you consciously spend in front of your own mental screen, your natural mind? Probably very few, if any, hours are spent simply sitting with your natural mind.

Most humans are so immersed in the unconsciousness of their own mind and its control by their ego that they scarcely have a clue of what is actually real and what is just conditioned made up ideas in their heads. Impacted by the effects of the cybersphere, the number of humans not in touch with their natural mind is staggering, especially when you consider the spiraling “hopelessness” of the problems we seem to be generating and are immersed in.

Connected with not knowing the thought waves of the mind is ignorance about the nature of the ego. This is why I declare unequivocally: the number one problem facing the planet today is the human species inability to control, much less know, the nature of its own mind.

How can you expect to solve a problem when you do not have a grasp of the nature of your mind, the very same mind that created the problem in the first place, and then perpetuates it by unexamined ignorance?

If the mind is the root and source of everything we know as well as all of our perceptions of our self and the world, and we readily allow it to be enslaved by the screen of virtual or machine dominated reality for a preponderant number of our waking hours, doesn’t the mind also deserve to be refreshed by the experience of its own natural state?

In fact, if the number one problem on the planet today is human mental ignorance, the ultimate solution is mindfulness training. It is not that cyberspace and the machine are necessarily the cause, so much as it is that intense use and even addiction to these tools covers up the mind to such a degree, that most people do not know the first thing about their natural state of mind much less that it exists.

Of course, the impact of the cybersphere on the mind can be labeled the ultimate effect of the 12:60 artificial timing frequency on human consciousness. Nonetheless, we still must identify and unburden ourselves of this effect, and the experience in general of having deviated from natural mind, just as we have deviated from natural time.

In speaking of these matters it should be made clear that no human community is exempt. The New Time, New Thought or New Age communities suffer as much from the lack of mindfulness training as does virtually every other community on Earth.

I have thought seriously about this matter for the past few years, and after having intensively renewed my own discipline in mindfulness training – what you might call Zen style meditation – I have come to the inescapable conclusion that unless we all come to terms with our natural mind, our efforts at establishing a new time of peace will come to naught.

How to Practice Awakening Natural Mind

Natural Mind is the ordinary state of mind when it is totally relaxed and not thinking about anything.

The practice for awakening natural mind is extraordinarily simple. It is the most human form and experience you can have. It is the repository of natural dignity as well. And anyone can do it. You just have to sit still.

The natural way is to sit on the floor, on a cushion that is firm, supports the erect back, and that allows one to sit cross-legged. On the floor, on a cushion like this is most preferable and most natural. But if that is not possible due to your health and/or body condition, then sit on a chair with feet firmly on the floor and back erect, not leaning on the back of the chair.

Holding the spine erect is already waking up and staying awake. The chin is just slightly down and the eyes are half-open looking down the tip of the nose to the floor. The eyes are open to avoid falling asleep or going into fantasy realms, which occurs all too easily when the eyes are closed.

The point is not to escape from reality but to see and experience the natural mind without acting on it. The hands are comfortably on the knees, palms down. Holding this is the natural posture of the alert human being.

Keep checking your posture as you sit. You want the spine to be erect, holding you up. The capacity to do this is what distinguishes the human from virtually every other animal. Don’t slouch!

Now, in this position, you have nothing to do but watch your breath. Breathe normally. You will become immediately aware of your thoughts. As you become aware of your thoughts – it matters not the least the nature or content of the thought – just label it “thinking,” and as you exhale, dissolve the thought.

At that very moment before exhaling and just as the thought is dissolved, lies the “gap” between the thoughts. It is this gap you are going to want to become familiar with and cultivate. It is the seed of natural mind and the key to your true, authentic self.

Try doing this for half an hour, for 45 minutes, or even an hour. You have to realize that just holding this position, no matter what is occurring in your mind, you are peace.

You are dissolving unexamined thought impulses to do things while remaining in a position that is thoroughly non-aggressive.

Imagine everyone on the planet doing this for one hour each morning before they start their day. Wouldn’t the world then be at peace? The importance of holding this position cannot be emphasized enough. It is 99 per cent of this practice of experiencing your natural mind, because it is really the only way that you are going to be able to experience your natural mind – and nothing else.

And if you do not know what natural mind is, you cannot really say you are in natural time.

Excerpt from Rinri Project Newsletter III, Mystery of the Stone Edition, Volume 1, No. 3