Mind is addicted to solving problems, so when there are NONE, it creates new ones.

[Endangered-EGO]

I'm contemplating Mind currently, and I found something that I believe to be an important insight.

Mind finds problems everywhere.  When there are none, it creates new problems out of thin air.

Example:
I just went to the kitchen and saw there is a little bit of a mess on the kitchen table. This caused a little bit of frustration. As soon as I noticed it, the mind right away wants to end that frustration, so it either pushes me to clean up everything perfectly, or go away from the "negative stimulus". Now I am in my room and remember the sight of the table and the frustration. My mind remembered that problem even though it isn't something practical for this situation.

Now fortunately that is an external stimuli, and I am going to clean it in 5 minutes max. No big deal.

However, when there are no external problems, the mind creates new ones out of thin air.

I'm not productive right now, I could study or work. OR ELSE --> homelessness (not realistic, mind just threatens with the worst case scenario)
"You will suffer one day, your pleasure is impermanent, how about that?"
"You are not enlightened, and not free from thought, you have to meditate as if you head was on fire"

This just is the perfect example for: The mind makes a good slave but a bad master.

Just wanted to share this with you, feel free to comment or/and give me new things to contemplate about. I have an insight addiction lol.

The next question I am going to contemplate is: If my mind had the infinite power, what would it do? (I assume that after solving the imagined problems instantly, it would just shut up)

[blackchair]

so true....how to "solve" this? 

[Mason Riggle]

31 minutes ago, blackchair said:

so true....how to "solve" this? 

Recognize that everything is happening automatically, and nobody is doing it. 

Consider: If you were me, you would be doing exactly what I'm doing right now, because you would be me.  But you are you, so you are doing what you are doing, and there's nothing else you could be doing. (because conditions in any moment are what they are, and for something to occur now that is 'other than what is occurring now', some condition of now would have to be different than what it is). 

The only thing you ever do is 'be yourself', and you're always doing it.  

Consider: Imagine there is a faster way to get to work, but you are unaware of it.  Could you become aware of it any sooner than you become aware of it?  Could you wish to become aware of it any sooner than you wish to become aware of it? 

Recognize that you can't change anything.  If it suddenly occurs to me to stop solving problems, then that is what happened.  There wasn't anything else that was ever going to happen.

Thoughts may change, but they are constantly changing, and you're not changing them.  Change happens. 

Everything is happening exactly how it will. 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Mason Riggle

[Endangered-EGO]

@blackchair

31 minutes ago, blackchair said:

so true....how to "solve" this? 

Contemplate about it, makes you realise that it's absurd what the mind is doing when it is the "master".

Also contemplate free will, voluntary action, different types of thought (voluntary thoughts, involuntary thoughts), effort. And very importantly the "reactive loop of the continuity". For example there is one random thought, and then there's the second thought (with which you are identified with), fighting the first thought, and that continues like that, thinking about thoughts. But you need to try it out for yourself, that's for "advanced people" (like us) often spontaneous liberation.

"What takes the decision if a thought leads to action or not?" You can think about moving you arm without moving your arm, you can think about moving the left arm and proceeding to do so, or moving the right arm without thinking about it. So What decides. What are thoughts doing, if there is no need to use them to perform regular things. IMO if mind is annoying, it's because it's "solving problems" it doesn't need to solve.

Realise you do things without thinking. You type 10 times a second when you are fast, but you are not controlling your fingers, you are controlling the words, the rest is automatic. You just scratched an itch? Did you consciously do that? Of course not. 



If you realise that everything EVERYTHING happen exactly on it's own like your heartbeat you get a sense of true freedom and liberation.
Permanent, probably not. For me at least the liberation insight didn't permanently enlighten me, and came without changes of perception.

What @Mason Riggle said. +1

I use the approach of "divide and conquer" while contemplating, because there is a lot of "objects" you can split even further.

[Endangered-EGO]

@Mason Riggle That's too much advaita talk for me. A lot of what you "should" realize, but not enough practical tips to realise it. Contemplation is what works best for me. There is always new stuff to find out.

 

Also there are so many different types of meditation, that can help recognising simple stuff, this type of contemplative practice needs a way better map.

[Leo Gura]

Yup

The mind's function is survival. Survival is endless problems.

[The0Self]

If there is no problem, then there is no mind.

[Vibroverse]

19 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Yup

The mind's function is survival. Survival is endless problems.

First the idea of survival is born in consciousness and then it got stuck to that idea that it need to survive as if who it really is can ever not survive. 

[Nahm]

On 2/16/2021 at 8:45 AM, Endangered-EGO said:

I'm contemplating Mind currently, and I found something that I believe to be an important insight.

Mind finds problems everywhere.  When there are none, it creates new problems out of thin air.

Mind is not a duality. Thoughts are dualistic.  The thought about “it” is a thought. There is not a you & an “it”. 

Quote

Example:
I just went to the kitchen and saw there is a little bit of a mess on the kitchen table. This caused a little bit of frustration. As soon as I noticed it, the mind right away wants to end that frustration, so it either pushes me to clean up everything perfectly, or go away from the "negative stimulus". Now I am in my room and remember the sight of the table and the frustration. My mind remembered that problem even though it isn't something practical for this situation.

Now fortunately that is an external stimuli, and I am going to clean it in 5 minutes max. No big deal.

However, when there are no external problems, the mind creates new ones out of thin air.

I'm not productive right now, I could study or work. OR ELSE --> homelessness (not realistic, mind just threatens with the worst case scenario)
"You will suffer one day, your pleasure is impermanent, how about that?"
"You are not enlightened, and not free from thought, you have to meditate as if you head was on fire"

This just is the perfect example for: The mind makes a good slave but a bad master.

Just wanted to share this with you, feel free to comment or/and give me new things to contemplate about. I have an insight addiction lol.

The next question I am going to contemplate is: If my mind had the infinite power, what would it do? (I assume that after solving the imagined problems instantly, it would just shut up)

In mistaking thoughts about a you & a mind...it’s missed there are not actually two. This is what is meant by “asleep” in the “matrix” of the mind, and what is referred to as “monkey mind”. 

Likewise, there isn’t a “my mind” which creates problems. “Problem” is the dualistic thought. It’s devicive, as the thought implies a you & that which could be the problem. As there are not two, and these are all thoughts, it can be glimpsed that no mind is no dualistic thoughts, no narrative, no thinker thinking. Meditation & expression is the way. 

[vibv]

On 16.2.2021 at 2:45 PM, Endangered-EGO said:

If my mind had the infinite power, what would it do? (I assume that after solving the imagined problems instantly, it would just shut up)

No way. The mind can not exist without anything to do. 
But that will never be the case. It‘s so clever that it even can create a problem out of it creating problems - when there really is none.

Just enjoy.