One of the first steps in training the mind is learning how this conscious mind of ours
works.
We have this amazing mechanism of power, and yet hardly anybody knows how to work with
it.
I mean, no instruction book comes with it.
Think about it.
Nothing.
We're taught do the best we can...
Think positive.. I mean, do the best you can?
There's a whole science here, there's a whole science to learn.
And so in the very beginning stages, we want to learn about how does this conscious mind
of ours work?
And there's three interesting features of the conscious mind that I want you to be aware of
the first interesting feature of the conscious mind is that it's in constant motion. It's always thinking thoughts, it's like a machine with no off switch.
It's thinking thoughts over and over and over again, it's a thought thinking machine.
That's the first thing to understand about the conscious mind.
Is it in constant motion?
The second thing to understand about the conscious mind
is that it's what I call the "Great Trickster"
What I mean by the "Great Trickster" is that your mind will trick you and fool you and limit you innumerable ways.
So often our mind will tell us something is going to happen to us and it doesn't happen.
For example, you're going to lose your job or you're going to get in trouble here or
this is going to happen or that's going to happen.
So often the mind just makes it up.
It tells you what's going to happen and it doesn't happen.
And yet our mind tells us it's going to happen.
Sometimes our mind lies to us, tells us outright flagrant lies so we can't even believe what
our own mind tells us.
Let me step back.
Let me approach this once again.
I want you to really get this, you can't even believe what your own mind tells you because
your mind is the "Great Trickster."
You have to be very, very diligent and your mind knows you oh so well.
Your mind knows everything about you, it knows your secret fears, it knows your inadequacies,
it knows you're vulnerable parts.
And it likes to play with you like a cat plays with a mouse.
It will take your greatest fear and it will build it up and project it on to you.
It will say, "look what's going to happen to you."
It's amazing the mind would do that.
Why does the mind do that?
Stay tuned.
Don't go anywhere.
The third interesting feature of the conscious mind is that there's a lot of useless thought
inside it; worry, fear, anxiety, negatives, a lot of useless thought going on.
Now, fears can be valuable, like it's a good, healthy fear to be afraid to jump off a cliff.
Or you're on safari, You don't want to go ride a lion or something like that.
I mean, that's that's a good, healthy fear.
But that's not the type of fears I'm speaking of.
I'm speaking afraid to try something new, afraid of something that might happen to you.
There's a lot of fear going on inside the mind.
And so what it is, is that we are living our lives are our very important life.
And this is an important like this is not the practice run, folks.
This isn't practice.
This is real time event called My Life.
And here we are, we're living our life.
And we're living through a mechanism that is in constant motion, through a mechanism
that is the great trickster fooling us, lying to us through through a lot of useless thought.
And so what happens is that we wake up in the morning and immediately it starts thinking
thoughts, all thinking, well, I wonder what's going to happen at work today.
And OK, I got all these things to happen.
I've got to go to the work and I'm probably going to have this problem at work.
And then I don't even know what I'm doing at that job or not.
I should quit, but I quit.
What am I going to do?
And then I got all the bills and I'm well, it's my wife going to say, no, I don't even
know what's happening in our relationship now.
All these things we should be.
Maybe I should just leave it.
Well, what do you mean leave it?
It's the best thing that ever happened to me.
And then and then all got to work.
And then I have the thing and then I'm at work and I'm I'm doing all these things and
I've got this problem.
Difficulty in that.
Oh, no, but it's all OK.
And now.
Oh no.
I'm going to have to call over here and all the time drama and wonder what that thing
is in my throat.
You know, that might be something happening to be better.
Go and see the guy.
You could be really bad.
Could be.
It's probably nothing there but there you are.
You're just missing and you don't know, do you?
Maybe it's a great trickster.
Maybe it's not him and I have to go to work in that driving home.
But what am I supposed to pick up?
And I'm going to go see them.
I'm going to go home and oh God, the kids are having so much problem anyway.
What am I going to do with them?
I mean, is it any wonder that we get a little overwhelmed?
Because that's what's going on.
The mind is in constant motion.
It's the great trickster.
It's a lot of useless thought.
And so what we need to do and this is basic training, folks, what we need to do.
Is to get control of our mind.
And you begin to get control as soon as you recognize how out of control you are, and
what I recommend that you do is that several times every day you just stop and observe
yourself, observe the thoughts that are going through your mind so that you can become familiar
with how this mind works.
And there are four techniques for very important techniques for eliminating negatives from
the mind, because we're going to have to weed this garden of ours.
And the mind is like a rich, fertile inner garden, and we want we have to get involved
and getting rid of all these negatives.
And there's four excellent, wonderful techniques for eliminating negatives from the mind.
And it makes no difference to the mind whether you think constructive thoughts or destructive
thoughts, it makes no difference to the mind.
It makes all the difference to you.
It makes all the difference to your life.
It makes all the difference to the things that are going to happen to you.
But it makes no difference to the mind.
Now, here I'm speaking of you and your mind as if they're different.
And that is what you're going to discover and what a radical.
Change in awareness when you realize that you are not your mind.
You're not your mind.
Just like you're not your hand.
Your hand is a part of you, you're not your feet, your feet are a part of you, you are
not your mind.
Your mind is a part of you.
It's not you.
And because we've identified ourselves with our mind.
We have to listen to everything that says we assume that everything that our mind tells
us is true because we think we're our mind and we're not our mind.
And this is going to be a huge shift for you.
When you fully get and understand that I am not my mind, and then you understand, oh,
I have to train my mind and yes, you have to train your mind.
Because what's happened is the mind is totally out of control.
And so you train it, and one of the ways that we train it is beginning to eliminate all
the negatives that happen to us because it makes no difference to the mind whether we
think constructive thoughts or just get that it doesn't matter to the mind.
The mind only wants and needs to think thoughts.
What those thoughts are, it does not matter to the mind, but it matters to you.