The mind.

 

The view one most often encounters around meditation groups is that the mind/ego is the enemy, the obstacle. Mantras are chanted to numb it, drugs and mandala meditations suspend various functions of it, allowing a glimpse of what's available when the mind is "gone".

Of course, if mind was really an obstacle to our spiritual development, we wouldn't have one. It can be troublesome, like blisters on the feet can be troublesome. We don't generally cut off the feet even if there's pain, discomfort and limitation of our potential. No need to destroy the mind. Just to clean the pus out, dress the wounds, and a bit of exercise.

Realising that the mind needs work requires an awareness of your mind as being "not you". This isn't hard. It's not hard because we're really made, it seems, of many minds. They can take turns, and they do, observing and criticising each other. I'm not making sense . . . many minds?

Yes - many. The divisions between them aren't generally as intense as those induced in the nasty art and science of mind control, although they are formed in much the same way. In most people the many internal voices aren't noticed because they are so busy yammering away that it's experienced as just a kind of background noise.

If this doesn't ring true for you, try this little exercise:

Get private, with whatever you use to write, and just start writing what thought is in the mind now. As soon as you're done writing that thought down, see what thought is there now, write it down – and so on for half an hour or so. Be really honest and uncensored with this exercise. Read what you've written. If it makes sense, give it another try, and be really honest and uncensored this time. See what an unordered many voiced mess you have there? Another exercise, this one to determine the quality of data your mind operates on.

When you've had enough of having your life mismanaged by your mind, it's time to meditate, to open to the possibilities of no-mind, no-thingness, suchness.