Neelesh Anant
New Delhi: A film is a series of still pictures that move at a certain speed to give optical illusion. The frames are moved at such a speed that human mind registers and processes them. Now, imagine the frames moving a little fast. The mind will still register the pictures and process them but with certain difficulty. In case the speed is further increased, absorbing will become even more difficult and there will come a point when it will not be processed at all.
This is exactly happening in our lives today. Everything around us is moving and changing so fast that we are unable to register many things. Since we do not register things, they rarely have lasting impression. No wonder, even death is mourned for few hours now as against days earlier.
Our mind has a certain capacity. It certainly varies from person to person. But there is an upper limit. The way our body develops pain and exertion when put to work overtime, the mind also gets tired with additional load. It is not uncommon for most of us to over-burden our mind. Each hour and each day we keep loading it with information, worries, illusions, future plans, strategies etc.
The way mind stops recognizing moving pictures beyond a certain speed, it starts building stress if inundated with thoughts. In many cases, the stress builds so much that people commit suicide, die with heart failures, live with depression and many do not realize the potential of their lives.
It is, therefore, important to keep unloading the mind from time to time. But this is not easy given it needs a lot of change in habit and approach. First thing that can be conclusively said from the experience of many people about controlling the mind is taking a pause. Then comes the next step of observing the breath the quality of which depends on the quality of thought.
The quality of thought, in the same way, is a direct function of breathing quality. So, once we start observing the breath, eventually we start observing our thoughts as well. And finally the myriads of thoughts come under observation. This is when transformation starts.
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