Wisdom through mental silence

"Mind control allows us to destroy the crickets created by thought. To achieve stillness and silence of the mind it is necessary to know how to live from moment to moment, to know how to change each moment, not to dose the moment". - Samael Aun Weor

Voices in the head?

Are you tired of hearing so many voices in your head, telling you everything you should do? What you should eat, the clothes you should wear, the way you should talk to others?

Do these voices tell you all the time that nothing you do is good enough, that you could have done better and that you shouldn't even have tried? Or maybe they tell you, with flattery and affection, that you are divine and deserve so much more?

The above paragraph could be considered the talk of a madman, more suitable for the courtyard of a psychiatric clinic. Exactly! That is not far from the truth, from what we consider to be perfectly normal.

Now, we all converse with ourselves in our inner world, in our intimacy. The great philosopher Plato had already defined the thought process as "a dialogue of the soul with itself".

In that sense, someone who is proud of his own reason might believe that he is the lord of all that goes on in his mind.

It could be... but did he look at the source of his own thoughts?

When we look at the psychological origin of our thoughts, we can realise that the situation is more complicated than it seems. As we are subject to discover an inexhaustible source of intimate contradictions. And what is more fateful, it is precisely those issues that most inspire us with certainty about who we are and what we know.

This being so, we might even rightly distrust what we believe to be "our reason", which is perhaps not so far from what is called madness.

Dualism of the mind

How many times have we seen certain dilemmas of our daily life represented in the form of a dialogue between an angel and a devil?

In this scene, the undecided person is thinking, walking in circles. On one shoulder, there is the angel calling her to honour her ethical principles. On the other, there is the cunning devil, who skilfully defends the advantages and relativities of sin.

The person, divided within himself, does not know who to listen to. Whether he acts for good, as life has taught him to act, or whether he dares to act for evil, which seems to exert a very special fascination... In his mind, a terrible battle rages between right and duty, desire and reason... In this battle of the antithesesWe feel confusion and afflictions, which can bring us the dualism of the mind misunderstanding.

Thus, the student who had become convinced of the purpose and benefits of Meditation daily, fails one day, then a second day, then a third... and no more meditating.

A man in love who swore eternal love to his girlfriend, finally gets tired and leaves her.

A person who enters a sacred initiatory school will later exchange it for the facilities of another school more to his liking.

Everyday life offers us numerous examples of the inconsistency of our character... For example, it is often the case that we are unaware of it. How many of us could claim to be fully aware of who we are?

Some people think so, and perhaps even feel that they are a good and responsible individual. This should no longer come as much of a surprise. In these times of highly sophisticated devils, it is difficult to discern what is right and what is wrong.

Thinking selves

In this sense, the very lack of responsibility to achieve goals tells us that we are not individuals of integrity. When we look at our mind with a philosophical eye, we cannot help but ask some questions: why are there so many sudden changes in our habits? why do our beliefs have no logical relationship with each other? what is the cause of the inconsistencies between our most cherished ideas and our actions?

It is at this stage of the investigation of ourselves that we begin to suspect our own individuality. In the end, how does this plurality of voices that negotiate and dispute in our mind originate?

Gnosis teaches us about the doctrine of the manyi.e. on the plurality of the psychological self. In other words, we do not have a single, true and continuous self, but thousands or even millions of selves fighting for control of our lives.

"Well, why don't I buy that car, I've never seen such a good promotion!", exclaims a me of greed, with much apprehension. "But how! With that value, I'm going to live in misery paying instalments until I die," protests another, more avaricious. "Besides, cars are innovations for the vain... The old wise men walked on foot and always got where they wanted to go," adds a wise man of pride, agreeing with the second. "If our society were not so unequal, everyone would have access to their basic needs, and cars would not be the right of the few", lashes out a little dramatically, the sophistic self of envy.

In this way, our mind is an arena of incessant discord. Where thoughts are piled up, the various "I "s fight to impose their voice, their desires. They talk, argue, debate, shout, lie, insult and, in the midst of this chaos, some even sing. Do they sing? That's right, we all have a psychological song that characterises us!

Searching for inner silence

"The highest form of thinking is not thinking". - V. M. Samael Aun Weor.

Verses from an ancient Chinese book of wisdom posit the following:

"He who speaks, does not know.

Those who know, don't talk.

A popular saying already tells us that "silence is the eloquence of wisdom".

It is also worth remembering a detail in statues and sculptures depicting a divided figure of the Buddha: it is easy to notice that the ears are often elongated. These ears are said to represent wisdom, as they suggest a person who knows how to listen.

For example, begin to record how ignorance and foolishness are often attributed to people who talk a lot and listen little. Naturally, unnecessary and superfluous outer talk is a reflection of inner talk.

Have you already taken the time to listen to your inner chatter?

Did he or she engage in discerning the vivid reality of the plurality of voices debating there?

Have you already set out to investigate the various root causes?

When we become aware of the plurality of the self, astonishment naturally follows. In the end, what are we? Or rather, what is really left of us? It is essential to realise this. Thus, we naturally feel a need and an urgency to cultivating the silence of the mind. That is to say, to keep us in a state of alertness to all those voices and images that emerge from the darkness of the subconscious. In the end, the course of our life depends on this and, consequently, so does our success or failure. In this context, the truly practical sense of self-knowledge is born.

"A first study in the technique of meditation is the prelude to that divine peace which surpasses all knowledge". V. M. Samael Aun Weor.

Listening to the voice of silence

The world we live in is complex and unknown. Every moment is new and unique. Our very being is a profound mystery yet to be revealed.

What certainty could an unguided, disordered mind, incapable of remaining silent, bring us?

What wisdom do we find in going with the flow of this involuntary mental dynamic?

For that reason, if we seek wisdom, we must look beyond the intellect. We are not saying that the intellect is useless, but we are saying that wisdom is something more specific. Sometimes it can be related to the intellect, but it can also be expressed through intuitive action. Beyond the world of concepts and opinions there are higher and deeper regions in our own consciousness, where intuition reigns.

In the silence of the mind we can listen to the wisdom that beats alive within us. And everything shows itself in a natural and uncomplicated light.

Thus, it is essential to learn to silence the mind, since inner silence gives us a special clarity about who we are, what we know, what we actually need, what we are really capable of, and so on. And all this, through simple and direct feeling. In this way, we learn to conduct ourselves in an intuitive and practical way to overcome the many adversities of life.

"God is a silence, man is a voice". - V. M. Lakhsmi.