None are at peace with themselves and the world, you may think you are for a moment, but it wouldn’t last. This is the holy truth. That is why we run to the sages or alternately to the shrinks. Both won’t be able to help you, unless you help yourself. I had occasion to do a bit research on the subject and other than some medicines which completely shut off thoughts and thus relieve you of the pain you are feeling, there is nothing else in the market. Then I thought of looking into the older version of psychology namely the religious, some of them advice the constant thought of your savior or god and a firm belief in grace of god to compose yourself. Well I know it makes you shiver, this talk of God, so it does me! God is most anachronous thing in our times. And no wonder people are fed up with God; such are things that we see around us.
But there are versions of ancient psychology which disregards God altogether, this may come as a surprise to some of you but that is the honest truth. For instance in India there are six recognized branches of philosophy, only one of them admit the intervention of God in the scheme of things. The more ancient the works are the more broadminded they are. The earliest of these systems, the Samkhya system, does not talk about God at all, their theory being that the world was produced from the combination of consciousness and matter. We would not go into details, for our concern is finding a method to gain peace of mind.
Well the search was disappointing in this regard, I must say. The ancient Indians have analyzed the functions of the mind very thoroughly, the two methods they came up with to control it, although true, will not be very appealing to you. They call it “practice” and
“Keeping away from things” That is, you need to practice controlling your mind at all times (not very illuminating is it!) and you need to become disinterested towards the world in general (again an impossible task I must admit!). The great master who wrote the Yoga Sutras, the only dependable guide to yoga has emphasized that these are the only methods that there are, and of course I believe him.
The matter seems hopeless does it not?
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