Stephen Sturgess - Mastering the Mind, Realising the self: The spiritual Guide to True happiness and Inner peace.

First published by O-Books, 2017

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Text copyright: Stephen Sturgess 2016

ISBN: 978 1 78535 526 4

978 1 78535 527 1 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016943151

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I dedicate this book with love and gratitude to my beloved spiritual guru Paramhansa Yogananda (18931952), the embodiment of grace, wisdom and love, who appeared to me in a superconscious dream in 1982, and his direct disciple Swami Kriyananda (19262013) who wisely taught and guided me for 30 years on the Kriya Yoga path of meditation.

The wholehearted practice of meditation brings deep bliss. This ever-new bliss is not born of desire; it manifests itself by the magic command of your inner, intuitive-born calmness. Manifest this serenity always.

Paramhansa Yogananda

Our souls long for infinite joy, infinite love and eternal peace, but under the illusion of maya, and false identification, we continually try to find that in the finite. We are unable to find it in the finite and so we feel frustrated, unfulfilled, and incomplete. Through not knowing and understanding our mind and the essential spiritual nature of who we are, we remain in restlessness, bondage and suffering. We seek this sense of completeness and happiness outwardly and objectively in the world through relationships, possessions, and in new adventures and experiences, but because they are all subject to change and are not lasting, we come away disappointed, not understanding the exact source of happiness. The true source of what we are seeking can only be found deep within us, and we can never feel truly happy, fulfilled and complete until we have discovered and realised our Divine nature. Spiritual realisation means first knowing who you are. Knowing and realising the higher truth of who you are is knowing God. This is our first priority in life.

Know your true purpose in life. Be happy with what you have, aspire to obtain what you need, and use everything to attain the highest purpose of life. Self-discovery and self-mastery (of the mind) begins with the mastery over your own mind. Understand your mind and its relationship to yourself and the world. Blessed with the power of will and determination, you are the creator of your own destiny. It is your own self-effort and aspiration for Truth that must be cultivated. Once you have that sincere desire and aspiration for Truth, divine grace will come to you and guide you on the spiritual path to inner freedom, Self- and God-realisation.

The mind is vital and important to us: it is connected to the senses and the instruments of the body; without it we would not be able to function in this world. The mind uses different mental functions: thinking, reasoning, observation, feeling, willing, remembering, and speculating. Your happiness and unhappiness, success and failure, knowledge and ignorance, strength and weakness all depend on the nature of your mind. The mind is the instrument of perception, anything you know you know through the mind.

There are some people who live in the world without the sight of their eyes, and others without being able to hear, or speak, or their legs are paralysed, unable to walk, but as long as they have use of their mind, they are still able function in the world.

The mind also plays an important role in your spiritual development. The development of the mind is important, because lifes development means the development of the mind. Just as your body needs nourishing with natural wholesome food and regular exercise to stay healthy, so does your mind need to be regularly nourished, strengthened and enriched. Both the body and the mind need to be disciplined, trained and developed if they are going to be fit instruments for the spiritual Self, the Consciousness that is expressed through them, that is distinct from the psychophysical system of the mind, body and the senses.

Your mind is both the source of freedom and bondage. The wise use the mind as an instrument to attain freedom from bondage, but the ignorant, not knowing how to wisely train and develop the mind, become caught in bondage, bound to its likes and dislikes, its habits, and its uncontrolled desires. The body, mind and the senses need to be in a harmonious state. First the body needs to be disciplined and trained in healthy habits, then the senses, mind and ego should also be trained to serve the spiritual Self.

The mind is not self-luminous, and by nature it is not consciousself-awareness. The mind is not the Self because it can be observed by the unchanging Self, the very basis for cognition. Both the body and the mind are of a material nature, but the mind is of a very fine and subtle nature and is formless and invisible; it is associated with the subtle body not the physical body. The mind is an inner instrument that reflects the light of Consciousness, of the Self. The power that lies at the core of the mind, that breathes life into it, and illuminates it, is the inner Knower, the Self or Consciousness. The mind is limited; the Self is unlimited. Most of the time the mind turns outward and takes on the form of the worldly objects, but in meditation, when the outward-flowing mind is turned inward, it merges in its Source and reflects the pure inner Consciousness.

This principle of eternal Consciousness (the Self) within you is immortal and is the self-existent Reality which is the basis of your consciousness of ego. The unchanging Self is the Witness to the three states of consciousness waking, dreaming, and deep sleep and is distinct from the ego-mind, body and senses. That Reality, the spiritual Self, is self-aware, and sees everything by its own light. This light of Consciousness is transmitted through your mind and through your senses to reveal all things to you. It gives intelligence to your mind and intellect. It gives the mind the power to think, listen, and understand.

The cause of suffering is forgetting to maintain a constant awareness of that highest Truth, the centre of Consciousness, the Self (tmn), the truth of our real nature. In separation from our Source of infinite Reality we experience sorrow and suffering; joined in unity we experience equanimity, contentment, peace and joy. You suffer because you are constantly identifying with your body, the objects of your mind, and the ego-personality. You suffer because you do not know your true nature the unchanging immortal Self which transcends the body-mind-ego.