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The Mind - Your Friend Or Your Enemy?


AK-47
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Vaheguru ji ka khalsa Vaheguru ji ki fateh

Recently some singhs were discussing how to control the mind. And one particular question came up ...

Should you treat your mind as a friend or as an enemy? I.e. is it better to beat/defeat your mind with a stick and force or with love and patience?

Singh Sahib advised that it is best to treat your mind as you would a friend. Reason being that if you hit a person or beat them, and take them under your control and make them do what you want, one day that person will try and take revenge. One day when you grow older, or your not looking they will get you back.

However, if you treat a person with love and care, they will still do as you ask and need, but they will never feel the need to betray you.

This works with the mind becuase if you beat your mind through different punishments, the day you relax or the day your not feeling 100% your mind will hit you back. The vikaars will jump on you.

If you treat and train your mind with love (strict love is sometimes neccesary of course!) then if anything your mind will make sure it sticks to the path you set out on.

A further example is of the mind as a little seed. It has great potential and can achieve greatness, but only if watered and cared for correctly. If you dont water it, give it nutrients or sunlight then it wont grow but will stay in the mud. .... If you daily spend time with it, take care of it and give it what it needs to be strong and healthy then it can grow into a beautiful rose, then it can fight without its head like Baba Deep Singh Ji.

These were just some vichaars amongst the singhs, apologies if anything is incorrect.

Would be nice to hear what you guys think, should you treat your mind as friend or foe?

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maharaj takes both approaches in gurbani as ive seen,

eae man piaariaa thoo sadhaa sach samaalae ||

O beloved mind, contemplate the True Lord forever.

beloved mind - with love and pyar

http://www.sikhitothemax.com/page.asp?ShabadID=3375

and on the other side as enemy

maharaj calls the mind moorakh - <banned word filter activated>

man moorakh kaahae bilalaaeeai ||

O foolish mind, why do you cry and bewail?

purb ilKy kw iliKAw pweIAY ]

purab likhae kaa likhiaa paaeeai ||

You shall obtain your pre-ordained destiny.

dUK sUK pRB dyvnhwru ]

dhookh sookh prabh dhaevanehaar ||

God is the Giver of pain and pleasure.

Avr iqAwig qU iqsih icqwru ]

avar thiaag thoo thisehi chithaar ||

http://www.sikhitothemax.com/page.asp?ShabadID=1001

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True..this is one of the BEST and most THOUGHT PROVOKING topics of late....sigh..people are more obsessed about jumping on the Muslim-bashing band wagon then actually doing something that will actually help their Jivan.

Any thoughts or responses would be greatly appreciated!!!!

My view is why do you have to treat the mind as a friend or foe?

I mean, to do so would distinctly define the mind as some other entity from the person you are. The mind is just as much a part of you as your left hand. Perhaps a holistic approach is better. Treat the WHOLE BODY/MIND/SOUL as a pile of clay that can be molded by the path of Sikhi? Even if that pot has already been baked in the oven and set in stone, Gurbani and Pyar for Maharaji can re-mold that pot into the correct shape. After all we use our body to carry out our minds actions, so in some sense, you cannot split one from the other.

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Good point, but I'm sure that will complicate matters. For the sake of arguments, lets call it the consciousness.

Therefore how does one 'control' the mind? Control in the sense of treating it as a friend or foe?

I guess through repeated Naam Jaap....I guess when you are about to do something bad or think something bad, if you Naam Jap you will feel guilty and that thought will stop and you will automatically turn to Marahaji and actually realise that you shouldnt commit that deed or think that thought.

I guess thats the easy and most commonsense answer.

You treat the mind via Naam Jap.

Naam will divert that thought or action towards Maharaji and you will automatically stop it.

Over time you will train the mind to do automatically Naam Jap when you are about to do something bad!

Simple!!!

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I don't if by controlling what goes into your mind relates to being a friend or foe with ones mind. but it definetly would help the mind wandering on to manmukh things. if we have our minds and our self towards our Guru (Gur Mukh) and say we are apart of the khalsa, and by being khalsa we want to be the best as our victories are always for him, our mind shouldn't wander.

I should be the last person to say this

je kuch galat keh hogaya hovai

bhul chuk maaf karni sangat jio.

fateh

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Were always told that we need to defeat the mind, and that its because of the mind that were seperated from vaheguru. i.e. the 5 chor and maya etc, they effect and control our mind. this in turn controls our actions.

so if our mind is preventing us from doing what we need to do in order to find maharajh (nitnem, amritvela, rehat, keeping eyes ears tongue under control etc) then we need to somehow overcome our mind and direct it to do what the guru says.

the bhangti everyone knows is 'man jeethe jag jeet' so how do we win the mind?

in most aspects of life, if you want to win something, or overcome something or someone you adopt some form of strategy or gameplan. well whats the best way of beating our minds?

in fact before adopting the strategy we need to evaluate whether we think of our mind as something which prevents us from getting to maharajh,or something which helps us get to maharajh?

papiv2 i think ways of treating your mind as your enemy would be to blame it (as brother said what 'it' is an issue in itself!),to see it as a roadblock to vaheguru, to think of it as something you dislike because it makes you think dirty thought,makes you swear, makes you cheat and lie etc. as an enemy you might treat it harshly by perhaps using hath ie strict penances, maybe you adopt silence (mohn) or any other kind of strict/harsh/difficult physical or mental activity.

as a friend, perhaps you would think wow my mind listens to gurbani,wow my amazing mind can realise vaheguru,my mind is my link to guru sahib! maybe this means you dont beat yourself up or get depressed every time you make a mistake,as you realise that everyone makes a mistake? maybe you try and teach your mind slowly with love step by step,rather then try and beat it into submission by forcing yourself to do 23 hours nitnem in one day! (just an example!)

i dont know, maybe im chatting rubbish!!!

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