Do you know how intimately we are with our body and mind? The energy that keeps us alive, where does it come from? When it leaves the body, the body dies. Where does this energy go?

Most of us are involved in our daily routine of living and surviving on this planet earth. Despite all the technical knowledge and advances we have made through science, we have plenty of evidence that our mental health is deteriorating. It’s because most people have no idea how the mind works. Here I will try to help you understand my understanding of the mind. You don’t have to believe what I say, but please try to disprove it in your mind and see if what I write makes sense.

Clearly there is a higher intelligence beyond our thought process at work. If we look at our body, we think that it is in our brain where all our brilliance resides. It is because the brain is the physical part that we use to think and reason. If we can’t use our brain for some reason, we would feel handicapped. The brain protects us from our environment and helps us take evasive action if danger threatens us. Without the brain, we would not survive or understand our world and our minds. Life would become challenging if we couldn’t use our brains.

Thus, the brain plays a crucial role in our perception of reality. It is the organ we use to understand our mind. It is the organ that helps us perceive reality. If we do not use it properly, it is the organ that can lead to poor physical and mental health. It is the organ that the mind uses to express our talents and personality. Without the brain, the mind cannot function fully. So what is the mind? As I see it, the mind is the source of energy (the current) that keeps us alive.

For convenience, we can divide it into two parts, the conscious and the subconscious. But actually, we have a mind. The self or ego operates in the conscious part of the mind. It is a concentration of our desire to survive on this planet. He is territorial and possessive and wants to control everything. It builds itself (ego drive) on knowledge and life experiences to become a well-defined entity and hides behind beliefs. He wants to go on living forever and is tied to time. He has an immense capacity to deceive himself. We need the ego to interpret the reality in front of us. We also need the brain to develop our egos. Without the ego, we cannot function as individuals. The brain allows the ego to experience awareness and consciousness, which are owned by the mind. Then one can see how intimately the brain and the ego are connected.

However, our subconscious mind is also connected to the brain. It controls all of our vital functions and systems in our body, such as the cardiovascular system, respiratory system, digestive system, etc. People take the subconscious mind for granted and show very little understanding of how the ego influences the subconscious mind. It is the subconscious mind that makes us happy or sad, depending on how we stimulate it. It has no power of discrimination. It does not know right from wrong, right from wrong. Whatever we do in life, we are always trying to appease our subconscious mind. For example, when we pray to God or some other entity, we try to quiet our subconscious mind. We do the same when we play music, dance, sing, etc. Our subconscious mind is the piano we use to play the tune we want. Piano keys are the words we use to produce a specific sound. We can play a happy tune or a sad tune, depending on how we use the words. Therefore, shouldn’t we try to understand how our subconscious mind works?

If we look at our body, intelligence runs through it, from the central level (the brain) to the individual cellular level. Yes, there is perception that takes place even at the cellular level. Every cell in our body knows its function and how to replace itself. Skin cells know their function of protecting us from the outside environment, lung cells know how to transfer oxygen from the air, kidney cells know how to purify our blood, digestive cells of the gastrointestinal system know how to digest food, etc. . , And so it goes on. All of this is under subconscious control. Even our immune system, which is involved in the healing process, is under subconscious control. The conscious mind, where the ego operates, has very little control but indirectly influences all of these areas. Therefore, ignoring the subconscious mind and taking it for granted would be foolish. However, it is what we have been doing and are doing today.

So what happens when we suffer damage to our brain? One can have a stroke or head injury from a fall. One may suffer from some degenerative brain disease like Alzheimer’s or motor neuron disease etc. The symptoms and signs that we will suffer will depend on the affected area of ​​the brain. We can lose consciousness, lose our memory, or we can become paralyzed, etc. When this happens, our ego or self cannot function properly. We will feel handicapped. When a person is brain dead, the conscious mind or ego cannot function at all. However, the subconscious mind can keep vital functions going and the person can go on living. When we turn off the life support system, the body dies as the mind separates from the body. Yes, our brain is like the hardware of the computer system. If it fails for any reason, the software (the mind) will fail.

A perfect example of a mind trapped in a crippled body is the case of Dr. Stephen Hawkins. He was a British scientist who suffered from motor neuron disease for 55 years, which only affected the motor areas of his brain. Since other areas of his brain were not affected, his ego (conscious mind) was able to function normally; that is, he could think and reason. Therefore, it is clear that specific areas of our brain are involved in maintaining our consciousness, without which the ego cannot operate.

In the Brisbane Courier-Mail Qweekend magazine on 4/24/2021, there was a story about three young adults aged 20, 21 and 22 from different backgrounds who died in their sleep. They went to sleep and never woke up. They suffered from epilepsy and died from SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy). This tragedy shows that any defect in our brain can cause it to malfunction and our lives can be at risk.

Our mental and physical health depends on our ability to use our brains not only for the ego-building exercise, but also to understand how our minds work. We should learn how the ego influences the subconscious mind. We must be aware of how our perceptions influence our thinking and how our thinking affects our actions. Our perception of time that we have created makes us time travelers. We are trapped in this web of time and always traveling between past, present and future. But in reality, there is no such thing as time.

There is a timeless dimension around us. It is as real as the time dimension of our creation. The only thing that separates the two is our perception. Everyone experiences this timeless dimension from time to time when the observer in mind and what is observed become a phenomenon. But because the ego is so dependent on thought and afraid of disappearing into the timeless that it cannot recognize it.

To experience the timeless dimension, one must go to the top of the mountain or bush away from any man-made structures. Here the attraction of nature is so powerful that it is easy to observe the phenomenon of the observer in your mind, and what is observed becomes one. But one can experience this anywhere. When this happens, you will discover that we have only one mind. Your mind is experiencing eternity in this state, and you are fully alert and aware of your inner and outer world. The ego is there, and you are not in a trance. You will realize that you are not separate but one with the universe. You will realize that you too are part of this timeless dimension. There is no thought but only consciousness. But once the ego uses words to describe what you see, you’ll be back in our familiar time zone.

From the above observations, one can see that we have only one mind, and the ego is not the whole mind. The ego cannot function effectively without a healthy brain. The brain allows the ego to think and reason. The brain allows us to perceive reality. The ego is tied to time without realizing that it is part of the timeless dimension.
What the ego is creating is an escapist world today. The more one tries to escape from reality, the more out of touch with reality one becomes. It is distorting our perceptions and we will suffer more mental health problems.

It is, therefore, the time to better understand our ego and become aware of our perceptions and thoughts. We have to use our brain to understand the timeless dimension and lose the fear of death before our mind separates from the body. Without self-knowledge, you are like a ship without a motor in the ocean of life. Raging seas will whip you. You’ll be worse for wear when you get to your destination. However, if you want to be a ship that can navigate rough seas without much effort, empower yourself with the engine of self-knowledge.