Three Stages of The Evolving Mind

When we are caught up in a delusion and we are not aware of it, then we feel troubled by the people around us. This is the first stage.
When we come to know that this is all the creation of our own mind, then we feel angry with ourselves, and we feel troubled by our own mind. How many people have had this experience? You know that you are miserable because of your own mind and not due to others. This is the second stage

In the first stage, a person is caught up in delusion and is not aware that he is caught up, and so he blames the world rather than his own mind for his circumstances. And because he cannot correct the world, he starts feeling helpless, and angry. And this increases the violent tendencies in him.

Those who are at least aware that they are troubled by their own mind are slightly more intelligent than those in the first stage. Such people do not blame the world for their circumstances, or their misery. Instead, they start blaming themselves, and this is where they get stuck. They blame themselves and get caught up in feelings of guilt.

The third stage which is above these two stages, is where one is unaffected by Maya.
In this stage, a person is fully aware that everything that happens is because of Mayaor because of the mind, and he does not get entangled into it.
He knows that this is the nature of the mind, and delusion is the nature of Maya. Yet he also knows that he is not the mind, and neither is he the one trapped in delusion (Maya).
So he does not resist or interfere with the nature of the mind, and neither does he get caught in Maya. He lets both of them function the way they do.

Such wise ones know that the mind can be influenced by multiple factors.
A good example of this is the food you eat. There is a saying, ‘Jaisa Ann Waisa Mann’ (which translates as ‘You are what you eat’. Here meaning, what you eat influences your mind and your behaviour).
So the mind is influenced by the food you eat, by the environment you are in, and by the particular phase of time you may be in.
Time also has an effect on the mind. There are instances when your mind is caught up in storms of emotion because of the phase of time that you are in.
So time, food and the environment, are the three factors which influence the mind. 

|| Jai Guru Dev ||