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Pitfalls of the Mind Power Approach: By Masaru Kato Recently in the spiritual or metaphysical community, we have witnessed the boom of mind power. It is a metaphysical approach or New Age model that relies on the activation of your mind power, such as positive thinking, prayer, affirmations, and visualization. There are a lot books, CDs, DVDs, workshops, and seminars offered on this topic. Especially, the idea that you could create your life in the way you want has become so popular. We can confirm this enthusiastic movement in the recent hits, for instance: Ask and It is Given, written by Esther and Jerry Hicks, and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, both of which are about the Law of Attraction. I totally agree with this school of thought in the sense that your mind has amazing potential to positively change your life. However, I have found that many people are unaware of its flip side. Before discussing this flip side, I would like to stress that there is no intention here to denounce the effectiveness of the mind power approach. This approach has nothing wrong in itself. The mind tools are powerful in many ways; for instance, to boost your business, to manifest prosperity, to increase creativity, to have a strong self-image, to have a loving relationship, to reach your goal, and so on and so forth. Take the power of visualization. The Secret states, “When you are visualizing, you are emitting a powerful frequency out into the Universe.” As you have a picturesque image in your head, it appears real to your brain. Then, since your brain believes it is real or fact, it evokes a strong feeling or sensation in you. The sensation radiates a strong vibration, which matches the frequency of what you want, to the Universe. Eventually, the Universe responds back to you, with what you wished in your picture. So, visualization is an effective tool to attain what you want. There is no doubt that the mind power approach increases the ability to improve your life. The problem is, however, you rely on your mind, which is the source of your suffering. Like computer software that cannot rewrite its own program, your mind could hardly fix an emotional or mental pattern that has disturbed you. Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now, mentions, “The mind can never find the solution, nor can it afford to allow you to find the solution, because it is itself an intrinsic part of the problem. Imagine a chief of police trying to find an arsonist when the arsonist is the chief of police.” Many people tend to overestimate their own mind power. They seem to believe they can achieve whatever they wish by the power of their mind. Actually, when you wish for deep peacefulness or fulfillment, unfortunately, this approach will not work well, because it is using your mind. How could your mind possibly be a source of your suffering? It is because the mind separates you from the wholeness, the Divine, or the infinite wisdom of the Universe. Whatever your mind tries to capture, the mind separates itself (the observer) from others (the observed). The mind is always working within this dualistic frame: subject and object, the seer and the seen. In this dualism, the mind always requires a perspective to look out at an object, like a control tower in an airport that looks out over the takeoff and landing of airplanes. The question is: Can your mind attain the perspective to observe the infinite reality? The answer is: Of course not. Think carefully here. There is no control tower that can physically glance over all landings all over the world. Like that, the mind cannot comprehend the limitless and boundless expansion of consciousness. The mind is a finite mechanism that sees everything partially; never grasping the wholeness or Infinity. Whatever the solution your mind offers, it will never be a complete one; therefore it is not a solution. Krishnamurti states, “Ideas do not solve any of our human problems; they never have and they never will. The mind is not the solution; the way of thought is not the way out of our difficulty.” Although I recognize the beauty of the mind power approach, it should be noted that this approach will never bring you to an enlightened state of awareness. Gary Renard, author of The Disappearance of the Universe, points out, “(This approach) may have a temporarily helpful impact, but (it) cannot release that which is locked in the deep canyons of your unconscious mind,” and “Your unconscious mind is under the domination of a sick thought system.” The sick thought system is a mental mechanism that separates you from the wholeness, or the Oneness, as discussed in the above paragraph. The separation brings you the sense of alienation that drives you to overly protect yourself. You assess everything from the standpoint of security and you perceive danger in almost everything; things that are actually harmless to you. You find yourself in a brutal confrontational environment, which it is actually not. Then, you are always on the alert and nervous. This will remain the case until you transcend your mind. Take this example. If you try to gain a peaceful mind state by visualizing a tranquil, soothing image (say, an image where you are floating in the ocean), it makes you feel good, but it merely gives you a temporary relief. It does not give you a genuine relief. That visualization has little effect on the root cause of your disturbance. Suppose you are anxious because of childhood abuse. Although you are safe now, you are always worried because your mind is programmed as if you are attacked now. It is your mind that makes you hold onto this harmful program. Thus, your mind cannot solve the problem. To get out of the imprisonment of your mind, the mind power approach is quite futile. As you are trapped in your mind, you cannot ask your mind to rescue you. To attain genuine relief, peace and fulfillment, you need to disengage yourself from your mind rather than to use your mind power. You need to undo your mind. This does not mean you will lose your mind. As you surrender your mind, your true essence will emerge from deep within you. You will operate under the Spirit, where your mind will remain not as your captain, but as a useful tool. When your mind activity ceases, you will be able to find a way which helps you to solve your problems. In other words, you are suffering because you identify yourself with your mind. You align yourself with the ego, which is a mental structure of self-protection, and you obey only what the ego suggests. Although you really possess your mind as the instrument to live in the societal reality, this part of yourself controls the whole of yourself. This is destructive because a part of you which has hallucinated an illusory danger is running the show. Eckhart Tolle states, “(The mind) uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.” Therefore, to attain the awareness that transcends your mind is the key for your wellness and wellbeing. In this article, I do not have enough space to discuss the level of awareness where you are not controlled by your mind. I may try to articulate it sometime later. Here, the point I would like to stress is: the mind power approach plays a significant role in putting you into a very enjoyable state. You are in an upbeat mode, because you materialize what you want. You empower your life greatly. In your spiritual journey, however, if you wish for further evolution, entering the sphere of unconditional love, where you will be in perfect peace and freedom, you will need to drop the mental tools like visualization. The mind power approach cannot lead you to the conscious leap. Rather, it becomes a hindrance for your enlightenment, if you keep relying on it. Masaru Kato is an energy healer and a spiritual teacher offering transformational workshops throughout the year. You can reach him at 847-989-4261, or info@atmanwellbeing.com. Please check his web site at: http://www.atmanwellbeing.com
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