3 great powers of Mind

1. Decision

Krishna said in Gita we all have the power to say NO to the evil thought that come to our mind. These evil thoughts are anger and rage. When you face a critical situation which makes you angry and tells you to act like that, STOP. Close the door and windows, don't give it a chance to pass through your emotions. There is a small window of opportunity, when the reaction bubble up within us before expressing in speech or before taking action there is a small window(of time) where we can accept that or reject that. We can bypass the anger, rage and replace it with more skillful thoughts and ideas. 

Like when there is a craving for something fancy(food, clothes, gadgets, social media etc.) you have the ability to say NO to it. The word decision comes from a Greek word which means scissor, to cut. Swami Vivekananda said, Once the sleeping soul is awakened or roused to conscious action, goodness will come, power will come, glory will come. Krishna says in Gita, take care of your thoughts, the words are taken care. Take care of your words, the actions are taken care. It may be difficult at the beginning. 

Exercise- Consciously follow the thoughts that come to your mind. When you get a negative thought put a black pebble inside the jar and when a good thought comes put a white pebble. Initially the count of blacks may be more than whites. Eventually if you practice it, gradually the black pebbles will be reduced and you will only have good thoughts. 

2. Consciousness

Swami Vivekananda says, The difference between an ordinary person and an extra ordinary person lies in the degree of attention. In every second our mind can process 150 bits of information(hypothetically). People who have extra ordinary ability to focus use 80-90% of that and put it into the object of focus. Normal people use 30-40% of it and rest of the focus is scattered. Like if we want to read a book, our mind is paying some part of attention on reading, little to checking mobile, social media, little on music, little on our surroundings. As a result the person may be happy with his activities, but actually he is losing focus. We are in the epidemic of distraction. 

The only thing that prevents us from being the Buddha is we cannot meditate like him, mind is always distracted. If only we could calm our minds. Imagine our mind as a bowl of water, if we want the water to be still how careful you have to be. Notice our breathe while the mind is calm, and when we are stressed or angry the breathing is much faster. The whole science of pranayama breathing is you can withdraw the mind from a dozen different things and focus it on the object of concentration.

The quality of life depends on what you pay attention to and how much you pay attention to it. Man in his own place can make a heaven out of hell and a hell out of heaven.

3. Selflessness

Only having a high level of concentration is not sufficient without heart. A person without heart, without love and sensibility, without sensitivity is a Daemon. What is spirituality? when I close my eyes I find peace within and when I open my eyes my attitude should be what can I do for you. Swami Vivekananda said, in the long run unselfishness is more paying but it takes a mature mind to understand that. We may think when we will have more money, more power then we will donate, its a natural thought. But practically what happens, when you get more, you want more and more for yourself. Desires are never ending. Desires are only about me, always. Be a volunteer, a volunteer means someone who is doing something willingly, without any compulsion, neither social, financial, nor something else. If you are doing something willingly it will bring fundamental joy to you, however simple, stupid or idiotic activity it is. I am doing something willingly makes a world of difference. Volunteering means you have no will of your own. You do whatever is needed.