Post-card from the jungle

The reason I haven't posted much lately is because I've been on a journey.  I've been spending lots of time in the jungle of my mind.  I can tell you it's a scary place.  Just when you think you're on safe ground you find yourself in quick sand!  The deeper into the jungle you go the scarier it gets.  The sound of a bird rustling in the trees becomes a monster ready to bounce to the unsettled mind.  Every twisted tree limb becomes a snake ready to attack when our perception is unclear.  The mind behaves just like those crazy little jungle monkeys, they entertain themselves by playing tricks on the weary travelers.  While on this journey, I tell myself that if only I had a map or better yet, a guide who knows this jungle to help me, then the journey would not be so scary.  

I open the closest thing I could find to a guide book, the Upanishads.  Here's the wisdom of the ancient sages:

"It is the mind that frees us or enslaves. Driven by the senses we become bound; master of the senses we become free.  Those who seek freedom must master their senses.

When the mind is detached from the senses one reaches the summit of consciousness. Mastery of the mind leads to wisdom.  Practice meditation.  Stop all vain talk.  The highest state is beyond reach of thought, for it lies beyond all duality.

Keep repeating the ancient mantram OM until it reverberates in your heart."

(Amritabindu Upanishad)

 

Mastery of the mind leads to wisdom...... Practice meditation.  That's pretty clear, right? Stop all vain talk.  The highest state is beyond reach of thought. We're not going to think our way out of thinking, the same as we're not going to think our way out of the jungle.  Keep repeating the ancient mantram OM until it reverberates in your heart.  Pretty clear instructions to find our way out of the jungle of our mind right? Mantra meditation is the road map out of the jungle of the mind.  

The lesson from this journey is two-fold.   #1:  It's best to stay out of the jungle in the first place.  #2: If you do venture into the jungle - remember the only way out is meditation.  No matter how far into the jungle you are, no matter how long you've been lost, the way out is the same - meditation.

This guide book, the Upanishads, is over-flowing with wisdom!! Don't leave home without it! (Unless you want this to happen!!!)