When we trust in life and stop trying to control it according to our personal preferences, there is a divine flow that naturally directs us into peace and fulfillment.
How to get the most out of these Wisdom Quotes:
Put aside everything you think you already know.
Open your mind and heart to receive something new.
Take your time going through each point.
Return to any points that particularly touch you.
In the coming days, listen carefully to the wisdom within you.
* All quotes are by Mooji, from the video: Discover the Difference Between Yourself and Your Mind
1. Be Aware of Your Mind
"It’s very important to be aware of your mind. Observe your mind. See what your mind produces.
Don’t identify. Just watch the suggestions that come through the mind and the restlessness.
Be aware, be aware, be aware, be aware.
Gradually, by knowing that you’re not that, and watching that, your attention comes back to awareness. You become naturally self-aware.
A lot of times we’re identifying with the mind without intending to, obeying the mind’s suggestions. So, if you start to watch the mind, automatically, it creates a separation between the mind and the self.
This is a very important thing that I’m sharing, observing the mind rather than just serving and acting out the mind, its thoughts and suggestions, and so on.
Just be aware."
COACHING NOTES:
Being aware of your mind instead of unconsciously being carried away by it is probably the most important aspect of living your life in a healthy and fulfilling way. This point cannot be stressed too highly. It is absolutely crucial.
Notice how Mooji repeats the charge to "Be aware." If you wish, you can use this as a mantra, to pull yourself out of being lost in the content of your thoughts, and back into the seat of awareness.
Watching the mind is a fascinating exercise. Not only does it keep you grounded in the present moment, but it also exposes the pointlessness and repetition of much of our thinking. Just watch it all, without getting caught up in it.
The more you watch your mind, the more self-awareness blossoms within you. It is this awareness that is the key to living life in a fresh and new way, according to your true nature. Be aware.
2. Know the Difference Between Yourself and Your Mind
"Sit, even for five minutes, and just watch every thought, every suggestion that comes into your mind, without identifying with it.
Then, automatically, a gap opens up where you can see that the mind becomes the object of your attention, and leaves you as the subject which is witnessing. Automatically, it throws you back into self-awareness.
You must know the difference between your self and your mind.
That is the exercise. You just stop and pay attention. Be quiet and then watch the movements of the mind, which you will know: thoughts, feelings, memory, projections, imaginations, images…
All these are coming from the mind. They don’t actually belong to the present moment. They don’t belong to anything around you. Everything around us is totally innocent. Nothing is attacking you. Everything is just as it is. But the mind starts to create relationships, intentions, what-to-do lists and so on.
So when you’re conscious of that activity by just witnessing it but not identifying with it, then something opens up and you can see that that is mind activity. You become naturally self-aware that you are not that activity. You are the witness of it.
You must discover the difference between yourself and the mind."
COACHING NOTES:
Here, Mooji points out to us that everything is just as it is, but the mind creates all sorts of scenarios and stories about it. I'm reminded of a quote by Adyashanti that says, "Now is just what's happening - minus everything you think."
Notice the difference between your mind and this moment. One is what's actually happening, whereas the other is a psychological realm, full of problems and drama.
You can watch the movements of your mind more easily if you become still and quiet. But there's no need to fall into self-judgment if you find that you've been lost in thought most of the day. Simply watch - with curiosity and kindness.
Do you see the difference between yourself and your mind? Your mind is full of restless activity, but you are the one who is aware of it. You may find that you are in a dance between the two states - consciousness and unconsciousness, awareness and unawareness - your divine nature and your human nature. That's okay. Let yourself dance.
3. Stay In Shapeless Awareness
"When you are self-aware you come into shapelessness. You are shapeless awareness and, inside that, there is a shape of the mind and its activities. When you’re shapeless you can deal with shapes, you can work with them because the background is shapeless. That’s a simple exercise. Just observe. Observe your mind.
We are almost always in some mental gear, up to something, on some program. And so we never quite learn to rest or to acknowledge the natural resting place and peace of self. We are unaware of our natural peace.
Your being should not be governed by your mind. In the state of functioning consciousness, you should be in the background awareness. You can watch everything. You don’t reject it cynically, you’re aware of it."
COACHING NOTES:
"When you are self-aware you come into shapelessness." This word, shapelessness, beautifully describes the state of awareness, of being in the background of all experience. Every day, you have endless opportunities to observe your mind and come into shapeless awareness.
Think of it as being like the vastness of the sky in which all the weather is happening, yet you remain still and undisturbed. Or, to use the example of this image of the starfish, being like the bottom of the calm and quiet sea in which it dwells.
When you innocently get caught up in a thought storm, you take the shape of that storm and become governed by the mind. The key word here is "innocently" - judgment is never helpful when looking at the conditioned mind. You're getting to know yourself (and others) more deeply, so notice with compassion and understanding.
Listen to this song about shapeless awareness. Pay particular attention to the line that says, "Don't take shape - stay in the highest place." From this position, we can deal with all the shapes, all the manifestations of life, in the sweetest and wisest way.
4. Allow the Restlessness
"When you’re self-aware, your actions become cosmic manifestations, meaning that they are actions that are meant to be performed. That’s why everything becomes easy - because you don’t have to plan it. Life is already supporting the activity, which is cosmic manifest functioning.
The other function, I call mind activity. A lot of the time we’re living in mind-generated activity, meaning the activity which has no real fruit.
The mind-generated activity, which is where the ego lives, is very highly engaged with the world: procrastinating, fantasizing, wishful thinking, memory, subjective interpretations, etc., and that makes the house busy.
So, when it comes time for conscious resting, we don’t know what to do. So much resistance is in the system. You say just to close your eyes and people start to feel restless.
Don’t try and stop the restlessness. Let the restlessness come and begin to observe it, with detachment. Feel it in the body. Feel the restlessness and say, “Okay, let that happen.” Don’t try and stop it. Just be in the place of awareness.
“But I can’t do it!” Even the voice that says, “I can’t do it,” is also something observable. It’s not the awareness."
COACHING NOTES:
It's important to know what mind-generated activity looks and feels like. It's a nervous, restless energy which begins as a thought and turns into a feeling. This then directs your decisions, your activities, and your daily life.
Notice all the times you try to rest, but feel unable to. Even when you're resting physically, is there a psychological unrest that keeps you from feeling calm and still inwardly?
Are you so used to this nervous energy and restlessness that you don't even notice it anymore? Do you consider it a normal state to be in?
Living according to the deeper dimension of yourself, your true, divine essence, means that you allow the light of awareness to shine on the unconsciousness you see in the world, in others and in yourself. As this light shines, it replaces the energy of helplessness and blame with that of wisdom and love.
5. Recognise the Divine Flow
"Then you can begin to discern more the functioning that is supposed to happen. Like when you move naturally in your life, the people you meet without planning, that is part of your cosmic activity.
Wherever you go, as you go down the road, things you can never plan by the mind happen. These are called, “That which is ordained by God.” You will see this activity when you pay attention to it because everyone is living it, but not consciously.
What we do when those activities come, because they’re not arranged, is we tend to feel, “Not this time, I haven’t got time for this,” because you prioritize your mental activities rather than your cosmic functioning. It makes sense, doesn’t it?
And so we begin to recognize more and more and co-operate with the cosmic functioning. You find that your day happens in such a way that you could not have planned it any better than that. You say, “Woah, it’s so fulfilling! I met so-and-so today.” “Did you have an arrangement?” “No, we just bumped into each other, we got talking and so much came up.”
Whereas the activity is like, “I planned to do this, but it never worked out. I feel so frustrated! It’s not working!” Of course, it’s not working, because you want life to obey your personal projections, but life is flowing by itself."
COACHING NOTES:
Here we see the stark difference between cosmic and mind-generated activity. One flows with life, whereas the other tends to flow against it. One unfolds organically in the way it is meant to, whereas the other tries to force and manipulate things to go in a certain way.
We can all be forgiven for believing that our way is the best way, but have you noticed areas in your life where you are still holding so much resistance because it's not going the way you want it to? Become aware of how much stress this resistance is causing you.
If you stop for a moment and consider this logically, why should life go the way you want it to? fDo you honestly trust that you know what's best for you? Looking back, do you see life's wisdom at work in circumstances you could never have planned?
As long as you are dictating what you like and don't like, your heart will be closing and you will be suffering. Are you willing to let go of the mind-generated activity that's trying to control your experience, and trust the cosmic activity of life's wisdom instead? This doesn't mean you can't make plans and have goals, but it does require a certain flexibility and willingness to go with the flow.
6. Praise and Gratitude for Divine Arrangement
"When I say that even disharmony is part of the total harmony, it means that even your mind-projected activity is swallowed up in the cosmic activity, which makes use of it. But you will not benefit from it, you will suffer it because you are not conscious of where it is useful.
Where it fails for you personally, it succeeds by God’s grace. He will use your malfunctioning to support something else that was the intention of the cosmic functioning.
Consciousness never wastes any of its activity. What you think is a waste for you has already been used. It turns everything into compost. Everything is working, but you are not conscious.
When you are conscious of your consciousness, then you’re full of praise and gratitude to God. You say, “Wow, no human being could plan that!” The greatest planner could not arrange this because this happened by itself. This is what I’m pointing out.
If people could just understand that, and somehow register internally, the fruit of that is amazing. This is a fruit that never becomes over-sweet. Then every day becomes your best day, something fresh.
If it’s not like that, we’re living too much in the mind.
When you realize where you are and what your mind is, and you honour this (pointing to heart) then the mind returns to what I call the natural mind. It means the mind without antagonism, in service to the Being-ness"
COACHING NOTES:
When we trust in life and stop trying to control it according to our personal preferences, there is a divine flow which naturally directs us into peace and fulfillment. The amazing thing is, this universal intelligence is always working spontaneously, whether we are co-operating with it or not. Nothing is wasted in the spiritual realm.
The best way to live is to make the shift from living in your mind most of the time to honouring your heart, and co-operating with the universe and its cosmic functioning. It's a simple shift and only requires awareness.
Can you see that life's divine design is much better than any arrangement you can plan? Understand that this doesn't mean you should stay in unhealthy relationships or not try to change your circumstances. It means that if your days are too packed and rigid with your plans, you'll be missing out on something wonderful.
That something wonderful is a moment-by-moment living, where you're open and available to life, thereby allowing all kinds of unexpected blessings to come to you. Notice the strength, stubbornness, and determination of the mind to stay in control of everything. But notice, even more, the sweetness and beauty of a life lived in the divine flow.