Five States of Mind: A Meditators' Guide For More Focus And Clarity

What if there was no mind?

How would you imagine yourself without the mind?

It would be a robot.

It would be a robot?

It would be more like an animal.

More like an animal?

So you would just spiral into that and the instant what's around you,

You've got the end.

Yeah.

Such a wonderful gift of nature,

This mind.

Such a fascinating ability.

So powerful.

Yet we don't know how to really deal with it.

It puts us here,

There and everywhere.

This mind is what,

As you said,

Separates us from being an animal.

It is what puts us as the most dominant species on this planet.

Yet,

It's one of those things that it's dominating us as well.

It's not only allowing us as a human species to dominate and to be the highest,

So to say,

Amongst all species on this planet.

But it's so powerful,

It's so magnificent that it's even overpowering us.

We have not yet even learned to really deal with it because we don't really understand what it is and how it functions.

And we just deal with it on a very partial,

Superficial level.

And when you observe your mind,

When you see what's happening with your mind,

You see that it's jumping from one place to the other.

It's doing its own thing.

And we somehow live like this throughout our lives without ever wondering,

Is there a way to be friends with the mind or to be able to use the mind in a different way apart from what we have learned in our education to apply this only for a certain set of tasks.

In yoga,

There are five different states of mind that is classified.

This classification helps us to understand how our state of mind is and where we can go from that state.

Two of the lowest states are,

Which are,

We can consider them below normal.

The first state is the disturbed mind,

The mind which is restless,

Which is going from one place to the other,

Which is constantly wandering,

Which is,

If you observe it,

It just takes you everywhere.

There is no stopping,

There is no centering,

There is no weight to it,

You have absolutely no control over it.

It just goes here and there.

Various reasons why we reach to a stage in life where the mind starts behaving like that.

That's not the nature of the mind,

That's just the wildness it experiences or it makes you experience because we live in a certain way and it allows the mind to just go here,

There and everywhere.

That disturbed mind is unfortunately the state of most of us and the way we are now these days living,

It even empowers that disturbance more and more and more.

This disturbed mind does not lead to anything good,

It does not lead to peace,

It does not lead to happiness,

It does not even lead to what you really want to do,

Where you want to apply the mind.

That's the number one state of the mind.

You can call it below the normal,

Below how it should be,

Below the level of your own acceptance,

Your own inner peace.

The second kind of mind is the dull mind,

Is the mind which is tired when you have worked throughout the whole day and you have used your mind so much that the moment you have a moment of rest,

You fall asleep or you doze off or in order to deal with the disturbed mind,

You go out,

You drink a lot of alcohol,

You put it to somehow dullness,

You put it to somehow unconsciousness,

Somehow put it aside and the dullness,

The tiredness is there and you can sleep with it.

In most of our cases we are interchanging between these two.

Either we have the disturbed mind when we get up in the morning and somehow go through the day and in the evening find a way to either entertain or to distract or to dissolve it by drinking and forget about it.

These are the two states that we mostly use our mind in.

Then above this which is normal human state of mind which we can call as the mindful mind or in yoga you would still call it the distracted mind.

Yoga is very demanding,

It wants the mind to be at its peak.

So the normal state of the mind,

It still calls it as the distracted mind.

What is a distracted mind?

You can focus sometimes when you want and rest of the time is wandering in the past or in the future,

What you have to do,

What you have to plan.

So this is the distracted mind which is somewhat focused,

Somewhat disturbed.

It has those moments where it does what you want it to do and there are moments where it goes on its own.

That's called the distracted mind.

If even we would have that distracted mind,

That normal level of focus when you want the focus and for rest of the times let it do what it wants to do,

Most of our problems would already be solved.

Most of us would not even need meditation,

Most of us would not even need to do anything to do with the mental health,

To do with the mind.

That's the third state,

Stage of the mind.

The fourth stage which is a bit higher is one-pointed mind where your mind has the ability to focus,

To concentrate on one particular point and not just for three seconds,

Five seconds and then getting distracted but for a bit longer period of time that you could hold your awareness,

Hold your attention one-pointed to any object that you desire to focus on.

It could be your breath,

It could be an object in front of you,

Anything that where you can concentrate,

Where you can focus and without struggling with yourself can keep your mind one-pointed at one particular object,

External or internal or whatever.

That's the higher mind,

The fourth state of mind,

One-pointed mind which a lot of yogic practices are aimed at because from here starts the extraordinary journey into oneself.

When we want to understand ourselves,

When we want to understand the world,

When we want to know really,

When we want to be conscious,

It starts happening when our mind is becoming more friendly and becoming more one-pointed.

It can focus on one particular object and it starts to know that object with its direct experience.

And then there is one more higher stage which is you can call it the meditative mind where it not only can focus but it can also expand at the same time.

It can expand,

Your consciousness can expand to not only have the awareness on one object but on an entire space as wide as your consciousness can go and your mind can hold all of that in your awareness without getting distracted,

Without getting dull or sleepy,

Without having those phases where it's moving away.

It remains if you want it to focus on one point,

It can focus on one point.

If you want it to focus on your awareness to spread,

Your consciousness to spread on a wider area,

It can do that as well.

That's the meditative mind.

When you just become few minutes aware of how your mind is,

You can feel it's sometimes in stage number one,

Sometimes in stage number two,

Sometimes in three,

Very rare cases four and very very rare cases number five.

And there is a journey that one can travel from these lower states of the mind,

From these unhealthy states of the mind towards a mind which becomes more friendly,

Which becomes more how you want to use the mind and that gives you immense power,

That gives you the entire horsepower that the mind has not only to become more spiritual and understand oneself but also in your daily work,

In your daily life,

In your daily job,

Whatever you do.

It does not matter what you do but to have that healthy,

Strong,

Focused,

Controlled mind is worth having.

I'm reminded of a small story,

I'll share it with you which I heard from a yogi in India.

It goes something like this that there was a king who bought a wild horse.

He bought a very beautiful horse but the horse was so wild that whosoever came close to that horse,

The horse kicked that person away or attacked that person.

It just did not come in control of anybody but the horse was so beautiful,

King wanted to ride that horse.

He could not take his eyes off the horse and he wanted to someday ride this horse so he announced a contest.

He said,

I'll give as much money as the person wants,

Whosoever comes and tames this horse,

Makes this horse rideable so that I can have at least one ride on that horse.

I'm willing to give my entire kingdom whatever possible for this.

Naturally many people came,

They did whatever they could and some of them got killed in the process because the horse was wild,

It was just uncontrollable,

Unbelievably aggressive at the same time.

And this contest kept on running until the king lost almost his hope because there was no sign of anyone who could come and who could make this horse in the way,

A rideable horse that the king wanted.

But he left the contest open because there was no other way and one day a meditator came.

He said,

Okay you give me the horse,

I will tame the horse.

And that person,

That meditator did not look like a professional horse rider or a professional person who would be really taming the horses.

But the king had no choice,

He said,

Okay you take the horse and I just hope that you are safe when you would be taming this horse.

The meditator said,

Give me this horse on one condition that I can keep this horse as long as I want.

I will take this horse with me and I will only return it to you when it's tamed.

In between you will never ask about my whereabouts,

Where I am,

About the horse.

If I'm dead,

If the horse is dead,

You have to let that go.

The king said,

Yes,

Okay,

Let's do that.

So the horse was left wild open,

The meditator went along with the horse.

Months passed by,

Years passed by,

No sign until one day this meditator came very nicely riding on the horse.

The horse was completely saddled,

It had everything in order,

It was walking like never before.

It's such a march that you could see from a distance what a glorious horse it was.

So the king offered him the prize,

He said,

You can have whatever you want for this horse.

But also tell me how did you tame this horse?

When everybody else failed,

When people tried whatever they can by force,

By giving the horse whatever food it wanted,

Nothing worked.

How did you manage to tame this wild horse?

He said,

I did nothing,

I just was with the horse this entire time.

When the horse ran into the wild,

I ran along with the horse.

When the horse got tired,

Wanted to drink water,

I went along also,

Drank water with the horse.

When the horse was eating the grass,

I also went close to the horse and started eating the grass.

I did exactly what the horse was doing without touching the horse for years.

And in all this time,

The horse started thinking that I am also another horse who is just going along with this horse.

And now we,

By this time,

We became somewhat of friends where he knew that my presence was not disturbing him and his presence was not disturbing me.

So one day I put my hand on the horse,

The horse felt,

Oh,

There was something different today.

Up till now,

This person was not even saying anything,

Touching me and suddenly I feel something on my back.

But it's not too much,

It's just his hand.

So the horse did not react.

The horse let the person,

Let the meditator just keep the hand on the horse.

He said for months I just only touched the horse with one hand.

Then after a few more months,

I just threw the saddle on his back without doing anything,

Without tying the saddle,

The horse threw the saddle sometimes,

But he let the saddle sometimes on his back and so on.

Now step by step,

Step by step,

I came closer to the horse,

I tied the saddle to the horse,

I sat on the horse,

I slowly,

Very gently,

Over the years,

I taught the horse these how to walk,

How to have the rider on his back one by one over a long period of time to this point that now I can ride this horse.

Why am I telling you this long story?

Our mind is also like that wild horse and it takes time,

It takes time to be friends with the mind,

To be able to touch your mind and to be able to ride your mind.

If you immediately want to control it,

If you immediately want to get into a battle with it,

You will lose.

So give it time.

What you could do if you have the state number one of the mind,

Which is the completely disturbed state,

The only thing you could do is observe it,

Just observe it.

Do nothing,

Don't touch it,

Don't try to stop it,

Don't try to struggle with it,

Just observe it.

The power of observing your mind is also very very significant.

When you just observe the mind,

When the mind is doing its own thing,

When it's going wherever,

Don't judge it,

Don't try to stop it,

Don't try to say what a crazy mind I have,

Just let it be,

But observe it.

Observe it as much as you can,

Just observe as long as you want.

During your day,

Whenever you get time,

Just observe,

Close your eyes,

How your mind is.

When you sit down for your meditation practice,

Just observe how your mind is,

Just observe.

When you feel that you don't have this,

Or when you have this first state of mind,

You simply observe.

No technique,

No mantra,

No focusing on the breath,

Nothing,

Just observe the mind.

If you feel that you have the mind in second stage,

Or this another stage which is dull,

Which is tired,

When you are completely exhausted,

Give yourself rest.

Give yourself rest,

Sleep,

Do something to give yourself rest.

Don't try to execute any technique,

Any training on the mind,

Because when you are tired,

When you start to even do some techniques,

You will fall asleep.

The moment you give yourself time,

You will fall asleep.

So when you find yourself,

When you find your mind in this stage,

That you are tired,

Give yourself rest.

Do nothing,

Just give yourself rest.

That's the way to deal with the mind which is tired,

Which needs rest.

Very straightforward,

No rocket science there.

When you do these two things,

Observe your mind,

Give it rest,

It takes you naturally to the third stage,

Where you can focus on,

Sometimes you can focus,

Sometimes it's not really possible to focus,

It's okay,

The distracted mind,

But you can still work with it,

Where you can at times focus and at times not.

When you feel that your mind is in this third stage,

Observe something,

Observe your breath.

This is the time when you start training your mind to be focused over a longer period of time.

In this stage,

You can observe your breath,

In this stage,

You can observe an external object if you want.

When you are meditating,

It's very easy to just close your eyes and observe your breath.

When you feel,

You know that your mind is in a state where it can focus for some time,

It can get distracted by the noises outside,

It's fine,

But you can always bring it back in that state,

Observe your breath.

If that works for you,

If you find it okay to observe your breath,

If you want to observe something else,

You can even open your eyes and observe a particular object.

When you do that,

When that awareness,

When that focus is happening over a longer period of time,

You move naturally to the fourth stage where you will feel that now your mind is calm,

Is more one-pointed.

When your mind is more calm,

One-pointed,

You can use it to explore anything.

And in the meditation today,

If you feel that there comes a moment where your mind is calm and one-pointed,

I would like you to focus at the center in between your eyebrows,

At the third eye center.

Why?

Because the more you focus on this center,

The more your awareness becomes,

The ability of awareness becomes stronger,

Your consciousness starts expanding,

It has that natural pull to hold your awareness at your third eye center.

And if you feel that you have done that long enough and you have focused enough on your third eye center,

Then the fifth stage where you just let your mind not focus,

But be aware of everything and nothing in particular.

I will not guide you through this because each one of us has a different state,

What's going on in our mind.

You're free to observe how your mind is and respond with these tools and these methods that I've given you.

The first,

If you feel that it's completely disturbed when you close your eyes,

It's going wherever,

Just observe.

If you feel that you are now falling asleep or tired,

Just rest.

You will come out of that as well.

And when you have come out of both of these,

Start observing your breath.

When you have done that enough,

When you feel now you're calm,

Your mind is focused,

Take your awareness to your third eye center.

And once you have held it long enough over there,

Once you feel even more one-pointed and let it go,

Have the awareness of the entire space,

Nothing in particular.

At any point,

If you lose track of what you're doing,

If things are not happening for you,

Don't worry.

Just relax and start all over again if you like.

Again,

Observe where you are in your mind and respond accordingly.

Is it clear what to do?

Then let's spend the next minutes until the end of this session to observe our mind and respond to what we've learned today until the end of this session.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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Thank you.

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