06:26

Why The Mind Create Suffering ?

by Rahul Mishra

Rated
5
Type
talks
Activity
Meditation
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Everyone
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Even when life improves, the mind often stays restless. Why? Drawing from yogic wisdom and the teachings of Patanjali, this session explores how suffering comes not from circumstances, but from how we identify with thoughts. Learn the difference between awareness and the mind, and discover simple shifts that bring clarity, steadiness, and inner peace, right where you are. Thumbnail credit : Photo by Tara Winstead Background music : Music by Dana Music

SufferingYogaAwarenessMindfulnessInner PeacePhilosophyDeep BreathingMind SufferingThought ObservationSeerMental AwarenessMental HabitsYoga PhilosophyAwareness Practice

Transcript

Hi everyone,

I'm Rahul and I welcome you in this session.

Let's take a moment to settle wherever you are and bring your awareness to deep.

Inhale and exhale.

With each inhale,

Observe the expansion of abdomen,

Chest and the left of your shoulders.

And with each exhale,

Observe shoulders going down,

Contraction of chest and abdomen.

Few deep inhale and exhale.

In this session,

We will explore a very simple but deeply human question.

Why does the mind continue to create suffering even when life seems to be going well?

Circumstances improve,

Work stabilizes,

Relationships become easier,

Comfort increases and yet the mind doesn't settle.

There's a still restlessness,

Still comparison,

Still an underlying unease.

This isn't unusual.

In fact,

It's almost universal.

And Sage Patanjali addresses this problem very directly with a simple observation.

Suffering doesn't always come from what's happening.

Very often it comes from how the mind relates to what's happening.

Two people can be in the same situation.

One feels at peace,

The other feels disturbed.

The difference is rarely intelligence or effort.

It's identification.

Most of the time,

We don't notice thoughts.

We become them.

Thought arises,

I'm not doing well enough.

And suddenly it feels personal,

True.

Urgent.

But if we slow down just a little,

We might notice something simple.

The thought appeared,

It stayed for a while,

It changed.

That means something in us was watching it.

Patanjali calls this difference the seer and the seen.

When the mind is calm,

Awareness rests in itself.

When the mind is active,

Awareness gets tangled in its movements.

That's all Patanjali is saying.

Suffering begins when we forget this distinction.

When we confuse awareness with whatever the mind is producing.

Thoughts,

Emotions,

Roles,

Stories.

We don't just experience them,

We wear them.

You can ask why improvement doesn't bring peace.

This explains something many people quietly struggle with.

Life improves externally,

But eternally the mind keeps searching.

Why?

Because the mind is designed to move.

It solves one problem and looks for the next.

If peace depends on conditions,

It will always be temporary.

The mind can always find something missing,

Something to fix.

Someone doing better in identification keeps this loop alive.

Modern psychology points to something similar.

Research suggests that a large portion of our mental activity is repetitive.

The mind revisits the same worries,

The same self-stories again and again,

Even when situations change.

Mental habits often don't.

So when peace disappears after improvement,

It's not because improvement failed,

It's because our identification stayed untouched.

Let's take a simple everyday example.

Imagine watching a movie.

If you forget you are watching a screen,

Your body reacts fully.

Fear,

Tension,

Excitement.

The moment you remember this is a movie,

Something relaxes.

The movie doesn't stop,

But suffering reduces.

The mind works the same way.

Awareness doesn't need to control thoughts,

It just needs to see them clearly.

Yoga isn't asking us to remove thoughts,

That's not realistic.

It's inviting us to notice,

When we are aware and when we are entangled,

That noticing changes the relationship.

Thoughts still come,

Emotions still arise,

But they don't define us in the same way.

When awareness is confused with thought,

Criticism feels like identity,

Fear feels like truth,

Success feels fragile,

And when awareness stands on its own,

Thoughts become information,

Emotions become movement,

Life feels workable.

This is where suffering begins to loosen.

The mind creates suffering not because it is bad,

But because it is misunderstood.

Patanjali isn't asking us to fix the mind,

He is asking us to see it clearly.

As you move through your day,

Just notice moments of identification.

A reaction,

A story,

A label,

And quietly ask,

Is this being experienced or am I becoming it?

That simple question opens a space.

Thanks for joining,

God bless you and have a great day.

Meet your Teacher

Rahul MishraIndia

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© 2026 Rahul Mishra. All rights reserved. All copyright in this work remains with the original creator. No part of this material may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

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