Why meditation?
The mental dynamics
'Regarding The Mental Dynamics it is necessary to know a few things about how and wherefore the mind works.
Without doubt that the mind is an instrument that we must learn to use consciously. But it would be absurd that such an instrument becomes efficient if firstly we do not know the how and the why of the mind.
When a person knows in what way and wherefore the mind work like that, when one knows its various mechanisms, one can control it and it becomes a useful and perfect instrument, a wonderful vehicle through which we can work to the benefit of mankind.
A realistic system is needed if we truly want to know the potential of the human mind.
In these times many topics about the control of the mind abounds. There are people who consider that certain artificial exercises could be magnificent for the control of the mind. There are schools, there are many theories on the mind, many systems, but how is it possible to make of the mind something useful? Let us reflect on the fact that if we do not know in what way and wherefore the mind works like so, we cannot make it be perfect.
We need to know the various mechanisms of the mind and what we want is for it to be perfect. How does it work? Why does it work like that? This how and why are absolutely necessary'.
How does The Mind work?
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MIND
THE PROCESSES OF IDENTIFICATION:
'The Psycho-Stereophonical states: Are the states of identification that are intimately related with the external perceptions that penetrate through the five senses and that are linked to the world of impressions'.
The actual state of our mind is like a radar, we have the attention directed to the outside and for this reason, through the senses, we get attached so easily of objects, people, words, shapes etc.
THE PROCESSES OF REACTION:
'If, for example, we throw a stone into a lake we see that waves form, this being the reaction of the lake, of the water, against the stone. Similarily, if somebody addresses us an ironical word, this word reaches the mind and the mind reacts against that word; then conflicts appear.
Everybody has problems, everybody lives in conflicts. I carefully observed the debate boards of many organizations, schools etc., and I saw that they do not respect each other. Why? Because they do not respect themselves.
Notice the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies or a meeting in a school: if someone says a thing, someone else feels attacked, gets angry and states something even worse, they hurt each other and the members of the directive board end up in a big mess. The fact that the mind of each of them reacts against the impact of the outside world proves very serious.
It is really necessary to make appeal to the introspective psycho-analisys to explore our own mind. It becomes necessary to know ourselves a little more from the intellectual point of view. For instance: why do we react to the words of a neighbour? In these conditions we always are victims...If someone want us to be content it is enough to beat us on the shoulder and to address us some kind words. If someone wants to annoy us, it is enough to address us some unpleasant words.
Then where is our true intellectual freedom? Which is it? We depend concretely on others, we are slaves, our psychological processes depend exclusively on other people. We do not dominate our psychological processes and this is terrible'.
THE PROCESSES OF MECHANICAL ASSOCIATIONS:
'There are two types of mechanical association that become the basis of the opposites:
- The mechanical association of ideas, words, phrases etc.
- The mechanical association of images, shapes, objects, people etc.
An idea associates with another, a word with another, a phrase with another, and so appears the battle of the opposites.
A person is associated with another, the memory of someone appears in the mind, an image associates to another, a shape with another and so continues the battle of the opposites.
The associations of the mind to form phrases, memories, images, ideas, desires etc., represents the fundamental cause of the tireless mental chatter and especially of the battle of the antitheses.
If on the basis of comprehension we obtain the mental dissociation, if on the basis of comprehension we obtain the dissociation of all the subconscious memories; if on the basis of comprehension we manage to eliminate the subjective elements of our perceptions, surely the mind will remain silent and peaceful, not just at a superficial level but also at more profound levels of subconsciousness.'
THE PROCESSES OF THE INNER CHATTER:
'It becomes urgent, undelayable, to observe the inner chatter and the exact place from where it comes.
Without doubt that the inner wrong chatter is the "Causa Causorum" of many inharmonious and unpleasant psychological states both now and in the future.
Obviously that this unsubstantial gabble, ambiguous chatter and generally any damaging, harmful, absurde discussion manifested in the outside world originates in the inner wrong conversation'.
THE PROCESSES OF FANTASY:
'The mechanical imagination; how grave is this process of fantasy! As sometimes keeps silent about its dreams, other times talks and other times wants to put them into practice. Without doubt that in the third case the question is serious because when a dreamer wants to transform his dreams into reality commits frightening follies because it happens that his dreams do not coincide with the mechanics of life and then he gets to commit follies. A quiet dreamer wastes a lot of vital energy but he is not so dangerous. The one who talks about his dreams (fantastic dreams), can contaminate other minds, other people, but the third, the one who wants to turn his dreams into practical facts of life, this one is “incurable” regarding the mind, he is crazy; this is obvious.
Therefore, continuing with these discussions, we see clearly the fact that the mechanical imagination or the fantasy, keeps us very far from reality, from the Being and this is truly lamentable. People wander on the streets dreaming, walk with their fantasies; work dreaming with their fantasies, get married dreaming, live a life of dreams and live dreaming of an unreal world, of fantasy. To supress to someone this form of fantasy proves to be harsh, frightening harsh, terribly harsh'.
THE PROCESSES OF INNER TRANSLATION:
(The Neo-Psychical States):
They are the situations of processing of data, that is those in which is interpreted good or bad all the situations that the intellectual animal lives. In these situations our bad secretary works, which is the personality.
THE PROCESSES OF “MORE” (COMPARISON AND ACCUMULATION)
'The mind, envious by its nature, thinks only according to “more”: I can explain better, I have more knowledge, I am more intelligent, I have more virtues, more sanctifications, I am more perfect, more evolved etc.
The entire functionalism of the mind is based on “more”. “More” represents the secret mechanism of envy.
More represents the comparative process of the mind. Any comparative process is abominable. Example: I am more intelligent than you, more wise, more nice, more beautiful etc.
More creates time. The pluralised I needs time to be better than the neighbour, to demonstrate to its family that it is brilliant and can get to become someone in life; to demonstrate to its enemies or to those that it envies that it is smarter, stronger, greater etc.
Comparative thinking is based on envy and produces this thing called discontent, disappointment, bitterness...'.
ACCUMULATION:
'All that people accumulate in the rotten grave of the unfaithful memory: intellectual information, experiences of life, always fatally translate by the term of more and more. So that they never get to know the profound meaning of the things they accumulate. Many read a book and then they store it in the memory, pleased that they accumulated more information, but when they are asked to answer from the doctrine written in the book they read, it turns out that they do not know the profound meaning of the teaching, but the I wants more and more information, more and more books, even if they never lived the doctrine of either of them...
It is indispensable to understand the fact that the mind is the fundamental core of “more”. Really this “more” is precisely the psychological I that claims and the mind is its fundamental core'.
THE PROCESSES OF DOUBT (Belief and Disbelief):
'Many people believe in God and many people are Atheists, do not believe in God. There are also many individuals who either believe or do not believe. The latter try to behave well in life in case God exists.
We affirm that the faith in God does not mean that we experienced what is the Truth, what is called God.
We affirm that denying God does not mean that we experienced what is the Truth, what is called God.
We say that doubting the existence of God does not mean that we experienced the Truth.
As long as the mind is immersed in any of these three factors of ignorance cannot experience what the Chinese call Tao, what is the Divine, what is the Truth, God, Allah, Brahma etc'...
THE PROCESS OF “THE PROJECTION OF THE MIND”:
'We need a mind that does not project, we need to stop the process of thinking. The projecting mind projects dreams and these are vain and illusory.
When I say “projecting Mind” I do not refer to the projects that an engineer makes who designs and draws the plans of a building, a large bridge or a highway. No. When I talk about “the projecting mind” I want to refer to any “intellectual animal”. It is obvious the fact that the subconscious always projects, not just houses, buildings or things from the pen, no, I clarify: it also projects its own desires, its own memories, emotions, passions, ideas, experiences etc. “The Projecting Mind”, I repeat, projects dreams and it is clear that as long as the subconscious will exist, there will be projections. When the subconscious will turn into conscious, the projections will end, will not be able to exist, will disappear...'
THE PROCESSES OF “THE REPRESENTATION OF THE MIND”:
'For the world of the senses there are various representations. These are the objects that surround us, living beings etc., but there are also the representations of the mind.
In the mind there are many representation that we must take into account. Let us suppose we have, in the mind, the representation of a friend we honor. Someone, does not matter who, speaks to us against this friend; raises against him a whole class of gossip, slander etc., and we “heed” all this gossip and then the image we have of our friend, the representation, suddenly becomes altered. We no longer see in him the kind subject we saw before, full of harmony etc., but this image takes, in our mind, the figure others have made it, possibly one of a bandit, a thief, a false friend etc...At night it can happen that we dream with our friend and we already no longer dream him in harmony; we see how he attacks us, we see that we attack him, we dream that we kill him, we dream that he turns the gun towards us etc. Therefore the image of the friend becomes completely modified, a representation that was altered.
Here is the serious error: “to heed” the gossip, the calumny, the murmur, to “what is said” etc.
Obviously, in our mind there are thousands of representations that can be altered if we take part in negative conversations, if we “heed” the calumny, if we listen to “what is said” etc. For this reason and many others it is never good “to heed” people’s negative words, this is serious for the unseen psychological part.
So that not only the psychic aggregates, vivid personification of our psychological defects constitutes a baggage we carry within. We must never forget this matter of the representations of the mind.'
HOW DOES THE MIND WORK?
Obstinacy is the insistence to signal an error, and for this reason I will never tire of insisting upon the cause of all mistakes that is the Ego, the Oneself. I am not interested in the fact that the intellectual animals get upset of the fact that I speak against the Ego, no matter how it would cost, I will continue with obstinacy.
Within each person there is an energetic center that cannot be destroyed with the death of the physical body and which continues, unfortunately for the world, in our descendants. This center is the I, the Myself, the Oneself. We need with a pressing urgency to produce a radical change within this energetic center called I.
It is urgent to eliminate the I in order to produce within each of us a profound, radical, total and true change. As we stand, as we are, we can serve only to embitter our life and the life of our fellow men.
The I wants to fill itself of honors, virtues, money etc. The I desires pleasures, fame, prestige etc., and in its madness strives to expand, creates an egotistical society in which there are only disputes, cruelty, unquenched greed, limitless ambitions, no margins, wars etc.
Unfortunately for us, we are members of a society created by the ego. Such a society is useless, harmful and damaging. Only radically extirpating the I, we can radically change ourselves and the world.
The mind is the headquarters of the I. We need a change in the headquarters so that within each of us a true revolution to take place.
If we truly want a radical extirpation of the ego, it is urgent to have our memory quiet for the mind to be serene, and then to observe ourselves calmly to know ourselves.
We must contemplate ourselves just as one contemplates and resist a torrential rain.
Text excerpts from the work of Samael Aun Weor.
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Practical Gnosis and Meditation 
