I would like to welcome those who have recently found Divine Approach. We began at the beginning of this year and hope to continue for many years to come. We plan to open our Divine Approach center in Jacksonville, Florida in the near future. Read about our vision in the About section of our website. We will keep you posted on our progress.
A lot is happening in the world right now that could make us fearful or angry if we do not have a solid foundation which can withstand the changes in the external (physical) world around us. We are forced to begin rethinking our view of the world. Events which at one time seemed virtually impossible are happening. Who thought countries would go bankrupt? Who could imagine that tsunamis and earthquakes could be so devastating? What if gas were $10 a gallon? What if we lost all of our possessions? How would we react? Would our foundation be shaken? Would we become angry or fearful? How will this affect our thinking?
We can control only how we act upon the physical world and how we react to the physical world around us. The physical world makes itself known to us through our senses. We see colors, hear sounds, and feel substances and by them become connected with the physical world.
We also have spiritual world around us in addition to physical world. However we can not become acquainted with this world through our five senses, rather through our intuition. In order for intuition to be understood we must have a clear mind. While it is full of a lot of noise it cannot be heard let alone understood. In order for us to rethink our view of the ever changing world we must have clear minds and clear thinking.
Torkom Saraydarian states in the chapter titled Clear Thinking in his book Education as Transformation Part II – Basic Education: (Note quotes from his book are in italics. My comments are interspersed and are not in italics.)
The success, prosperity, and spiritual achievement of any person rests on his clear thinking. If one does not have clear thinking, he will not be a successful person because he will contradict himself, create inner conflicts and confusion, and involve himself in time-wasting activities and problems. Even if he inherits money or other possessions, without clear thinking he will use them in such a way that he will increase his problems and waste all that he has.
Clear thinking also leads you toward spiritual progress because it shows you the most essential in your life which you should follow. Clearness of mind can be understood through the analogies of clear water, clear air, and clear windows and mirrors. Clear water does not have contamination, mud, or agitation in it. Clear air has great visibility. A clear window does not obscure your vision. A clear mirror reflects your face exactly.
Thinking is the act of using your mind to solve problems, to find better ways to carry out your spiritual perfection, and to make yourself happy, healthy, intelligent, creative, and noble. Thinking must be balanced by two factors – the ability to solve problems and the ability to find new ways for spiritual perfection. These are two factors that keep the activities of the mind in balance.
I like the analogies he uses.
Clear water does not have contamination, mud, or agitation in it. Contamination is in the water itself. Mud is something added to the water. Agitation is the act of moving the waters creating waves and therefore the reflections off of the water are not clear.
Clear air has great visibility. As we know the higher we go the clearer the air gets and the farther we can see. If we are in smog we can not see clearly.
A clear window does not obscure your vision. If our windows are tinted we will not see the world clearly.
A clear mirror reflects your face exactly. This means we have the ability to see something as it is. We do not think clearly if we our thinking does not reflect the outer world accurately.
Torkom further goes on to describe the various states of mind through which we go through as we evolve our minds. Let’s see if any sound familiar to us.
Confused mind.
This is a state in which your mind has no goal, no direction, and no discernment. Confusion is also a state of mind in which things appear to you differently than what they exactly are. Your chaotic thoughts obscure your vision. A confused mind does not have certainty, a center of control, principles, or standards.
When we are not centered we do not have a place to gather and organize our thoughts. Thoughts pop in and out of mind at random. We see no cause and effect relationships and all that happens to us appears as random events.
Conflicting mind
Such a mind is always split. It fights against itself. A person with a conflicting mind decides something, and the next moment he changes his decision or promise; he never fulfills his promise. He believes something, then denies it. This is a mind that assembles and disassembles. His personality is split, or his personality and soul are fighting against each other. In this stage, the awakening soul is trying to bring the personality in line and is creating conflict on the mental field.
Our minds can help us attain our desires, but they also allow intuition to enter which can cause conflicts in our mind. We know we should not do something, but we do it any ways.
Slave mind
When the mind is controlled by the blind urges and drives of the physical body, by the glamors and desires of the emotional body, and the illusions, vanity, separatism, and ego of the mental body, the mind turns into a slave and exists only to satisfy the wishes of the body, emotions, and lower mind. For example, your body wants sex, drugs, and alcohol. The slave mind says “Yes, sir, I will try to find a way to serve your wishes.
When your mind is a slave, even its knowledge does not help you reject the impositions of the lower bodies. This is why we say that it is not knowledge that helps your spiritual progress but your transformation and beingness.
When you discipline your personality and gain control of your lower bodies, you can experience true freedom. After gaining freedom, your lower vehicles serve your spiritual goals. Only a free mind can develop control over itself.
This does not just apply to sex, drugs, and alcohol. This could happen with coffee, food, video games, or gambling. Any addiction that is materially based will cause pain after death when it can no longer be satisfied. We don’t want our lives to be defined by our addictions.
Preconditioned or prejudiced mind
Some minds work under the influence of post hypnotic suggestions. They are preconditioned. A prejudiced mind is a mind that cannot open, unfold, and expand. There are limiting walls around it. This causes the mind not to see the important and essential facts in life and to lose opportunities for cooperation and expansion.
It is interesting to know that the human mind can be preconditioned in the fields of politics, education, philosophy, arts, sciences, religion, and economics. Preconditioned minds are always hindrances in their own field because they do not let their particular field expand and grow. Any time a mind is prejudiced or preconditioned, it becomes a dangerous mind and stands against human welfare.
This is one we don’t often realize. I often used the term “rings” to represent our various thoughts or groups of thoughts and our desires. We should strive to keep these rings as open as possible for as long as possible. When we our rings are forced to be limited to what our science or religion or philosophy permits we are prejudiced. We can increase our understanding by allowing other information to enter our minds. We don’t have to believe it, but by not allowing it in we are not thinking clearly.
Fanatical mind
This is a state which continues for many years. Or sometimes – if it connected to religion for many lives, until the accumulating shocks of disappointments crack the walls of fanaticism and shed light into the mind. Sometimes when a fanatic’s mind is opened, it goes to extremes, and the fanatic denies all that he had worshipped and becomes a slave of his pleasures. If a fanatic is caught at the right time by a wise person, he can be led gradually out of his shell and into new values.
This seems to be an extreme case of the preconditioned or prejudiced mind. This does seem to be tied to religion including the atheists.
Striving mind
A striving mind tries to find new ways to solve his own problems and expand his horizons. He tries to make his existence beautiful, intelligent, healthy, prosperous, and creative. A striving mind is an awakening mind. He tries to eliminate all that was built in the past as hindrances on that path of perfection. The patterns of various habits are attacked and the vision is seen. A call is heard, and action is taken to meet the call.
These are the first signs of striving:
• The person begins to search and ask. He tries to discover the causes of his limitations
• He searches for wisdom
• He tries to discipline his nature
• He tries to cultivate virtues
• He tries to come in contact with centers of light
This appears to be the opposite of a prejudiced mind. We strive to expand our rings and remove any limitations we may have already placed on them.
Clear mind
After striving comes clarity, but this is a gradual process. It takes sometimes a long time – years or lives – to achieve clarity of mind, but once it is achieved, you are almost one with the “mind which is in Christ,” the clear mind that sees things exactly as they are. A clear mind has direction, a clear goal, and a clear plan to reach that goal.
This appears to be the opposite of a confused mind. The Christ represents the highest in us in many ways. Be careful of limiting our Christ “ring.” This is a good example of a ring we may have limited. Do we think it is associated merely with the bible thumpers, or with the fanatical Jesus freaks? This is one ring we want to make as big as possible. However big our Christ ring is we should double it right now. It will be worth it.
Creative mind
After your mind achieves a state of clarity, it becomes a creative force in the Universe. You create all those art forms that make people healthier, more beautiful, more successful, more righteous, and freer.
The real artist does not entertain you and please your animal instincts by presenting violence and crimes, but through his art he evokes the divine and creative forces from you and challenges you to transcend your level of beingness.
When our mind is clear we are able to communicate with our higher self. We can better express our higher aspect in our art, music, and in every other aspect of life.
Enlightened mind
The enlightened mind is a mind that cooperates with the creative forces in Nature, having a deep understanding about the Purpose and the Plan of the One Who created all that exists. A person who has an enlightened mind can clearly see himself as he is and what he is going to be.
This may seem a bit confusing. After expressing our higher selves through our creative mind we are then able to see that it is not our will which will be done, but a higher will with a higher purpose than ours is working through us and around us. The sooner we realize this the fewer troubles we will create in our lives.
So here we see a small glimpse of where we are heading. So we might ask how clear thinking can be achieved. Here are 16 suggestions offered by Torkom.
1. Try to think from cause and effect and from effect to cause. Say to your mind, “If you think this way, what may happen to me, to my family, my nation, to humanity, and to Nature?” If the effect is not constructive or beneficial, think how you can eliminate or stop the cause.
In terms of our rings we should learn how they relate to each other. Which rings are caused by other rings.
2. Try to think in the interest of the greater whole: your family, nation, humanity, Nature. Use your thinking power to bring good changes and new visions for these units. Your thinking may seem right to you, but you may not have checked it from the viewpoint of the family, the group, the nation, and Nature. In relating your thinking to these greater wholes, you see the exact value of your thoughts.
This is an example of enlarging our rings. Think not just of our own personal desires and interests, but of ever expanding groups of people. By focusing on ourselves too much we are certainly limiting our rings are not able to think clearly.
3. Try to think not only for your physical body but also for your emotions, mind, and soul. You do things that make your physical body happy, but emotionally or mentally you feel painful, or you feel spiritually ashamed and humiliated. Your actions must make your complete being happy and healthy because you are a unit and your thinking must not be partial. Clear thinking has no partiality and does not create cleavages in your whole being.
We are made up not only of our physical body , but also a soul body full of desires, feelings, and sympathies and antipathies, and a spiritual body made up of thoughts, intuitions, and higher aspects. When we focus only on one of these aspects we are not thinking clearly either.
4. Try to think not only for your personal interests but also for your future interests, for the interest of your future lives. For a few days you enjoy things you do, but what about the coming years? How will your actions affect your whole life, or even your future lives Future lives are as real as your future weeks, future months, or future years. You must consider how to be healthy, happy, and creative in future years and lives.
This one is difficult. We prefer instant to delayed gratification. Why be good? Why tell the truth? Where is the payback? We need to take a higher perspective to understand that the payback is in being able to express our higher aspects. We know we feel better when we do what is right.
5. Never think within the boundaries of your habits, prejudices, superstitions, vanity, and ego. If your thinking is controlled by your habits, you will not learn how to think clearly. If your thinking is run by your ego, you will never achieve clear thinking. If your thinking is run by your prejudices, superstitions, and vanity clear thinking will be an unachievable dream for you and you will always be a slave to your habits, prejudices, superstitions, vanity, and ego. This is how a person loses his self.
We have discussed much of this already. Vanity though is when we limit our rings because to enlarge them appears as an affront to our ego. We would have to admit we were wrong to limit our ring. We should not be afraid to tear old rings down and build newer bigger rings.
6. Do not let your thinking be controlled by fear, hatred, jealousy, anger, revenge, greed, and hurt feelings. If you cannot think free of those factors, your thinking will be controlled by them and you will involve yourself with more and more problems and waste your time, money, energy, and health. Clear thinking is only possible when you stand above these seven factors. Most of our wrong decisions and actions are taken under the influence of these seven factors. This is why the world has so many problems in spite of so much knowledge and luxury. People feel happy when they think inspired by their habits, fears, jealousies, anger, revenge, greed, and hurt feelings…but they don’t realize that they are like airline passengers who are eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves when the plane is just about to crash. Some people think that hatred, fear, jealousy, anger, revenge, greed, and hurt feelings are stimulants to our thinking. It is true that they stimulate our thinking, but they lead us in the wrong direction; and sometimes they lead us to destroy whatever we have built or to lose whatever we have gained in the past.
This is pretty complete in itself. Not much more need be said.
7. Before you think, for a moment visualize a joyful or pleasant experience. Joy is a form of light, and it puts your mind in a condition where you think more clearly. Joy enlightens the process of your thinking. Most destructive actions, reactions, and responses are done by unhappy people. Happiness, joy, and bliss make you a constructive force in life. When one is in an unhappy frame of mind, his thoughts run in reverse gears and he seasonally the failure factors, instead of the factors that will lead him to success. A happy mind is a grateful, harmless, controlled, and creative mind. Before you think and make decisions, first feel happy.
This is probably something we would think intuitively but not really thought about. Just by where we are at the moment when we make a decision affects the decision. If we had a bad day at work and our child asks for some candy we are more likely to deny their request..
8. Do not let your racial, national, traditional, or religious background interfere with your clear and righteous thinking. Clear thinking can be can be carried on only at a certain psychologically high altitude. You must free and raise your consciousness above many limitations if you want to think clearly.
We have been taught many things in our life, many of which we tend to believe blindly because we learned it from our parents, priests, and society. As we get older we must realize how much this impact has had in limiting our rings.
9. Never try to deceive yourself or others with your thoughts. If your mind runs in the gears of self-deception, you will never be able to think clearly. Self-deception creates those hindrances which make your thinking contradictory to your own highest good. Self-deception is like covering your inner light with layers and layers of blankets and leading yourself into darkness.
Once we insert deceptions and lies into our rings we create a mess. We know this, but we justify it for many reasons. When truth cannot enter because it conflicts with our lies we create lies into we can see how it is a hindrance to our clear thinking.
10. Never try to fabricate and falsify facts. But people ask, how can you succeed without falsifying and fabricating? Is it possible to save your skin in this world without fabricating and falsifying facts? This is a tragedy. We are taught that it is impossible to be successful with honesty. But the life of the planet is proof that fabrications and falsifications bring success for only a short time while they bring problems, suffering, and loss for the rest of our lives. Can you catch yourself in a moment in which you are just beginning to falsify and fabricate things? If you can find such a moment in your life, you have already initiated yourself onto the path of health, happiness, and success. If you continue to increase such moments in your life, you will soon enter the superhuiman path.
It is freedom after we live in the truth. Remember to live life as if our thoughts and feelings are transparent and can be seen by all. It is by no means easy but that should be a sign of whether we are on the right path.
11. Never decide to take actions or make decisions under the pleasure of flattery, bribery, and showing off, Disobedience of such a rule can be disastrous. People try to bribe you with money, positions, sex, and many other means. Actually, those who flatter or bribe you are those who are using your brain to think through. When you show off, the controlling powers in your mind and those for whom you are showing off. Animals cannot make themselves human because they have no thinking as we do, but man can make himself lower than an animal though the power of his wrong and unclear thinking.
We may not always realize that while we are under such an influence our thinking is severely limited. We can see how this creates the conflicting mind as well.
12. Before you think, ask that the light of your Soul, or the light of Christ or the light of God guide you in your thinking. You will see that when you cultivate clear thinking, you will be exact , true, and factual in your conversation and you will clearly see how people voluntarily mislead themselves through unclear thinking
This is where we need to learn to be quiet and listen to our inner voice. It is able to penetrate a calm clear mind. We must not allow any extraneous thoughts from entering our mind.
13. Check your thoughts by the light of your heart. The heart is not a center of pity but a center which is in harmony with the Cosmic Heart. If your heart says so, obey it. But do not confuse your heart with your desires, glamors, and wishes.
This is a distinction which we must understand. Our desires, glamors, and wishes are not our heart. Heart is higher mind. We can usually tell the difference between the truths that are known in our heart and those that our known in our mind.
14. Let your thoughts be in harmony with the principles of Beauty, Goodness, Righteousness, Joy, and Freedom. If your thoughts do not agree with these five principles, your thoughts are out of order and you are in danger of losing your path.
This one is my favorite. It’s hard to justify thinking about thoughts that do not agree with these principles. Remember a confused mind did not have any principles. These are five principles to consider as part of our foundation.
15. Before you think or make decisions, for a few minutes keep total silence. Silence will help you focus your mind in the clear light.
Why is this so difficult? Many people feel so uncomfortable in silence either among people or within their own life. We prefer to be distracted in life to avoid being alone with our thoughts. Silence helps still our minds and keep our thinking clear.
16. Learn how to meditate. Continuous meditation eventually makes you a free and clear thinker
Meditation allows our minds to be completely open and communication between our higher and lower minds is formed.
We should strive to think a little more clearly every day. It is not easy, but we gain access to our spiritual self by doing do. And when this occurs we have a connection with our higher self and a firm foundation from which to center our consciousness.
In the coming weeks we shall discuss more about the various aspects of our make up. We are composed of spirit, soul, and body. Make sure to have our rings open. We will surely be introducing new ideas and concepts to your current Spirit, Soul, and Body rings. Make sure they are allowed to grow. Stay tuned.