Handling Thoughts and Emotions

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. I was thinking about the mind and the mind-handling
process. About handling the mind, here is a method which is instantly effective. But
I wonder whether you will receive this message properly, reflect upon it well and
apply it in the manner intended.

A thought becomes bad when the emotional notes it brings about are bad. A thought may
arise in the mind and as soon as it arises, some emotions are triggered. These emotions
instantly engulf your system. Which part of your system gets engulfed, is a matter of further
detail. Your eyes, lips, legs or hands may be affected; or, your breathing and heart-beat may
change. It is an intricate biological process.
But these are only outer expressions. Our focus is on what happens at the mind level. The thought
produces a psychological offshoot. The moment a thought arises, its emotional effects generally
follow. When it happens, try to intercept the emergence of the thought and the resultant
emotional flux. See whether you can understand how these emotions are surging forth.
After all, a thought has arisen in the mind. Let it arise. As a wave in the sea, the mind expresses
itself in the form of a thought. And where does the thought arise? It is within the mind itself.
Consequently, a number of emotions may arise. Let them. Simply tell yourself that you don't like
to follow them. When you take this stand, effects of the thought automatically become weak.
The right way of dealing with these emotions needs understanding the process fully well. Each
thought is a mental expression. Whatever is in the mind, that alone is in the thought. Do not be
moved by emotional flux. Resolve that you will not allow yourself to be swayed by it.
Instead of following the emotions, which are but the effects of the thought, you should go into the
content or the substance of the thought. When you do so, you are making the thoughts thinner,
lighter and feebler. Then you will not be carried away by the resultant emotions. With this idea if
you sit, and allow the mind to think, you will find an altogether different emphasis and outcome.
Let any thought come. Suppose a thought arises: "I would like to scold this person". There are
seven words. These seven words are written where? Are they not generated by the mind, in the
mind itself? As the mind writes on itself, the substance is not non-mind. It continues to remain as
the mind itself. Thoughts originate and disappear. See them as the mind alone as mind
substance alone.
When, in this manner, you start looking into the content or substance of the thought-process, the
emotional results will simply be non-operative, nonfunctional. This is such a wonderful method.
At most, it may require a little patience.

This is jnaana saadhana. This belongs to a very high level of knowledge. I am not asking you not
to have bad thoughts. I only say: When the bad thoughts come, do not get ruffled and affected. If
you want to eliminate them, simply have a feeling that you should eliminate them. And don't
allow them to carry you through. The power to remain unaffected is also ingrained in the mind
process.
While the mind compels you to follow the thought-process, the mind also has the potential and
the power to recede. It can empower you not to follow the thought-process.
Constricting, harmful and negative thoughts have to be eliminated and in their place expansive,
elevating and evolutional thoughts are to be encouraged. It is actually a process whereby you
abide within the mind and remain focused there. If you go on doing this for a few hours a
hundred or two hundred hours you will find the quality of the mind changes.
Do it and see. Instead of being a stockpile of bad thoughts, the mind will become a treasure-house
of good and noble ideas. And you will reach a stage where the mind will start stimulating you
with expansive and elevational thoughts.
Be assured that this possibility is within your reach. The level from which each individual
saadhaka starts may be different. Depending upon how dense your bad thoughts are, the length
and intensity of your saadhana may differ.
But certainly it is possible to deal with the mind. Observe the mind, observe the
thoughts, and make the mind lighter, feebler and thinner. And there will come a time
when the thought process becomes extremely thin. It will come to an almost stop.
Finally, it will become completely still.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.