You Are Not Your Shadow

Sri Ramana used to say that wherever we go, our mind follows. We cannot escape our troubled mind riddled with endless concerns, anxieties, and fears. Even if we run away to a forest or some holy place or sanctuary, the mind is still with us.

Truly, the conflicted and conditioned mind is like our shadow.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, it states that the mind can be our friend or a foe. In order to control the mind, a variety of approaches and methods are prescribed including, yoga, pranayama, meditation. Some people run or exercise to exhaustion to get some relief from their mind.

Bhagavan Ramana’s teaching is to be aware of the mind’s working and yet indifferent. It is an extremely beautiful and subtle teaching. On the path of Jnana, mind is not controlled by force but by shifting the attention to its source, which is the Heart or pure awareness.

The ego/mind receives its energy from paying it attention. Mind and energy always follow attention. As the attention is withdrawn from the mind and focused on the source of attention itself, the Heart of awareness, the mind follows it and merges in the Heart.

When the mind vanishes in the Heart, Peace manifests as our essential state of being, the Heart of Existence. The ancients referred to this as Sat-Chit-Ananda. Existence-Knowledge-Bliss.