When the student is
ready, the master will appear
That quote is supposedly an old Buddhist (or Zen) proverb—there
have been many sources cited through the years, but it means: when our minds are open, we are more
receptive to new thoughts or ideas.
Many people are not ready for higher thoughts, advanced
training, or spiritual awakenings, because they are closed to new thoughts and
suggestions. When they are ready, they will attract to themselves a teacher who
can aid in enlightening them—because Like always attracts Like in the realm of mind.
We must desire knowledge
before we can obtain it—it cannot be forced upon us . . . but you knew
there was a catch, right? If what I just stated sounds like a contradiction, it
is not, because the exception is “mind
control,” which works on a different
level, i.e., our minds can absorb both what we want, and what we do not want.
With mind control (or brainwashing),
our minds can and do accept ideas and thoughts imposed upon us, because this type
of mental control does not deal with our conscious
minds but instead goes directly to our subconscious
via such base emotions as fear,
greed, envy, or hatred.
If you think our minds cannot be controlled by someone else,
think again.
Politicians and advertisers have used mind control to change
our opinions and ideas via television commercials and straight-out propaganda,
and their techniques are so deep, so subliminal that we may not know what hit
us.
Multiply those unwanted thoughts, ideas, and/or symbols
hundreds of times and, chances are, we’ve been brainwashed without our
knowledge. Think it can’t be done?
It happens every day, every minute we spend glued to a
television program, a cell phone, the Internet, or watching/listening to news
broadcasts, sometimes half asleep … when our subconscious minds are fully open,
because subconscious minds never sleep; like Alexa, they are always listening.
Repetition is the
vehicle used for brainwashing. Repetition
enables thoughts or images to embed themselves in our unconscious, until, at
some future time, they merge with our conscious thoughts and ideas, and become
fixed.
In school, our lessons are drilled into us so we don’t
forget them. Reading a textbook over and over gets the subject matter stuck in
our minds—in our subconscious minds,
whether or not we are consciously studying the subject. Repetition of a subject
helps us learn.
But with brainwashing, we often aren’t getting our own
preferences, direction of thoughts, and knowledge; we are absorbing and coming
into line with someone else’s thoughts, ideas, and commands, good or bad. (This
is the main reason I stopped watching everything that came along on television:
My own mind is fertile enough to create its own ideas and grow plots and
story lines.)
But how can we prevent the wrong ideas from taking control
of our subconscious minds and expanding negatively? One way is to put only
good, higher thoughts in our minds, and they will crowd out the bad.
A few minutes daily of deep yoga breathing and meditation
helps prepare our minds to accept only the ideas we wish to accept and follow.
If we wish to be sheep—fine, but we must follow our own shepherd. Following someone
else’s leader often leads us astray without our consent; therefore, we must be
constantly on guard if we wish to shepherd our own flocks.
Suggested reading:
Namaste!
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