The mind and the human ship
Part 1 – “Why do all of this?”
I recently spent some days with a small group of people. I cooked and we hang together, and one person seemed somehow a bit perplexed about my way of living and thinking. He saw – as I also explained – that I eat almost zero things bought from the store. I just get the raw ingredients, mostly local fruits and vegetables from the farmers market, and I cook them in all possible ways. I make almost everything in house.. from tomato sauce, mustard, etc. I use only natural ingredients, and I involve time in sourcing and getting them, this sometimes even meaning travelling to some regions in the country, to source some of the materials, like natural honey, natural oil, etc. I eat my food meat free, and some times dairy free as well. I try to listen to my body and give it the things it actually needs. I drink only spring water – taken directly from natural springs, and I always have natural water with me. I make the teas and food with this natural water. I currently sleep outside. In the morning I spend time with my body letting it move instinctively.. sometimes just going deep within myself in a sort of meditative/introspective state. This helps my mind settle before starting the day, also helps me bring the emotions to a calm resting point, and bring as much of myself in this body, here.
This person briefly got to see my way of living and in one day he asked “but what are you doing all of this for? Are you doing it for when you will be elder, or for your after life?”. This question made me happy and I actually got enthusiastic to respond. And I said “Well.. for me there is zero eldership or “after life”. All I have is this moment. In this moment I need my mind to work at its best. With my mind I create relationship, I handle projects, I even heal my body. If my mind is working good all of these are working good”. I felt this person had a bit of an “a-ha” moment.
And I find this to be a quite relevant subject.
The mind is primarily influenced by chemicals. Our perception – even if we like it or not – is chemical dependable. If the chemicals in my body are at their best (and I find this to be an extensive topic) – the mind has a chance to work sharp. With a sharp mind I can keep a good organisation and structure of all the things that happen in my life. I can keep my emotions in balance, I can think fast solutions and navigate complex ideas and logics, I can even have it step aside when I need rapid intuitions or ideas. Basically the mind is the coolest computer, helping me keep all the parts of myself in one place, working together in perfect coordination.
That is: when the mind is healthy. When the mind is off balance – well.. good luck in trying to keep Pandora’s box closed, and have all these parts of myself talking to one another or me understanding myself with the others around me.
Part 2 – “The human ship”
From my perspective, the mind, most of everything – is an organiser. The mind is far from being a reality generator, as many would have it portrayed. The mind is a “computer” made to help us keep all the parts of ourselves in one place, gravitating around the center of our being, like the electrons and neutrons around the nucleus of an atom. All my different personalities, my different skills, interests, passions, emotions, perspectives and traits – all united and working together as the biggest team.
And even more important the mind is a communicator and translator, making all the parts of my being understanding each other and thus: working together.
There can be less collaboration when we lack communication – as we already know it from our day to day life. Similar.. there are many “animals” inside of me that speak different languages. Beings with different traits, personalities, skills, fears, passions, desires, emotions, strives. If I want to have these beings working together I need the mind to work at is best. When these beings inside of me start communicating and working as one team – finally, life is starting to make sense. I get to have the optimal response in situations, because the being having that trait inside of me – immediately understands the situation and comes forth with a response. I get to experience healthy relationships because – with the help of the mind – I now can call forth the optimal being inside of me that needs to interact with the person in front of me. If the mind is working faulty, a specific response might be needed in a certain situation, but the being inside of me that holds that response.. might fail to come out. Many reasons why.
See.. people have yet to realise that their self is far from being a one thing, and rather: a collection of things. A collection of selves. We all have a collection of beings living within us. Some are inherited from our genetic line. Some are borrowed from the environment or from the people we interact with. Some are even befriended and brought in our team through time and experience. Others are borrowed from the food we eat or the choices we make. The mind is the organiser, translator and communicator – and the mastership of the human driver has always been how to make all these beings work together with the assistance of the mind.
Note: more can be said about how these beings inside of me – when the mind is working faulty – can start fighting each another, going at wars, becoming destructive or try to take dominance over the others. Which – historically – is what happened to the human being, who has been conquered – not by outer invaders – but by existing inner ones who have managed to trick the mind into submission, put it in a sort of stance … and claimed ownership of the entire human ship.