Working with the subconscious (and the unconscious) mind is an essential part of spiritual awakening.
There, on the deeper levels of our inner world, we can find the causes behind most of our conditioned thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
So, if we want to change, and if we wish to free ourselves from deeply ingrained behavioral patterns and ways of thinking and feeling that are part of the ego and don’t serve us, working with those deeper levels of our inner world is key.
But reaching those places is not that easy. There are many obstacles in the way. One is the conscious mind.
When we start to examine our inner life, the mind tends to try to prevent us from going deeper.
Sometimes it’s simply because that’s what the mind does when we haven’t done much inner work.
An unexamined and untrained mind does all kinds of things because it has been programmed to do so, and it usually runs those programs automatically unless we focus on something specific.
But other times, the mind tries to protect us from finding out difficult truths. So, it does what it can to prevent us from going deeper where those truths may be.
What we discover on the deeper levels of our inner world is not always difficult or traumatic. There can be very liberating realizations in there. But the mind doesn’t know that and usually doesn’t want us to go there. So, it can do a lot of things to distract us.
Here are some examples.
1. Thinking about something else
We may suddenly start thinking about something else. This is the mind’s way of keeping us distracted from going deeper and finding out the truth.
The thoughts can involve something completely different, for example, what we are having for dinner or that unresolved conflict with a colleague from last week.
The mind is very clever, so if it doesn’t succeed in pulling us in the first time, it will try again until it finds a thought or topic that catches our attention.
2. Scary scenarios
The mind can also start coming up with scary scenarios of what we might find if we go deeper.
So, we may start thinking that maybe something terrible happened to us in childhood. And that if we go deeper, we will find something we won’t be able to handle.
We may also start fearing that we will discover that we are a terrible person. Or that something terrible will happen if we don’t get up and stop the practice.
3. Pretending it knows the answer
The mind can also try to make us believe we have found the answer we have been looking for – so that there is no need to go deeper.
So, we may start thinking: “I already know why I am feeling this way” and then comes an explanation that may seem true: “I feel this way because I was bullied in high school”, or “I know it is my inner child longing for love because my mom was always absent”.
But the conscious mind doesn’t know the answer. It only pretends to know.
We can’t reach those deeper places from that part of the mind.
We must go beyond the mind and let go of what we think we know if we wish to know what is stored on those deeper levels.
It takes practice
It takes practice to reach those deeper places, and it can take time. But it is worth it.
When we get to the cause of what we experience on the surface, we go to the root of the problem.
What we discover, face, and heal on that level doesn’t come back – and it won’t reappear in another shape or form(that only happens if we haven’t dealt with the cause).
So, when we go to those deeper places inside, we can let go of what we have been carrying for years, maybe even decades. There is an enormous relief in that.
We become free (really free!).
It is the best feeling.
