Purifying the Subconscious Mind

Every one of us can discern between what is right and what is wrong. Some people tell us, I know what is right and wrong, but I can’t stop myself doing what is wrong.

What is the reason for doing the wrong thing rather than doing what is right? Let’s take a look at our likes and dislikes or our basic nature. When we do this, we notice, that our likes and dislikes are deep rooted below the conscious mind. They are often impulse driven.

When we interact with the world, we invariably have a reaction. We see something we like, we want it and we act on it, whether it furthers our aim or not. An example is a sale of certain merchandise; many people buy the item even though they don’t need it.

In the choices that we make in life, we invariably have a tendency to choose what we like, what appeals to us especially when it comes to instant gratification and if it turns out to have been the wrong choice, we say, I should have known better.

When we observe our behavior patterns we discover, that we repeat this type of stimulus response frequently, we act and soon after, we say, I should not have done that.

We said that our choices are the result of our basic nature. What does this mean? It means that our basic nature emerges from our subconscious mind, from our mental impressions, when a sense stimulus enters our awareness and we act upon it, we invariably do so without thinking about it.  

It appears that our urges to act are often out of our control. If so is there a way out, is there a gap where the subconscious impulses enter the conscious mind?

At this point you may say, ‘I don’t personally respond like this’. It should be noted, that this type of response appears primarily in people who lack self discipline.

     The Gap

1.     Mental impressions – are subconscious  and uncontrollable

2.     Desire, likes and dislikes – are conscious and controllable

3.     Action, cause and effect – are uncontrollable

Between the above two levels – subconscious mental impressions 1) and action cause and effect 3) is the controllable level, the conscious level. This level presents the Gap, here the desire is still weak and we have an influence over how we respond or where the inappropriate action can be stopped and replaced with a correct response.

The key is to discriminate between what is in accordance with our aim and what is not. We allow into expression that which is in accordance with our aim, and we disallow that which is not and immediately replace it with something that is in accordance with our aim. But first, we have to be clear about what our aim is and then decide accordingly.

Many people unfortunately cause themselves problems by reacting to the dictates of their senses and repeat the same inappropriate responses over and over.

What is the process in all of this?

Our likes and dislikes come to us via our sense organs, hearing, sight, taste, touch and smell, every sense organ has a variety of likes and dislikes, we have to decide between what is good for us and what we would like to do,  for example: I want to get up at 6:00 AM in the morning and study for my exam because it is important for me to get the grades I need to move on to the next level, versus it is cold, I am going to stay in my warm and comfortable bed as long as I possibly can, forget about the exam.

Which urge takes over?

Since how we respond to a situation is on a conscious level, we do have control over it but we need to make the conscious decisions immediately when the negative thought fist surfaces, since the longer we wait the stronger the urge to make the inappropriate decision becomes.

In other words, we eliminate ‘the would should’ response with constructive action.

A – Represents what needs to be done and

B – What I would like to do, we need to eliminate B.

Now what has this to do with our topic of purifying the sub conscious mind?

As was said, our likes and dislikes come from our subconscious mental impressions. Imagine that these impressions go around a circle and come to the surface whenever the appropriate stimulus presents itself. It surfaces as a thought, and we respond. If we don’t change our inappropriate response, the thought goes back into the circle and appears again when the opportunity to express arises.

This is how we make the same mistake over and over. It becomes a conditioned response. If on the other hand we replace negative responses with positive ones, they will eventually replace the negative ones and the positive ones will gradually become dominant. As a result our future actions will be in accordance with our aim, a purified subconscious mind.