Bridge between mind and senses...

As one sleeps on a ventilator what does the mind do? Does it rest? Do memories flash by? One such person floated through awareness and silence and woke up from the deep sleep hearing at first a murmur and then the clear voices floating around and in a few more minutes the direction the voices were coming were distinct. It was then when there was clarity to the voices and the words were taking shape.

“He has been on a ventilator for too many days and there has been no response. Maybe it is time to take a decision. Let us take a call by 10.45’’, he heard the voice say.

The person who was waking up to his surroundings knew that they were talking about him and he would have liked to participate in the conversation and have his say but could not even lift a finger to raise his point but alas, leave the finger he could not open his eyelids. But the ‘will’ was not going to give up.

The life energy that flows through the body could be the gentle air we inhale and exhale in a rhythm but the senses of hearing picked up the voices, which are actually waves but the brain that has been trained in the language woke up the mind – the house of the will.

The will was in full gear since then and then a little later the door opened again, “Doctor I am alive’’, said the person who has been sleeping. Someone in the team broke down.

“It is the will of God’’, he explained later to a friend.

Even otherwise we go into deep slumber in the routine day to day lifestyle not really having the urge to go through self growth when all of a sudden a sharp shake wakes you up into reality. It takes so long to drift but a few seconds once reality strikes it urges us to appreciate what we have and how we ought to utilise what we have.

Life never comes with a blue print and that is the beauty and the irony of this gift. It gives us full freedom to choose our form of existence such that we have our freedom on how to plan our time to the experiences we want to seek.

A lot of time it is said that our environment makes us who we are but if that is true how does the lotus stand spotless being in the muddy water? The lotus has only one focus – the sun and it takes all the nourishment from the water. It rises with the sun and closes to rest as the sun sets. Yet again there are flowers who wait to bloom just for the moon and interesting that they are in white colour to ensure they can be spotted at night under the moonlight.

The flowers have a purpose and so does everything on earth, except that none of them causes destruction to earth as much as man. We have got water and air polluted, we have left plastic and nets in the oceans and exhausted trees and greenery and cannot bear the heat and climate change.

All because we were gifted with the mind to think and plan for the future. In the heat of the summer the ants are working nonstop for the winter. But we are not able to safeguard our future instead debating on who is the supreme power and competing on who knows better.

The bridge between the mind and the senses is the breath. Follow it and you will realise how your mind influences the breath and how you can control your mind with the breath. That is when you realise the games thoughts play. But are thoughts separated from the mind. This is where the ‘will’ comes to focus. The will can tell the mind to ‘wake up’ and to reach that state we need energy that can be brought in from the breath and lots of positivity around us and not to forget food.

And what could be the most nourishing gifts we can give each other – kind words.