Mental Clarity
Most human activity is based upon the instinct to survive, that compulsion that tells us to do what is right for me. The instinct that tells us to move towards happiness and away from pain and suffering. Because of this interest to survive, we tend to see everything as it relates to us, instead of as it really is. Our perception becomes cloudy, murky and obscure.
To move towards mental clarity it is imperative that we learn to see things for themselves. To see things in a way that strip away our own personal preferences, needs, wants and desires. In a way that does not include our instinct to survive, our self-interest.
What if I told you that grasping this distinction will lead to mental clarity, concentration and focus, happiness and the end of suffering?! Do I have your attention now?
Nothing seems to be more important to us than our own happiness. Culturally we are predisposed to believe that obtaining our wants and desires will bring us happiness. But will it? Usually what we end up with is a short term rush or thrill, a brief sense of achievement that quickly fades away. We may even succeed in temporarily alleviating some pain, fear, stress or anxiety related to our self interests. But is this happiness?
Perhaps we will receive some sense of joy or giddiness at the moment of achievement and for a while thereafter. Contrary to common belief, the pleasant emotional rush associated with accomplishing some goal or avoiding some threat or danger is not an experience of happiness but instead an experience of victory or relief.
The next survival issue is sure to occur very soon, and will persist into the future, followed by another, and then another, quickly washing away any short-lived experience of victory or relief that we had.
Although it seems like it, happiness was never the true goal of our efforts. Self survival was our only true goal. While we all say that we want to be happy, our real goal is to get what we want, and to avoid what we don’t want. This is an important distinction because wanting and not wanting are just a reflex of self-survival and self-interest. Neither of which lead to mental clarity, concentration and focus.
We are like the proverbial mouse on the treadmill, running endlessly, in an attempt to reach the cheese. However it’s always just out of reach. The real purpose of the cheese is to get us to run. We never have any real chance of attaining it. Unfortunately we don’t know that. We think happiness is the cheese but in fact, happiness lies outside of the wheel. Happiness is something else entirely.
Instead our self-survival instinct is the proverbial cheese that keeps us moving forward, not our vain attempts at happiness. And if we didn’t think we could get the cheese we would simply stop running all together and give up.
Our entire self-survival-interest, or our survival instinct, has created this persistent dynamic that keeps us chasing after some unreachable prize and keeps us in a state of delusion void of any real mental clarity, concentration and focus.
Here’s the question I pose for you today: “Can you get off the mouse wheel, see the truth, and finally find true happiness?”
This means seeing things for themselves, in a pure and non-obscured way, void of the “me” perspective. Mental clarity, concentration and focus are obtained when the power of your own self-interest loses it’s power and control over you, and when you can see things for themselves with no concern for yourself.
I make no false claims. This is a very difficult thing to do. We are talking about stepping outside of ourselves (getting off the mouse wheel) and challenging our own very existence and the very evolution (intellectually and culturally) that we are the product of.
Difficult – yes. Impossible – no. If you seek mental clarity, concentration and focus, the truth lies within. The Yoga Awakening Meditation Collection will provide all of the guidance you need to answer the really tough questions.
To Mental Clarity, Abundance and Excellent Health
Namaste,
Tony D’Agostino
Founder and CEO of Yoga Awakening
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