Going Beyond the Mind Games

When we see dysfunctional behavior in others, it makes us sick. However, when we see it in ourselves it's usually only after we have lashed out with a venomous attack against someone.

It's easier for some of us to believe that so-and-so is responsible for our behavior. Yet, we find it difficult to believe we are actually messy, the propagators of the hurtful gossip and the envious verbal daggers plunged into the backs of our friends, family members, and strangers.

Many of us find that it's also easier to feel victimized by the mind games perpetrated on us by our leaders than to take the time to find out what's happening inside our own minds that's causing us to feel this way. We sometimes forget that during our lifetime, we have filled our minds with so much intellectual garbage that they are cesspools for breeding dysfunctional behavior.

Nevertheless, on some occasions, when some of us get the courage to look inward and try to find out what's going on, it's downright shameful to discover all the toxic beliefs we have acquired over the years. They're stacked on top of each other, fighting for supremacy of our minds.

And some of them, such as anger, envy, jealousy, hatred, and addictions, have taken over. They own the space in our minds. While we try all types of things -- religion, prayer, meditation, money, fame, and so on -- to get rid of them, they continue to remain responsible for expressing the dysfunctional behavior in our lives.

After spending considerable time searching within the clutter, the toxic beliefs dumps, and the intellectual stench scattered throughout our minds, we get faint glimpses that most, if not all, of our beliefs came from our society, our parents, and our life experiences. And once we discover this fact, we usually don't want to go any further in our self-discovery, because we don't want to cast aspersions toward our parents.

Similarly, many of us actually feel badly even considering that our hardworking parents actually introduced us to our beliefs. Some of us feel like we're being ungrateful to our parents for all they did for us when we couldn't take care of ourselves.

Unfortunately, the deeper we go in our minds the clearer our understanding of life becomes. At some level,  we're able to see our lives without the illusions causing our dysfunctional behavior.  Some of us call this the level of clarity. 

When we gain the clarity to understand the origins of our beliefs, then we're able to stop playing mind games with ourselves. We can see our behavior as nothing more than reflections of our beliefs. And we are also  able to understand that our parents, acting as surrogates for society, were as victimized by their beliefs as we are now.

Meanwhile, for us to go beyond the mind games of blame, we must be willing to perceive ourselves with power that's independent of what we have been taught by others.

This means we must unlearn the toxic beliefs and develop the necessary clarity of mind to express the colorless, formless, and faceless awareness in our minds awaiting to be born into the world. This is a twenty-first century example of being born again.

When we stop playing mind games with ourselves, being reborn is nothing more than removing the dysfunctional behavior from our lives. Unfortunately, since we are the ones who are acting dysfunctional,  then we must be the ones responsible for changing the behavior.

So for this period of time when we are living as part of the holidays, let's begin to celebrate by being mindful of our mind games. And to commit ourselves to overcoming the dysfunctional behavior that's spewing from our minds.

Peace and enlightenment to all!