JOURNEYS OF THE MIND- an extract from Journeys a 5000 word essay written by the author for a contest
The journey of the mind is the journey of life. There are no reservations, no travel agents, no queues, and no fog delays; othing of the conventional journey. But it is that one single journey that makes or breaks someone. The journey of the mind is the journey to the edge the cliff and back. And if your journey is doomed then over the cliff.
The human mind is a beautiful thing. The abstract concepts of the self are a creation of our mind. States of ecstasy and joy are felt in our mind only. But the mind is itself on a journey of evolution and self discovery. As children our mind knows single emotions only. So the joy that we experience as children is absolute and as children we find joy in the smallest of things. If most of us were to remember hard enough everyone would come up with some now trivial things that gave us joy. In my journeys recently I found myself walking on the most fashionable street in town with a friend. We passed a soap bubbles paraphernalia vendor blowing bubbles on the street. Six or seven children - small kids none over ten were having a gala time trying to touch the bubbles and watching the short lived bubbles magically disappear. You could see from the faces hear from their shouts and laughter that they were having a perfectly joyous moment. They did not remember any other thing at that moment and were enjoying themselves as if nothing else mattered.
This is what we loose on growing up I told my friend and in that time frame we mourned the loss of the wonderful thing called childhood. An unspoken silence of grief filled the distance between. We were two adults walking on the most fashionable street in Pune in trendy attire with sufficiently loaded pockets and yet the kids were far much happier than us. Later when we exchanged notes we knew that as adult’s absolute joy ceased to exist for us. The joy that we now felt was conditional. We thought of that one thing, that one deepest desire that would give us the most joy and we realized that even if we suddenly get it, those kids would still have more joy than us. During such moments life suddenly seems so bland.
The mind is a terrible thing. It determines your day, all your actions. At the edge of the cliff it’s the mind that makes you stumble forward not your feet. At the worst of times it can fill you with grief, for days make your existence a pain filled and a joy less void. I have been to the edge where I thought of suicide and how I survived the times even I don’t know. Looking back now at the very dark times I feel like laughing but back then joy it seemed had been exiled from my existence.
Afterwards when I emerged out of that dark period, I had changed. With joy having returned after many months, I learnt to appreciate joy in subtle things. I also had matured in the way that things that had earlier made me think of suicide would later simply hurt and even that would go after a while.
And during the journey of the mind I experienced a lot more emotions up from the earlier simple ones. It took a lot of time comprehending the mixed emotion. Sometimes love and hatred would mix wrenching my heart apart. At other times sadness would mix with helplessness poisoning my entire existence. Afterwards joy had brave new meanings and I leant to savor solitude.
The journey of the mind never ends. One phase is replaced by another. In my present journey I have graduated from total self discovery to trying to live with negative things like regrets disappointments and banishing other negative emotions wherever possible. The journey of the mind is also the effect of making your self what you want to be. I ceaselessly try to be a better human being ,a better person in my journeys.
The human mind is a beautiful thing. The abstract concepts of the self are a creation of our mind. States of ecstasy and joy are felt in our mind only. But the mind is itself on a journey of evolution and self discovery. As children our mind knows single emotions only. So the joy that we experience as children is absolute and as children we find joy in the smallest of things. If most of us were to remember hard enough everyone would come up with some now trivial things that gave us joy. In my journeys recently I found myself walking on the most fashionable street in town with a friend. We passed a soap bubbles paraphernalia vendor blowing bubbles on the street. Six or seven children - small kids none over ten were having a gala time trying to touch the bubbles and watching the short lived bubbles magically disappear. You could see from the faces hear from their shouts and laughter that they were having a perfectly joyous moment. They did not remember any other thing at that moment and were enjoying themselves as if nothing else mattered.
This is what we loose on growing up I told my friend and in that time frame we mourned the loss of the wonderful thing called childhood. An unspoken silence of grief filled the distance between. We were two adults walking on the most fashionable street in Pune in trendy attire with sufficiently loaded pockets and yet the kids were far much happier than us. Later when we exchanged notes we knew that as adult’s absolute joy ceased to exist for us. The joy that we now felt was conditional. We thought of that one thing, that one deepest desire that would give us the most joy and we realized that even if we suddenly get it, those kids would still have more joy than us. During such moments life suddenly seems so bland.
The mind is a terrible thing. It determines your day, all your actions. At the edge of the cliff it’s the mind that makes you stumble forward not your feet. At the worst of times it can fill you with grief, for days make your existence a pain filled and a joy less void. I have been to the edge where I thought of suicide and how I survived the times even I don’t know. Looking back now at the very dark times I feel like laughing but back then joy it seemed had been exiled from my existence.
Afterwards when I emerged out of that dark period, I had changed. With joy having returned after many months, I learnt to appreciate joy in subtle things. I also had matured in the way that things that had earlier made me think of suicide would later simply hurt and even that would go after a while.
And during the journey of the mind I experienced a lot more emotions up from the earlier simple ones. It took a lot of time comprehending the mixed emotion. Sometimes love and hatred would mix wrenching my heart apart. At other times sadness would mix with helplessness poisoning my entire existence. Afterwards joy had brave new meanings and I leant to savor solitude.
The journey of the mind never ends. One phase is replaced by another. In my present journey I have graduated from total self discovery to trying to live with negative things like regrets disappointments and banishing other negative emotions wherever possible. The journey of the mind is also the effect of making your self what you want to be. I ceaselessly try to be a better human being ,a better person in my journeys.
1 comment:
Dude , we grew old a little too quickly. You look in the mirror and the old Ace is gone consumed by something else. Too many years, too quickly
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