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The Key Factors

To some degree this chaotic condition is being stimulated by “reminders” in the environment. Attending meditation classes or going on vacations serves to calm the mind because the disturbing environment is put in abeyance. But that is a temporary fix only. When a person returns to his usual environment the chaotic condition gets activated again.

Permanent solution to the chaotic condition requires accessing the unassimilated experiences and assimilating them in the mind. The following factors are fundamental to bring about this assimilation.

1. Have attention refine perception into perceptual elements.

2. Let free association bring assimilation of perceptual elements.

3. Let assimilation proceed throughout the mental matrix.

The chaotic condition of the mind calms down permanently as this assimilation takes place.

The calming of the mind depends on accessing and assimilating all experiences.

Attention

Mental shocks are the root cause of a chaotic mind. When shock enters the mind attention gets scattered. As a result all discernment is gone and mental chaos ensues. Attention is the first casualty that brings about the chaotic condition of the mind. The function of attention is to bring discernment to what is perceived.

In other words, attention refines perception into perceptual elements for assimilation in the mental matrix. Absence of assimilation generates mental chaos. Presence of mental chaos means scattered attention.

Rehabilitation of attention is the vital first step in the handling of mental chaos.

The Discipline of Mindfulness

Discipline is needed to rehabilitation attention. Attention got scattered because a shock interfered with attention. Attention remains scattered when the interference continues. Interference needs to be reined in so attention can rehabilitate. The discipline that helps rein in interference is called mindfulness.

Under this discipline a person does not avoid, resist, suppress, deny or interfere with attention. This allows free association that rehabilitates attention, allows refinement of perception, and brings about assimilation of perceptual elements.

The discipline of mindfulness thus allows attention to regroup. The moment that happens unassimilated experiences start to line up to be resolved. Attention then brings discernment to properly assimilate these experiences. With assimilation comes relief from mental chaos.

The discipline of Mindfulness makes it possible for the attention to rehabilitate itself and bring about the assimilation needed to reduce mental chaos.

 

Clearing up Justifications

The person may find that his need to defend his beliefs comes up first. These are justifications that give him the reason to be the way he is. Since he is not happy in his present condition he must pay close attention to these justifications.

As the person examines these justifications under the discipline of mindfulness, he lets himself experience the need to defend himself without avoiding, resisting, suppressing, denying or otherwise interfering with it. This allows free association to take place. Consequently, assimilation comes about, and the need to defend oneself with that justification disappears. This is followed by relief.

One after another such justifications may appear and disappear under the discipline of mindfulness. Over time the person may feel considerable relief. The chaos in the mind lessens, and it becomes easier to address deeper justifications. This may go on for days and weeks.

The first things to clear up are the justifications that the person uses to defend his condition and the way he is.

Clearing up Anomalies

As justifications are cleared up the anomalies start to show up. This includes discontinuities, or things that don’t make sense. Also included are disharmonies, or conflicts that are making life miserable. The person starts to acknowledge their presence, whereas, he was ignoring them before. Anomalies also include inconsistencies that were not real to him before but now he sees them.

These anomalies make him uncomfortable, but he has greater attention available now to address them. As he examines them closely under the discipline of mindfulness, he experiences the discomfort. As he continues to examine them the discomfort starts to disappear. The anomalies disintegrate and get assimilated as free association takes place.

As anomalies get sorted out the person feels great relief. He may start to realize some of the aspects of the underlying unassimilated node. He is getting close to accessing the shocking experience which started his mental chaos.

The next things to clear up are anomalies, which the person has been avoiding most of his life by running after distractions.

Clearing up the Unassimilated Node

Evidently, introverting the attention forcefully, or by trickery, to get to unassimilated nodes, as in earlier methods, only makes the situation worse by stirring up the mind. The mindfulness approach works because it lets the mind unwind naturally.

As the person continues to examine the anomalies, the unassimilated node may come quite suddenly. The person may feel its “shock” but it is never as extreme as the original shock. As that long forgotten shocking experience is finally assimilated, he feels a tremendous relief.

Fortunately, there are not that many unassimilated nodes. After all the hard work that went earlier, these unassimilated nodes are easy to clear up. The person now feels cheerful and greatly motivated.

It now becomes a second nature for him to clear up other justifications, anomalies, confusions, misunderstandings etc., as they come up to his attention.

The person now gives up his various distractions and gets busy with his long cherished goals. Life becomes very worthwhile for him. He is very happy.

The final things to clear up are the shocking experiences, which got buried in the person’s mind as unassimilated nodes.

Troubleshooting

Sometimes mental conditioning is so strong that a person cannot even ground one’s attention to look at the simplest of justifications. In such cases, the person should simply focus attention on physical perceptions of touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste to build it up. Exercises shall be provided later for this purpose.

Any method used to handle the mind must never suggest anything, since that can have hypnotic effects. The method should simply focus on assimilating what already exists in the mind. In the present method the focusing of attention means, “Narrowing down of target”. It starts broad and narrows down quickly to what needs to be assimilated at that moment.

One applies this method process in small steps so the progress is smooth without much effort. It is always okay to consult a dictionary, encyclopedia or Wikipedia, to get missing information to handle confusion. This applies especially to meaning of words, symbols and concepts.

One should be alert for any kind of avoidance, resistance, suppression or denial within oneself. He should examine that area at the earliest opportunity under the discipline of mindfulness. The handling could be as simple as letting one’s conscious thinking be in sync with free association. This may go a long way in reducing stress in the mind.

It is important not to interfere with free association. One may get lost in thoughts, become oblivious and even doze off during this process but the free association continues regardless. So let these manifestations take place. One will wake up sooner or later feeling quite refreshed.

Unassimilated nodes are resolved by carefully observing sensations, emotions and thoughts in the order they come up. They will appear dissociated with the surrounding context. As one holds these sensations, emotions and thoughts closely in one’s mind, and lets the free association occur, the dissociations start to resolve and ultimately vanish.

It is to be noted that the pain, discomfort and confusion may at first increase as one focuses on them, but as one willingly experiences them; they start to resolve into finer elements and assimilate into the mental matrix.

Unassimilated experiences resolve quickly as one re-experiences them willingly.

Summary

This chapter explains how the mental chaos may be addresses and resolved in steps. The subsequent chapters provide the discipline and exercises to help one along with resolving the mental chaos.

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