Just because the mind’s tendency for distraction, invention, or exaggeration does not die, does not mean that our tendency to trust the mind cannot die.

Our mind tends to undermine us in many ways, but those could be broadly categorized into strategies that could be summarized using the acronym D-I-E: Distraction, Invention, Exaggeration.

To understand how this three-pronged strategy can undermine us, let’s consider a war metaphor. An army preparing to fight invaders can be sabotaged by distraction, where it focuses on diverting attention—a decoy—whereby the majority of its forces are consumed in a minor skirmish on the sidelines, leaving its major flank understaffed or undefended. Similarly, our mind may distract us with some minor issue, leaving us, or at least under-equipped, to deal with major substantive issues.

The second strategy of the mind centers on invention, where it invents or imagines problems that do not even exist. Phrased in the military metaphor, the defending army will get unnecessarily intimidated or overwhelmed if they are fed an invention or fabrication that the enemy possesses weapons for which the defenders have no match when the enemy does not possess such sophisticated weapons. Thus, the mind can make us imagine problems when they don’t exist at all and thereby discourage us.

Thirdly, the mind can resort to exaggerations whereby the problems we face are made out to be far bigger than what they actually are, and the measures we need to take are also made out to be far bigger than what they actually are. Phrased in terms of the military metaphor, the defending army can be undermined if they are made to believe that the opposing invading forces are far stronger than they actually are, or that the war will take a far greater toll than what it is likely to take.

Even when we know that our mind tends to sabotage us through distraction, invention, or exaggeration, we may still succumb to its manipulations and machinations. To protect ourselves, we need to recognize that the mind’s deceptive tendencies are not likely to die in the foreseeable future. What is possible is that our tendency to believe the mind’s propaganda can die.

The more we strive for purification, first through meditation, which consistently reminds us that we are different from our mind, and then through purification via introspection, which helps us become more acutely aware of the many instances when our mind has worked against our interests, the more such purified perception can help us distance ourselves from our mind, decrease our tendency to believe its lies, and act accordingly.

Summary:

  • Just as in a war, a defending army may be undermined by the deceptions of the invading army, so too can we be undermined by the deceptions created by our mind.
  • These deceptive strategies coming from our mind can be summarized in the acronym DIE: Distraction, Invention, and Exaggeration.
  • Our tendency to believe the mind can be diminished by pursuing the purification that results from meditation and introspection.

Think It Over:

  • What are the three broad ways in which the mind can undermine us?
  • Can you recall one instance of each of these sinister strategies at work in your own life or in others’?
  • How can we protect ourselves from our mind’s manipulations?

06.05 One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.