Crack-berry
am undergoing rehab. Rehabilitation from an addiction given the name “Crack-berry.” In 2006, the hottest thing in the market was the blackberry and the service of delivering and sending e-mail at real time. It was the thing that everyone, connected to the global information world, needed to have. Well, I had one such devise for a whole year due to necessity of work and realized why the nickname was coined. “Crack” is the slang for cocaine, a deadly substance that is addictive and destroys lives. A year back, I was even arguing the benefits of the swift information access with a CEO friend whose international businesses require him to be in constant communication access. He didn’t have a crack-berry. He abruptly told me he knew he needed one but whether he wanted to get into that pattern was something he wasn’t sure he wanted to do. He still doesn’t have one. A year later, I realized there was a lot of wisdom to his decision.
Well, my rehab began when I just gave back my blackberry-enabled phone to the office and abruptly saw the difference in my life. My urgent addictive need to check messages and e-mail, anywhere and anytime was totally gone. During times when I needed to bring my mind to a rest, the addiction of having the phone at hand was just too much, and so... e-mail reading, text messaging and the like just didn’t stop. My rehab process was actually just about bringing back my consciousness to a more refined level, unplugging it when I needed to. I am not a terminal case. I know friends who are so totally caught up in the accessing of information, the curiosity of wanting to constantly know what is out there, the desire to just chat, post, send a drink, e-mail, reads up and You Tube view the world and get into other minds. Oh, let’s not forget the television with a multitude of channels, the ads creeping at us everywhere, the pirated DVDs that one has to get since they are so cheap, the movies one has to catch, the countless newsletters and bulletins delivered to our homes. The whole information overload. Our waking world is bombarded with images, noise and information. This we bring to our sleep states, where our minds constantly chatter, think, visualize, analyze — keeping us awake until the dawn arises. Let’s add to the chattering mind the emotions that arise in the heart, pains, repressions, judgments, hurts... wow, this list is endless. It’s really a bit much.
Someone told me during a workshop I was giving that he was so very tired as his life was on the fast lane, his mind was charging ahead of him and he couldn’t sleep. I asked him, “So who is in control? Obviously you aren’t. You have allowed the mind to take control of you!” When we think that we are trying to control our lives, our schedules and all our output, and when we realize we can’t sleep, then we actually have lost all control, and even perhaps our priorities. Sleep allows our souls to go back to the great cosmos to recuperate and recharge before the body awakens to run the marathon of another day. If the soul can’t even do this, then we are on a fast track of depriving ourselves of our very essence — that of being a spiritual being. We become like animals, and okay, in worst case scenarios, become like androids, who move about in some kind of blur, existing and not living. Unless we make clear choices and put the brakes on. Then we, as a species, have a chance.
This is the world we are in. It will remain this way and perhaps even accelerate more with the noise and din. This is the sphere around which humanity is working out its transformative healing processes, bringing forth issues out in the open which affects other people, and yes, nature, too. (Negative energies projected from the thought form level creates the reality we see in the physical world today — ergo human conflicts, natural disasters, global warming, you get the picture). This is also the world that is fast expanding to increase our experiences in other dimensions and states of consciousness.
To control the mind means to get out of the mind. And this can only be done by inner work and quiet meditation. There is no other way. We must make time to balance ourselves. We have to prioritize such time, even as little as 15 minutes a day, to sit in silence, clear out minds, listen to our breathing, feel our bodies to be connected once more to our cores. It’s really just like taking a shower or brushing our teeth. We need to do these daily habits or we will not be clean. We need to sit in silence to remember that we are spiritual beings living out the dramas of our lives in the mundane world. We need to be reflective to find meaning in the moments, be intensely alive in them, yet watching these going-ons from another higher level, which is our soul awareness. Only then do we begin to find meaning, true meaning.
The Bible says, “Be still and know that I am God.” In the silence of our inner world, the luminous form of Divine Spirit resides, and when we are sensitive to its ways and movement, it directs one’s life. In silence, let us just allow the thought forms to arise in the mind, then let them loose with no attachments. When you find yourself following the train of the thought, go back and ground yourself with your breathing pattern. The quiet inhale and exhale will bring you to a gentle rhythm and back to the meditative state. A daily habit of 15 minutes will inevitably stretch to more time due to the peace and inner clarity you will obtain from this. The added plus are the fruits of the spirit: joy, contentment, love and, hey, peaceful sleep!
