Mystic Mantra: The sum and substance of life

All of us wax lyrical about a precept — that our self-consciousness is a logical, divine, as also spiritual process. The offshoot of such a “norm” is obvious — it allures us to embrace and preserve the “divine in everything”. This holds the tenet to our idea of self-consciousness as a form of sentient attentiveness, or mysticism — one that relates, no less, to our mind as its innermost resident entity. What does this signify? That our true self, including its understanding, or whole expanse — through the process of what is universally termed as “mindfulness” — holds the key to our entire being. You’d also think of it as a transcendent article of faith that epitomises the breath of life, or “prana”, placed alongside the syntax of our feelings and emotions. Modern medicine calls it immunity, or immune resistance, or defence, while holistic, integrative medicine refers to its sublime, archetypal framework as our innermost therapeutic agent that all of us are bestowed with — in mind, body, spirit or soul.

When you put them all — mindfulness and its spiritual expanse, including the wholesome, functional finesse of our body intelligence and healing — in one hamper — they symbolise our conscious responsiveness. Put simply, they exemplify, or typify, the fact that each of us is the personification, or embodiment, of all our contemplative thoughts as also our feelings. This may, of course, look simple, or unpretentious, on the surface; however, it is, in reality, weighty and intense. This is primarily because no matter the incessant glut of our life experiences, there are certain thought processes that aren’t perpetual. They are essentially transitory; not enduring. Yet, the fact is clear-cut — when we attain a steady state of attentive responsiveness of the self, our conscious alertness becomes abiding, while reaching its highest level. As psychoanalyst-philosopher Erich Fromm exemplified: “Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be.”

It is imperative that all of us possess a constant, continuing sense of conscious awareness to realising the most intense level of our being through our unconscious self. This isn’t, however, as easy to achieve as it may appear to be — as philosopher Soren Kierkegaard précised: “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” The inference is simple — we should aim to experience and comprehend life as being distinctively aligned to our conscious and unconscious self, including the essence of our feelings from deep within and also without. This is primarily because the moment we surrender to the “divine in us”, we not only transcend the tedious, but also surmount every recurrent dilemma of day-to-day life.