Mental conflict is a struggle between the force of life and the force of death, a struggle for awareness and deeper understanding. Five ways to grow on the mental level: the conflict of ideas, satsaḿga, sádhaná, svádhyáya and holy places.
A mental conflict, or mental clash, is — just as on the physical level — a conflict between the force of life and the force of death: a struggle for awareness, a struggle for deeper understanding, a struggle to truly strive for the truth, not to stop, to keep searching for the essence, to study, to look deeply, to stay open and to move toward the truth every day of one's life.
Life is understanding; it is essence. Death is a frozen form without understanding, without awareness.
On the mental level the force of death is represented by dogma — a dead and lifeless idea that does not let us step beyond the periphery. Dogma is delusion and thinking in stereotypes. In a dogmatic mind no process of thinking takes place, and a person argues in clichés.
How do we develop on the mental level?
1. Development through the conflict of ideas
Two different ideas always stand against each other: there is a thesis, there is an antithesis, and as a result a more perfect idea is synthesized — meaningful and deeply thought through.
The conflict of ideas comes about through education, through developing the ability to think logically and rationally, and through reading good literature.
The conflict of ideas can lead either toward growth or toward degeneration. When a crude idea of the mind meets a subtler one, the two ideas clash and then a compromise is found. The crude idea becomes a little subtler. For example, the idea "live only for yourself" meets the idea "service, and living for other people." In the course of conflict and struggle, the subtler and truer idea, "live for other people too," wins. As a result consciousness has risen higher; an expansion has taken place.
And the other way round: if we cultivate a high consciousness but do not protect ourselves from the constant daily attack of crude ideas, gradual degeneration is possible. So, having a high moral guiding star, we need to choose and do the things that bring consciousness closer to that moral, spiritual guiding star, and avoid what can lead consciousness to degenerate.
Degeneration means that a person becomes less and less happy; their idea of happiness, their perception of happiness, narrows down to the most primitive: eating, sleeping and so on.
2. Development through satsaḿga
Human consciousness is most exposed to crude ideas in society, so it is very important to find the right company. Satsaḿga — the spiritual company of people who aspire upward — leads to liberation. Spending time in spiritual company helps development. Harmonious behavior and high ideas become a guide. Consciousness comes into contact with higher waves of mind and is drawn toward them.
It is especially easy to pick up the wave of consciousness of a living teacher. This does not happen on the level of intellectual understanding, because the knowledge is taken in by deeper layers of the mind. Under the influence of the high wave created by inner discoveries, inner struggle and deep changes, the people near such a person will very quickly come up to a high standard.
Avoiding bad company is a special practice of A practical spiritual science of expanding the mind and freeing it from bondage; not a religion and not about sex. — mudrá Spiritual practice: the daily effort, above all meditation, to move the mind toward the Infinite..
Satsaḿga means contact with eternity. Even when a person who, at their pace of development, still has a very long and thorny road ahead comes into such company, they begin to evolve spiritually very quickly.
3. The next factor of mental development is sádhaná — meditation
In meditation there is a supreme idea, the idea of infinity: "Supreme Consciousness is all that there is." Supreme Consciousness is the idea of absolute goodness, love and bliss.
The A sound or set of sounds that, repeated with its meaning in mind, carries the mind toward the Infinite. is repeated and comes into contact with ordinary thoughts and the intellect. The whole mind is filled with the energy and meaning of the mantra, and an expansion takes place. Sádhaná is the greatest gift; using it, one can move very quickly along the path of spiritual evolution.
4. Development through svádhyáya
Svádhyáya means studying spiritual scriptures. Reading spiritual literature brings us into contact with the mind of a spiritual master. The small mind touches infinity, ponders, meditates, and in time notices that the effect of spiritual literature is that it gives more than information. It gives inspiration and energy. In a short time a person goes through unique, deep transformations that might otherwise have come only three or four lives later.
5. Being in a holy place where people have done spiritual practice and meditated
Every city should have at least one such holy place for collective practice. It acquires a particular vibration, and every time you are there, your mind will be uplifted.
There are places on earth where a yogi attained the highest realization. When a person attains such realization, it is comparable to the explosion of an atomic bomb, but on the spiritual level. Colossal energy is released, and the whole space for hundreds of meters around remembers that energy. Thousands of years will pass, but the place will remain holy. Meditating in such a place, the mind rises upward. Such places are not for pilgrimage.
The idea of pilgrimage sites is that visiting them supposedly wipes away sins automatically and credits you with positive bonuses. There is no need to travel to holy places on purpose, but when you have the chance to be in a holy place, it is better to use it.
So, by overcoming mental conflict and casting off delusions, consciousness rises to a new, subtler idea. This spiritual movement means leaving crude delusions behind. And by gradually elevating consciousness, the spiritual seeker comes to greater subtlety and, in the end, to the truth.