The One Answer to All Mental Suffering || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

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00:00Hello sir. My question is that I am fully aware of the thoughts that I am having most

00:07of the times. So I feel like ever since, so for a year and a half I feel like I have been

00:13going through something. It's a low phase. I acknowledge the suffering and I know how

00:18to come out of it. But then I feel like I keep getting stuck in the same thought cycle

00:23again and again. I find an answer and then I am back at it. Something small happens and

00:28then I am back at the same cycle. The intensity reduces over time. So I feel like if I look

00:33back a year and a half ago, maybe it was this big and now it's just it too and I am almost

00:38out. But then the thing is that it still keeps coming back. It's the same thought process,

00:45it's the same conclusion and then it repeats. So how do you break it? That means the solution

00:53is wrong. You don't need a solution for the existing mental pattern. If you will think

00:58in terms of what to do with what's going on in the mind, then you are only providing it

01:00with more energy, more respect, more consideration, more respect, more consideration. That just

01:07continues the cycle. Thought is important. Thought is important. Thought is necessary. One is

01:14needs a higher plane of thought. One needs a higher plane of thought. One needs a higher object

01:21to think about. Involve yourself with thinking. Involve yourself with thinking. Involve yourself

01:28with something so humongous, so implacable, so humongous, so implacable, so humongous, so

01:35tremendously important that you cannot ignore it even for a second. And that is what is necessary.

01:42And that is what is necessary. One needs a higher plane of thought. One needs a higher object

01:44to think about. Involve yourself with something so humongous, so implacable and so tremendously important

02:00that you cannot ignore it even for a second. And then all the petty kinds of little thoughts

02:11and nonsense that invade the mind and clutter it, you will find they don't have space. They

02:20are crowded out. If you will keep your mind available to anything that the world wants to keep in

02:37it, then the mind will become a storehouse of random thoughts, experiences, memories, desires.

02:50And the mind does want something. You cannot just say, I'll keep my mind clean and there'll

02:54be nothing in it. That's humanly impossible. Even if that's possible, that's the last stage

03:00of wisdom. When the mind is absolutely free of all content. Where you are, you need content.

03:10And you need pure, proper, solid content in the mind. So help yourself with that. Give yourself

03:18something worth living for. More importantly, something worth dying for.

03:28So the follow up question comes even from the previous things that you mentioned. I often

03:34find myself asking who am I? Then I have the answer ki because I've been exposed to spiritual

03:41knowledge since birth. My family is spiritual. We follow a school of thought which is known

03:46as . So I feel like I have the knowledge. But I keep forgetting. I don't know how to frame

03:54the question. It's just that, okay, I need to find something like you said worth dying for.

04:00So that I don't have anything that is not worth thinking about. I'm not giving it that

04:05much importance. But then how does it come? How do I find that answer?

04:13You don't have to find an answer. You have to let that answer be admitted. Because the answer

04:22is right there in front of you. You don't have to ask who am I. You have to see who you

04:28are. When you say, oh I ask who am I, but sometimes I forget who I am. Then isn't it obvious who

04:37you are. You are the forgetful one. You are the quality of your present action. You are

04:47not some theoretical answer of identity. Some book says, oh you are the fragmented consciousness

04:58and you start saying, oh I am fragmented consciousness. Some say, I am the absolute self and you become

05:03the absolute self. No. You are right now. Attention itself if you are indeed listening to me. So

05:12who are you? Attention. Unfortunately this identity won't last. Soon you will be distracted and dissipated.

05:23You will become somebody else. The discipline lies in holding on to the highest identity possible.

05:32And the highest identity is not an abstraction. Highest identity simply means that which you

05:41know to be the highest given your limited capacity. In your limited capacity, limited age, limited

05:50experience, limited knowledge, whatever, you still know something to be the highest. Right?

05:55Now stick to that. That's what who you should be. That's what should be the proper answer

06:08to who am I. Who am I is not a question that you ask yourself in solitude. So you having done

06:15through the usual chores of the day, you sit in a corner and you ask yourself in a ritualistic way,

06:21who am I? And you already know the answer in advance because the spiritual path has provided you

06:28with a ready made answer. So it's a nice game going on with the self. I'll ask myself a question.

06:34The question is ready made. And then I'll give myself an answer and the answer too is?

06:40Ready made. So who am I? I am the Atma. Happy. Walk away. What is this? Is this inquiry?

06:47Do you call this kind of a thing as inquiry where the answer is pre-ordered, ready made, well

06:54known in advance? No, this is not inquiry. Who am I? Is, is, is… Ma'am, you totally changed

07:09who I am. Who am I? Is a burning torch. It's supposed to totally destroy your illusions. So you are,

07:31you are just feasting on something. And two minutes before that, you had told yourself that

07:38you are the Shuddha Atma. And now you are swallowing the Samosa. So who you really are,

07:48please tell me. I am the gluttonous one. That's all. No. Though it's quite tempting to say,

08:04I am the Atma currently lost in Samosa. Kindly don't yield to that temptation. If the Samosa

08:15is what is dominating your mind, then the Samosa is your identity. Accept that even if it humiliates

08:22you. That's the tragedy. It keeps changing. What should be the state of mind while living?

08:34You already decided that the Samosa is a must. Hmm? But even if the Samosa is a must, at least be honest

08:44enough to say, I am the Samosa lover. Don't say, I am Atma. I am the Samosa lover.

08:55Obviously. Please tell me from your own experience. What does this change mean? This change means that

09:03you are at the mercy of conditions. And obviously this change is not something sitting here,

09:11engaging in this discussion. You are at a certain level and that's your identity. Hmm? And we'll walk out,

09:22and then other things will take over, and all the attentiveness will be lost. Do you think that is good?

09:30So this change is obviously not good.

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