Page 86 - Quranic Wisdom - New.indd

De-condition the Mind

remove these external forms of pollution and restore the human
personality to its pristine state.
In this sense, one can say that every human being has two
different periods of his life—the pre-maturity period and the
post-maturity period. In the former period, due to conditioning,
everyone’s mind is full of different elements, both black
and white. Thus everyone’s mind is a jungle of thoughts. De-
conditioning then basically calls for the mind to be sorted out.
Through introspection or self-criticism, all those notions which
are really undesirable can be discovered. The fact is that in the age
of immaturity, no one has the power to distinguish between the
true and the specious, so he imbibes everything indiscriminately.
Now he needs to cast out all erroneous and therefore superfluous
ideas. For this, he has to develop the power to recognize which
are the undesirable elements of which he must rid his mind, so
as to make himself a purified person or a de-conditioned mind.

There is no mathematical way to sort out this mixture of good
and bad. It is a completely subjective process. Everyone must
develop the power to distinguish between wanted and unwanted
things, between biased and unbiased opinions. This kind of
ability is a must if you are to de-condition your conditioning.
Why de-condition? The process of conditioning has a
deleterious effect upon your personality. It is the art of de-
conditioning that makes you able to return to your original
status. The process of de-conditioning is a process of cleansing.
There is no other way to develop your potential other than de-
conditioning or cleansing.

De-conditioning is not a very easy process. You have to
initiate a relentless process by which to identify and eliminate all
undesirable facets of your personality. It is like self-flagellation,
during which you should be prepared to accept all kinds of
criticism. Conditioning is like living in darkness, whereas de-
conditioning means re-entering the golden light of day.

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