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mind is a delusion.” With a smile Swami replied, “The mind is a bundle of desires.”
Why this focus on desires? What is so important about the issue of desires?
In the West, many accept the false belief that happiness comes from external objects. This delusion is maintained and sustained by our desire for external objects, which draws us away from internal lasting happiness. In fact, Swami says that all spiritual practices are aimed at controlling the wayward mind (bundle of desires) that can bring us either bondage or liberation. The mind gets in the way of turning within to the heart.
As a psychiatrist, I should have known that happiness is an inner experience that is not dependent on external objects. This truth can be seen from an easy experiment. If a person is siing in an old chair and wants a new chair, but doesn’t have the money to buy it, he might feel very sad. If this person is hypnotized and told that he is siing in a new desirable chair, then he becomes very happy. Why? The person’s happiness doesn’t come from the actual chair; it comes from an inner experience. The source of his happiness is located inside.
The Inner Wellspring of Love
The rainbow in the sky is formed by the dispersion of one single, pure, white ray by raindrops. It symbolizes multiplicity in nature caused by the prism of the mind. The diversity of the five elements in creation has its origin in the pure divine light within. (SSB)
When awareness is passed through the prism of the mind and through the senses into the external world it becomes aracted to multifarious objects and causes us pleasure and pain. But when we find the inner
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