Here is a great reminder by the Meditation Master Shiva Rudra Balayogi that the brain has such a hold on us – we believe whatever it imagines as the fundamental truth which can lead us into mental suffering. However, we can overcome all such imaginations with our mind by practising meditation and achieve a supreme, lasting peace.
‘It is a peculiar relationship between mind and brain. Mind is our consciousness energy and brain is a biological organ. No doubt the brain is an amazing organ. We may not know fully about the brain. As common people we all understand the fact that due to the brain we have obtained this world’s consciousness. Definitely we, as consciousness, depend on the brain to live in this world with understanding, analyzing, judgments etc. however, in my opinion brain is a wonderful servant but a bad master if we allow it to be.
Just like when you have a servant, you may depend on the servant for many things. However you cannot have your servant in command. For example, when somebody comes to meet you, your servant’s job is just to inform you. You shall decide whether you want to meet that person or not. Instead if your servant decides that you do not have to meet that person, sends him away and simply informs you that a friend had come and he decided that you do not have to meet that person or friend of yours, that means you are a victim of your servant’s temperament and nature.
In the same way the brain is in touch with the universe, receives messages and passes on orders. In this process it reflects a thought process or visual effect. This reverberates in the mind. The mind catches these thoughts or visual effects and registers them in itself as a truth, that means it is a victim of the brain and its reflections. If mind was a by-product of the brain then this would have been true totally that there is no free will.
When you practice deeper meditation and achieve control of the mind you are able to keep the mind totally quiet and withdrawn from the clutches of the brain. You are also able to discriminate good and bad, right and wrong independently by using your brain but not by the brain’s order only. You are able to exercise determination, remain disciplined and not become a victim of the brain’s reflections. This we call an exercise in will power. As we practice deeper meditation we also discover that we do not have to depend for happiness on the world’s objects which are reflected by the brain, but keeping the mind quiet supreme peace can be experienced.’