Mental Prison - Ego and the Ordinary Mind

Imagine the Ordinary Mind as a thought prison andthe Ordinary Mind. These are not, of course,
the ego as the warden. Anything that goes onactual voices, but for this explanation "voices" is
within the Ordinary Mind is of concern to the ego.fitting. The ego uses them to control your
The ego labels everything we feel or think andthought process. These voices are a multitude of
gives these thoughts and feelings concretedifferent things. They are everything from
definition. It defines the world around us. It tells usworries about how your hair looks to snippets of
how we should feel about things. It controls ourthe song you heard on the radio this morning.
emotions. It constantly grasps for objects weThey are the nonstop rush of babble that runs
desire or rejects things that we don't, oftenthrough your head from the minute you wake up
making life confined, claustrophobic, and confusing.to the moment you go to sleep. One's day is
The ego makes it very difficult to enjoy lifespent shifting through the stream of
because it is constantly telling us to look forconsciousness to find the important things that
something better or avoid something it tells us weneed to be thought about.
don't want. It leaves very little time to actuallyIn addition to this stream of consciousness, the
experience life as we journey through it becauseego has methods of controlling your thought
we spend the day listening to the nonstopprocesses while you are concentrating on the
monologue inside our heads. Do this, go there, buythoughts it has given you to attend to. Moods,
that, eat this, look there, smell that, I like this, Idesires, and judgments are some of the ways
hate that, she's funny, he's smart, I wonder if...,this power is exercised. Too often you let these
etc. It never ends. From the moment we wakemental behaviors govern the way you think and
to the moment we sleep, the chatter continuesact without ever carefully checking whether you
unabated in our heads.truly feel the way the ego is demanding you to.
On and on it jumps from subject to subject, ideaJust because a feeling arises within you doesn't
to idea, emotion to emotion, and thought tomean that you have an obligation to acknowledge
thought like a butterfly flitting from flower toit. Believe it or not, you do have a choice as to
flower, occasionally stopping to drink more fully ofhow you are going to feel about something, yet
some idea or thought, and then off again.more often than not the ego is left to make the
Sometimes, when the ego finally does stop ondecision as to what is best. There is no time to
one subject it clamps onto it tightly, causing us torealize how much the ego controls your thinking
think continuously about it, processing the subjectbecause you are so busy riding the stream of
from every angle over and over until it bordersconsciousness that makes up the Ordinary Mind. If
on or becomes an obsession. We have allyou do consider slowing down or stopping this
experienced this at some point when, we haveflow, the first thoughts conjured up are fears of
stressed about something so much that itfeeling lost and alone. And that is frightening. But it
seemed to consume us - maybe it was an examis just that - a thought or a feeling - personally
we felt unprepared for or a personaldelivered by the ego.
confrontation with someone. The Ordinary MindThe best method for dealing with this is learning
got so caught up in the worrying that even eatingto meditate. Meditation is simply learning to sit
and sleeping became difficult.quietly and allow the voices to calm down. It is
The ego has many different voices with which itnot difficult, but does take some perseverance.
carries on its monologue within the confines ofMeditation will be discusses in a subsequent article.