Whose Voice is Guiding Your Life?

Have you ever noticed what happens inside your mind when you’re faced with an important decision?

One thought urges immediate action. Another says, “Wait!” Then a pleasant memory appears, followed by an old fear quietly returning. Finally, someone else’s insistent opinion begins competing for your attention.

Soon, the mind sounds less like a single voice and more like a family gathered around the kitchen table, with each member convinced they know what’s best.

If you’ve ever experienced that inner conversation, you’re not alone. For thousands of years, Yoga Scientists have carefully observed the human mind. Their conclusion was both practical and compassionate.

The mind is not a single entity. It performs four distinct functions that work together every moment of our lives. The Ego asks, “How does this affect me?” The Senses ask, “What will bring immediate pleasure or comfort?” The Unconscious offers memories, habits and emotional conditioning gathered from past experiences. And finally, there is the Conscience—the softspoken faculty capable of reflecting the intuitive wisdom of the Super Conscious Mind into the Conscious Mind, revealing what is to be done and what is not to be done.

Most of us recognize that we have experienced messages from all four voices. The challenge is not proving that they exist. The challenge is learning how to coordinate them for our shared well being.

For that work, Yoga Science begins with an unexpected principle. Love your mind. Every part of it. The philosophy of ahimsa, non-harming, begins at home.

 Rather than criticizing the Ego, suppressing the Senses, or fearing the Unconscious, Yoga Science invites us to compassionately understand and educate them.

Imagine calling a family meeting around your kitchen table where each member of the family is invited to speak. The Ego shares its concerns. The Senses express their desires. The Unconscious recalls past experiences, familiar habits, and previous outcomes.

Each one receives your complete one-pointed attention. Without interruption. Without criticism. Without condemnation.

Why? Because attention is love. And only after every member of the family has been respectfully heard, does the Conscience quietly offer its unerring intuitive guidance.

Now comes the experiment. Not because you are asked to believe the Conscience. But because you are invited to verify its wisdom through your own personal experience.

This is where Courage and Will Power become essential. The Conscience may reveal what is to be done––but growth and freedom come only when Courage takes the first step, and Will Power stays with the experiment long enough to discover its results.

After the experiment, Yoga Scientists ask a very different question than modern culture often asks. They do not simply ask, “Did you enjoy that experience?” But rather, “How do you feel now—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?” Then, they ask an even more probing question: “Which function of the mindauthored the original thought that led to this entire experiment?”

Through this focused, skillful and compassionate experiment and inquiry, something remarkable begins to happen. The Ego becomes educated, the Senses become more refined, the Unconscious acquires new impressions, and the Conscience becomes increasingly trusted––as the entire family begins working together.

Slowly, slowly then, every successful experiment serves what the ancient sages called the shreya—that which ultimately benefits us—rather than the preya, that which merely provides immediate, short-term gratification followed by some form of pain.

And every time we skillfully choose to serve the Shreya and skillfully sacrifice the preya, something precious grows within us––our personal strategic reserves. Our energy increases. Will Power strengthens. Creativity awakens. Confidence deepens—not the confidence born of mere opinion, but the quiet brilliance of confidence that results from repeated experience. Then, of course, some new challenge will appear––but not to the same person nor mind who encountered the last challenge. Why? Because through the process of experimentation, the entire vehicle of action––your mind, body and senses––has evolved.

Perhaps that is the greatest promise of Yoga Science. It never asks us to become someone else. Rather, it invites  us to consciously participate in our own evolution–– one thoughtful question, one loving family meeting, and one sincere experiment at a time.

If today’s reflection resonates with you, or if you’re a long-standing student who is interested in enhancing your existing practice, we invite you to continue, and to deepen your exploration by attending the next scheduled Foundation Course for LifeTM here at AMI. Because the most meaningful discoveries are the ones we make for ourselves.

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