Purify the intellect before you start a journey to mindfulness

यदा संहरते चायं कूर्मोऽङ्गानीव सर्वशः ।

इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेभ्यस्तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥Bhagvad Gita 2.58॥

yadā sanharate chāyaṁ kūrmo ’ṅgānīva sarvaśhaḥ
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas tasya prajñā pratiṣhṭhitā

When the seeker can completely withdraw the senses from the sense objects as a tortoise withdraws its limbs into the shell for protection from calamity, then the intellect of such a person is considered steady.

The intellect is one of the four functional aspects of mind. The thinking mind, intellect, ego and memory are four functional aspects of mind.

The Sanskrit word Buddhi means intellect and awareness. Without self-awareness, one cannot choose and decide. But when intellect is impure, it chooses what one likes, dislikes but not what is good. What is good is right. The right here means – real, eternal, inner peace, happiness, love and wisdom (that never changes in life i.e. our true nature). 

When intellect declares others (people, place, possession, event, and time) are responsible for miseries and suffering, the intellect is impure, mind is lazy, crazy, reactive and wandering and senses are deeply attached to objects outside.

The mind is crazy, lazy, reactive because of the desire. The intellect when pure chooses, what is good, real, eternal. the pure intellect purifies the thinking and right thinking perceives what is good.

This enables the brain to change, what science says, ‘fire the brain to rewire it’. It is important to know that eastern wisdom has clear concepts about the mind and science is progressively becoming clear about the gray matter. The masters of eastern wisdom declare that the knowledge from any source are welcome that leads to discovery of our true nature.