All About the Human Mind

We see an astrologer reading one's horoscope, a palmist reading someone's hand and a face reader claiming that he can read someone's face. But, can some one read the other's mind?

A person's attempt to read the other's mind will be a failure. An individual's mind is an individual entity encased in a sort of impenetrable wall; it is extremely difficult for any other mind to have direct contact with it. Each of us has his or her mind; it is not possible for our neighbors, even our closest friends to know what is happening here. It is easy to have direct knowledge of another's body from its appearance, but this is not possible with the mind.

What we think we know of another's mind is often a conjecture. Confined within the limitations of our own understanding and unknown to others, the mind remains our most constant companion. It serves us in our physical actions, intellectual enterprises, and moral endeavors. Sometimes it is friendly. At other times it turns hostile. Even then we have no choice but to endure it. Finally, when we aspire to transcendental truth, it is with our won individual minds that we have to struggle. The mind must show us the way to go beyond the mind.

While the individual mind undergoes various degrees of transformation, both good and bad, the fact retains that at no stage it is possible for anyone outside of our selves to experience it directly. Each person's individual mind is exclusively his or her own possession. It is ordinarily not necessary to know the nature of the mind. It is enough for us to feel that we have a mind, and that we can receive its help in our various pursuits. But there are occasions when we wonder about its nature, and then we inquire about its constitution and methods of working.

For example, you see something at a distance and your mind instantly has knowledge of that thing. Does your mind somehow go outside your body and touch that distant object? Certain schools of philosophy explain perception with assumption. It is assumed that in perception, the sense organ - in this case your eyes- first contacts the object and then the mind goes outside the body to form a wave which is similar to the object. The mind seems to have great liberty in generating thought forms.

The fact remains that mind is not rigidly confined within the walls of body. It can act upon other minds. There may be an element of truth in the findings of clairvoyance and telepathy that cannot be summarily brushed aside. The yoga philosophy speaks of many more interesting truths about the mind. The mind has unforeseen hidden powers and by special methods it is possible to develop these powers and thereby extend the limits of the mind. Of course, to us the mind still remains an individual mind, which operates through the body.