Essay for
July 2005

Mind Graffiti

Depending upon your point of view graffiti now decorates or defaces a variety of appropriate or inappropriate positions. It is seen as art by some while others witness it as destructive adolescent behavior marking their presence, no different from a cat or dog spraying areas to define their territory. Graffiti is making a mark that the author can recognize as his or hers. It is a type of semi-permanent marker in a transitory world allowing its creator to feel a sense of belonging. No matter how bad graffiti may look to another, the author feels a sense of elation when recognizing their work as 'I did that' or 'I was here'. It is a subjective experience that another seeing the same work will not have. The subjectivity is the commonality with anyone making their mark in the artistic world, business and politics or simply creating a scrumptious meal or magnificent garden. It is the 'I did that' which is the common thread for everyone's subjective experience.

The 'I did that' can be witnessed as positive to some and negative to others, potentially breaking the common thread of individual subjective experience into warring factions. The war is 'I versus I'. The 'did' is the action creating a defining border, and 'that' is the boundary fought over. The boundary can be simply a piece of graffiti that one loves and another hates, or as complex as religious doctrine. They are all visible borders as they can be seen. However, internal borders are not visible and it is there where invisible mind graffiti has its home.

Mind graffiti is identical to external graffiti, as 'I did that or created that'; expect only the author can see it. Similar to external graffiti, internal graffiti creates borders as 'I like that or want that' or 'I am this or that'. The border defines the likes and dislikes, potentially setting oneself up for border wars with another that has contrary likes or dislikes. Border wars can be as simple as disagreeing on the best food to eat, or to countries disagreeing on how to govern. In all cases it is simply an accepted border coming head to head with a contrary border, resulting in senseless and wasteful border wars. Such is the power of mind graffiti, and the power of the graffiti arises simply because you believe it. Take away the belief and mind graffiti loses its control over how you act. Keep the graffiti and jettison the belief and you instantly become tolerant without dabbling in the duality of intolerance. Drop the belief and tolerance arises of its own accord. Tolerance was always a bride in waiting and you do not even have to go looking for that marriage. When you drop the belief in your own mind graffiti, the marriage appears ready-made, which points directly at the essence of your being. That essence is revealed through equanimity in everything you do and think (no belief borders), as equanimity will always reveal compassionate insight. Compassion is your innate nature, which arises the moment you let go of the belief in your own self-created mind graffiti. The graffiti covered or defaced that nature by you simply believing in its authenticity.

You may think the forgoing is just philosophic or psychological banter, but try it for yourself. Everyone has created likes or dislikes. Try dropping the borders of your self-generated belief in a like or dislike and see what occurs. If you dislike a political party drop the belief that your political party is superior as that is what normally creates the dislike for the other: not always just normally. If you object to a religious belief check to see if you hold contrary beliefs, or are agnostic or atheist as both agnosticism and atheism are also beliefs. If aspects of your mind graffiti hold on to the idea of what is superior, check to see why it is so, and you will normally discover a belief.

Drop all your beliefs and observe how much simpler life becomes. However, by dropping all your beliefs it will also feel as if someone has pulled a plug and all meaning has been drained out of your life. You may feel neutralized, impotent, directionless and surprisingly fragile; that is because all those beliefs were also your protection. You have lost or jettisoned your protection and now feel naked and vulnerable: a most interesting moment in ones' existence. If you do not scramble to reinitiate a new set of beliefs to replace those you have let go, and maintain your equanimity of insight, you will discover an entirely new feeling arising, a sense of freedom that is embedded in trust and it feels good. The most interesting aspect of this liberation process is that everything arises of its own accord. The sense of freedom, the trust and the feeling good simply appear. It is not new, it has always been there, simply overlaid with so much mind graffiti that it could not be seen, felt or experienced, in some way.

Instead of trusting your own consciousness to provide what you require you have programmed yourself to search outside yourself for things that make you feel good. If you do not find anything outside then you go about manufacturing mind graffiti that will. It is all manufactured, accepted or believed; all of which covers what you already have. All that hunting for things to make you feel good is but a physical reflection of what already exists. By focusing upon physical things, you miss what is naturally yours. If you focus your attention upon the non-physical and maintain the belief in physical things you have created a tragic duality that will initiate an ongoing series of painful experiences, and you do it to yourself. Letting go of beliefs means letting them go in their entirety. It is all or nothing as there is no in-between.

Now comes one of the most intriguing aspects of letting go of beliefs and that is beliefs are important and personally evolutionary. That may appear contradictory but it is not. A real belief occurs naturally. It is not thought out or accepted. A real belief arises of its own accord, out of equanimity of insight and is subjectively felt or known to be real, which in turn establishes faith. That form of faith is unrestricted, meaning that it encompasses all beliefs with no one belief held as being superior to another. It is experiential insight that can see the value of each, steadfastly focusing upon that value and nothing else. This form of insight is the gaining of experiential wisdom that you did not learn or develop. It occurs naturally and spontaneously simply because you do not hold any form of mind graffiti, and then an internal natural process unfolds how to use a belief without it using you.

This entire process is a pointer that you have it all from the very beginning. Of course, if you simply believe it and not actually do it, that knowledge leads straight into a superficial duality entrapment, exacerbating the very thing you may be attempting to overcome. You cannot trick subjective experiential wisdom. It either is or is not.

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