Omniscience 2

Modern western life style and culture makes mind training more easy than ever before. But some new obstacles and distractions create new difficulties. Nonetheless, the western life style is comparatively rational and positive towards learning and awareness, and technology gives an understanding and a language for phenomena which could only be hinted at in earlier ages. A simple (as we feel) thing as naming immense numbers like "billions of billions" used to be described as "the number of sand grains in Ganges" and the like.

So why is mind training not a self evident every day activity for all of us? Ten years from now, we will feel a little ashamed of this negligence. We thought we had more urgent things to do, like work and relations and watching television and sports...we might say.

This is of course rubbish. Mind is the basis for all, and if we want work and family we should start with the mind training, and not let the mind training be the secondary aspect. If we do, we might end up in loss of jobs, divorce and all kinds of problems.

Mind training gives unlikely effects, but it is not irrational. It is the rational of the rational. And we can start simply and naturally by broadening our perspective to include all. 

Mind training 2

The biggest problem in mind training is probably the start. The brain is usually happy remaining in its old habits, its comfort zone. The problems caused by this are easily overlooked, even when the problems are huge.
Another difficulty is that the advantages of mind training is not known until they are reached. If we are lucky, we can see the advantages in another person. But that is not very common.
In a material world, we can have material goals to strive for, like such a home, such an income, such a car and so on. In mind training the goals are not that concrete and easy to identify beforehand.
A third difficulty is the general dullness of the brain. In order to deal with brain difficulties, we need a certain energy level in the brain. As long as we have brain difficulties, we do not have the energy necessary to deal with the problems. It is a moment 22 situation.
The fourth difficulty is the delicate balance between right and wrong in brain functions concerning attitude, problem solving methods, feeling management and evaluation strategies.

The origin of ideas 2

A few ideas decide our life, and often they are a bit on the wild side. Trying to become an actor, a television personality, a real evil murderer, inventor of new space ships -- the world needs extreme ideas. It is built on them. But some of the mad ideas are truly mad ... and we could ask if we can sort out the nice madness from the bad.
The origin of these ideas are very deep in our own mind. We can get ideas and impulses from others, but the decisive melting pot is in our own mind, where our strong ambitions, extreme feelings, psychological mechanisms, will, dreams, self image and ideas about our own potential capacity is boiling.
It is a mind process and as such it can be perfectly transparent and rational. Often it is not. We do not want to talk about our most personal feelings and ideas.
We could discuss this in a non-personal matter.
It is part of the mind training.

Something better 2

No one can see God and live, it says in the Christian Bible. ( "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." Exodus 33.20) In order to recognize the divine, you have to be almost divine yourself, it says in the Buddhist tradition.
This is a problem, as there are so many things to do and think about in the modern world. The essential might be missed out.
If we want to approach the important matters of life, we have to work for it. But why should we do that if we can get a lot of distractions so easy?
Of course, mind work is different from ordinary work. Some feel it is more difficult. Some would prefer to play ice hockey for two hours rather than meditate for two hours. For some it is the other way around.
So the word "work" is probably not the best when talking about mind practice. But it is hard. If we try to learn for example a poem in a new language by heart, we notice how hard it is to make new imprints in mind.
If we get annoyed and utter negative expressions while trying to learn the poem, we make new bad imprints in our mind. This is easy.
If we see the struggle between good and bad as technical matter - no God involved - we see why it is so difficult.
We live in a world which is partly brutal and evil. In order to protect us we learn to use violence.
A good world is non-violent. This non-violence is cultivated from a start of non-violence intention, through non-violent methods to the final non-violent harmonious society.
How can we possibly start this non-violent process while using violence to fight off the old brutality?
The answer is on mind level. The world of violence should not be defeated but deserted.

Thoughts and thoughts 2

The ethical rules are stated negatively: Not to kill, not to steal, not to lie. So we can be a good person even if we do nothing.
We can be a better person still if we support life, are generous and spread the truth.
To make our mind produce thoughts that gives good actions might be hard work.
It is even harder work to train our mind to produce thoughts giving bad effects. But this work most of us do willingly. We want to prepare us for the worst, and often we are quite talented.
Anyhow, learning to think positive thoughts might be difficult. We should respect people who do that.