To understand something, observe without concluding || Acharya Prashant (2015)

Question: Sir, in your blogs it is explained that the mind goes behind what it values, which is what ‘I’ value. But sometimes it happens is when I restrict it not to do certain things; there is an even greater temptation to do those things.

I was reading the Bible and it said that, “*The forbidden fruit was eaten by Eve out of temptation*”.

Why is the mind so tempted?

Speaker: The mind cannot really be understood by itself. The mind can at most observe itself. It cannot understand. The mind can at most go close to its functioning and note the details. That is the maximum the mind is equipped to do. No machine is blessed with power of understanding. But yes, the mind is a very nicely designed machine that can observe, register, make notes, store and compare. These are the things that the mind can surely do. The mind should be utilized to these purposes and nothing more should be expected from the mind.

Let us understand a few basics here. Understanding is the dissolution of all observation, comparison, analysis and conclusion. These are the things that the mind does. When these activities of the mind either reach their climax or come to their eventual defeat. That is called dissolution of mental activity.

That dissolution of mental activity is, understanding.