This fact doesn’t mean that if you love someone purely, you don’t do anything for her and it instead means that you don’t feel the need to do something. Once again, there is a subtle difference and this difference should be understood properly, in order to absorb this concept in the best possible way. As already explained in an earlier part of this book; the acts or expressions generated by your subconscious mind are the natural ones because these acts or expressions represent your true wishes or your true opinions about something or someone. Since these acts or expressions are in accordance with your deeper self; they are natural, which means you’re doing or expressing exactly what you feel like and hence it all happens without any conscious effort.
On the other hand, the acts or expressions generated by your conscious mind are intentional. Hence they need effort and therefore, they’re not natural. It should be noted that whatever needs conscious effort is not natural and the more is the conscious effort required to do something; the more unnatural it is. The word ‘effort’ in this context doesn’t mean the effort of your body and it means the effort of your mind. Hence if you feel like doing something, you don’t give it much conscious consideration and you do it; this act is natural. It has come directly from your subconscious mind which has forwarded this act to you at the request of your heart. Since you engage in this act without conscious consideration, this act is natural.
On the other hand, if you don’t feel like doing something but you still choose to do it as this act may be needed in order to gain an advantage or in order to balance a disadvantage; this act is unnatural. It means this act is not rising from your heart and subconscious mind; and it is instead rising from your intellect and conscious mind. In this case, your heart doesn’t feel like doing this thing but your intellect suggests you to do this thing, through your conscious mind. Since intellect doesn’t deal with feelings and it rather deals with needs generated on the basis of certain specific calculations depending on the situation; this act is something you need to do and not something you want to do or you feel like doing. This is what makes this act unnatural.
In other words, whatever you feel like doing at any point in time is what comes from your subconscious mind and whatever you try to do against such feeling or without this feeling; comes from your conscious mind. The former type of act doesn’t need much conscious effort whereas the latter type of act does need conscious effort. The amount of such conscious effort required in case of a particular act of this type depends on how much resistance is being offered by your subconscious mind against this act.
Let’s now look at the process when you engage in an act and try to understand this concept properly. Let’s consider five probabilities. The first probability is that your subconscious mind generates a wish to do something and it starts doing that thing; even without discussing it with your conscious mind. For examples; you keep breathing even while you’re sleeping. It should be noted that even breathing needs effort though it is subconscious effort.
Since your conscious mind is not working when you sleep whereas your subconscious mind is still working as it keeps working from the time of your birth till the time of your death; without a break; your subconscious mind does this job. Since the acts conducted by your subconscious mind are hidden just like this part of your mind; you generally don’t consciously feel the efforts behind these acts and hence they seem to happen naturally to you. This is why the activities like breathing, digestion and other such activities don’t need much conscious effort; unless something goes wrong; which means a health condition appears and it interferes with some of these processes.
The second probability is that your subconscious mind generates a wish to do something and this wish is then sent to your conscious mind for consideration. If your conscious mind gives consent to this act; it is in harmony with your subconscious mind since they’re both agreeing to do the same thing. Since the wish has come through your subconscious mind; it starts working to fulfil this wish. The effort is done by your subconscious mind and hence one such act happens naturally. It means you feel relaxed when engaging in one such act since there is no conflict between your conscious and subconscious mind related to this act.
As long as there is no conflict between your conscious and subconscious mind related to a thing or a person; any type of conflict or confusion may not arise since it takes at least two options or opinions to create confusion, and one option means no confusion. The concept of confusion has already been discussed in an earlier part of this book. Hence even in this case, you engage in such act naturally and you don’t feel much conscious effort being done by you. For instance, if you love dancing; you feel like dancing at a specific moment and you start dancing; you may notice that though your body is engaging in effort; your mind feels relaxed as there is no effort from your conscious mind; against your subconscious mind.
It should be noted that you only need effort when certain things need to be altered and you don’t need effort if such things need no alteration; under ideal conditions. Therefore, if your subconscious mind proposes something like the wish to dance; and your conscious mind doesn’t want to alter or change this wish; no effort is required at the level of your conscious mind. Since your subconscious mind is alone in the picture, and your conscious mind is more like a witness in this case; there is no effort required by your conscious mind to try and change something that your subconscious mind wants.
In the third probability; your subconscious mind creates a wish to do something; this wish is forwarded to your conscious mind and your conscious mind doesn’t agree to this wish. This is where the conflict is created because your subconscious mind wants to do something but your conscious mind wants to stop it from doing so. Since your conscious mind needs effort to stop your subconscious mind from engaging in this thing; this act may not remain natural and you may actively feel it.
Looking at one such act; suppose you’re attending a formal dinner and you’re about to have desserts. When the choices are presented; your subconscious mind expresses the wish to have ice cream as it may be your favourite dessert. Since all the preferences are stored on your subconscious mind; this wish is generated through your subconscious mind, though it is the wish of your heart. This proposal comes to your conscious mind; and suppose; it agrees to this proposal. As there is harmony in this decision; you start having ice cream in the most natural way. It means you start having ice cream and you completely enjoy it, feeling absolutely relaxed. This is what happens in case of second probability where your subconscious mind and conscious mind are in harmony.
You keep having ice cream and soon, the portion of ice cream is finished. Suppose your subconscious mind expresses the wish to have more ice cream and it forwards this proposal to your conscious mind. However, this time when it comes to your conscious mind; it doesn’t agree to this proposal and it offers resistance. This is because it is the job of your subconscious mind to forward proposals on the basis of already stored preferences or data; and it is the job of your conscious mind to apply filters to the choices of your subconscious mind; as and when it finds fit.
It means that your subconscious mind has this preference stored on it and that is why it is forwarding this preference to your conscious mind. Let’s now look at the way this preference has been formed. You like ice cream a lot. In general, whenever you have ice cream, you have a lot of it and you don’t stop after having a small quantity. Since you may do such things on your own and there’s no one to judge you; there may be no issues at all in such cases.
For instance, you may have ice cream when you’re home or you may have it outside when you’re either alone or you have your loved ones with you. It means in both these situations, there’s no one to judge you since your loved ones already know you well and they don’t need to judge you. Hence you may have as much ice cream as your heart wants and you may only stop when your heart feels satisfied.
This is a natural act and you keep engaging in this act time and again; whenever your heart feels like having ice cream. As you keep engaging in this act; the liking of your heart for a lot of ice cream forms a pattern and it is stored on your subconscious mind in the form of a preference, through repetition and over a period of time. When that happens, your subconscious mind starts working on the basis of this preference and hence your heart may not have to directly engage in any effort to let you know that it wants ice cream. It is like your heart has given a standing instruction to your subconscious mind that it wants to have a lot of ice cream as and when possible, and your subconscious mind registers this instruction as a preference.
It should be noted that your intellect stores knowledge, data and preferences on your subconscious mind whereas your heart stores preferences on your subconscious mind, in most cases. Once such preferences are stored properly over a period of time through repetition; your subconscious mind starts acting on them on behalf of your heart; as soon as the situation or circumstances present an opportunity to engage in one such act. Hence when you feel like having second portion of ice cream at this formal dinner; this wish is being generated by your subconscious mind. However, as your subconscious mind is generating this wish due to the standing instruction given by your heart; this wish is coming from your heart, in reality.
Suppose you’re a rich person and you love to donate. You have a big house and you have a guard at the gate. Since you love offering donations to any bagger who comes to your door but you’re not home all the time; you forward a standing instruction to the guard. You give him significant amount of money and you tell him that whenever any bagger comes; he should give him a specific amount of money which you may find fit. From here on, your guard may keep doing this act on your behalf. Though it is he who’s offering money to a number of baggers who come to your door; he’s only acting on your standing instruction.
It means in reality; you donate money, each time he donates it and he’s just acting on your behalf. The same happens in cases of preferences stored on your subconscious mind. Your heart; your intellect, your ego and even your body stores such preferences on your subconscious mind which keeps acting according to these preferences. It is your conscience alone, which doesn’t store any preferences on your subconscious mind and this is what makes it different from all other entities. This very fact helps your conscience maintain balance within you. We’ll discuss this concept in detail, later on.