This way the conscious mind carries us minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, life after life. Novelty is its nature and ramification is its result. We can always find in the conscious mind some distraction to please us, to intrigue us, to dominate our awareness of other states of consciousness. And we don't have to look very hard to find it.
When we are in the conscious mind, we are like a donkey with a carrot in front of our nose. We are always walking to try to get that carrot. We are never satisfied, and we are never happy. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
While in the conscious mind -- We see people, we reason and relate our own condition with theirs, we feel sad when we find them to be in a better state "relatively". "Relative agony" is the key word which we follow unknowingly in our conscious mind. No matter how fortunate we have been, we feel unlucky when we discover that we find someone who is "relatively" more fortunate than ourselves, we feel ourselves as unlucky when we discover that we find a friend marry someone who is "relatively" well off or if we never got one, we say "they are so lucky -- wish i had that kind of luck too", no matter how much we earn we feel unlucky when we learn about "relatively" better hikes to a friend in a neighboring company. When we live in the conscious mind, we only surmise. We make guesses. We are never quite sure if we are right. That is the conscious mind, the part of you which you dare to think is real. It leads us on and on and on, life after life after life after life after life after life after life.
The mystic's goal is to control awareness while he is in the conscious mind -- to know where he is in consciousness. When he finds he is aware in the conscious mind, and the five senses have become his ruler, he then controls his awareness within the conscious mind itself. There are many way he does this -- breath control, enquiry, remembering and pondering on a chosen ishta devata (diety) etc.
A beautiful method below from my guru about how to control mind on the conscious plane.
There is a Saivite hermit, the venerable Markanduswami, living in a humble mud hut in Sri Lanka. He is very old, and was for many years a disciple of Jnanaguru Yogaswami. In fact, his every utterance is a quote from his guru. One afternoon at his hut he described Yogaswami's approach to dealing with thought during meditation. He said, "Yogaswami said, 'Realize Self by self. You want to read this book, that book and all these books. The Book of Infinite Knowledge is here (pointing to his chest). You'd better open your own book.' The prescription he gave me to open that book is this: 'When you are in meditation, you watch the mind. Here and there the mind is hopping. One, two, three,...a hundred. In a few seconds the mind goes to a hundred places. Let him be. You also watch very carefully. Here and there this mind is running. Don't forget Self for a second. Let him go anywhere, but if he goes to a hundred places, you must follow him to a hundred places. You must not miss even a single one. Follow him and note, He is going here. Now he is going there.' You must not miss even a single one. That is the prescription Satguru Yogaswami gave me to open this inner book. He said, 'Watch very attentively and learn to pick up things coming from within. Those messages are very valuable. You can't value them. Realize Self by self and open this inner book. Why don't you open your own book? Why don't you make use of it? Why don't you open your own book? What an easy path I am prescribing for you!' "
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