How to Tame Your Inner Critic

How to Tame Your Inner Critic

[00:45] The Prosecutor and the Advocate

Jai Guru Deva. Each of us from time to time appears to be our own worst enemy when it comes to assessing our capability, assessing our actions, assessing the way that we spend time, assessing the possible missing of opportunities, and so on, and so on. A lot of this brings about a loss of the deep inner peace, which ironically, actually, is the thing that we need in order to be able to embrace and interact with opportunities to be able to radiate our maximum potential to the world and so on.

Someone who is looking troubled is almost invariably looking troubled because of them having a dialogue going on inside. The dialogue is between that prosecutorial part of the intellect that is making the prosecutor case for you being basically an ignoramus, and the advocate, the advocate being that aspect of the intellect which is resolute about what you are and who you are.

And this is a traditional battle that is described in great detail by Adi Guru Shankara. Shankara, who lived 2,578 years ago— that was when he dropped his body, that is to say— in India, Shankara, who gives our tradition, our Guru Parampara—Guru Parampara is a way of saying the tradition of masters of Vedic Meditation and the Vedic worldview.

His name, though he appears about midway through a pantheon of a galaxy of teachers, who come down through the ages, though many of his predecessors were illustrious masters, Shankara’s name is applied even to his predecessors. They too are considered members of the Shankaracharya tradition. Shankaracharya means the teachers of Shankara.

So, Shankara, sometimes called Adi Shankara, Adi means the first, the first Shankara, the one on whose name the entire tradition rests, created a treatise entitled The Crest Jewel of Discrimination.

[03:53] The Discriminating Force

In this treatise, one of the things that he describes is a schism that occurs in every evolving person, and it goes like this, basically.

We have layers of a sense of inner self. The outermost of these layers is the place where our five senses, the senses of taste and touch, smell, sight, and sound, interact with the elements of the exterior world. And based on what comes in through those five senses, into the mind, the first layer of filtering, looking at and deciding what is of the self and what is not of the self, is the intellect.

“What is of me? What is believable? What is credible? What is true? What is an interesting illusion that I’m watching in a magic show, though I know that somehow there’s some kind of optical illusion being created. It’s so fun to watch it, but I know it’s not kind of really real. It’s a magic show.”

If that’s what the assumption is of the intellect, based on what it’s seeing, then one has the joy and the fun, the sense of wonder, mostly of, “How does the magician do it? How do they do it?” And trying to figure out how they do it.

Whereas a child sitting right next to you may look at the magician performing the same illusions and be 100 percent bought into its magic. And so, intellect.

Intellect the discriminating force whose job it is to say yes or no and it’s yes/no function is, is this of the self as I know it to be so far or is this not of the self? And what is the intellect referring to? A memory that the intellect has about what it has allowed in.

[06:02] Evolution of the Ego

Into what? Into the innermost layer of our individual consciousness, which in Vedic psychology we use the same word that Western psychologists use, but we use it differently. That innermost layer of individual psychology is referred to as ego. When we first open our eyes and begin consuming information from the outside world as a neonate, as a newborn baby, the intellect has very little to go on.

The intellect is not being informed by the inner ego as to what’s populating the ego? What is it that’s populating the ego? A sense of self? A sense of what has come in already? The ego pretty much becomes and forms itself from what it has perceived so far.

Whatever it has perceived so far, and what is that for a neonate? Well, some rather vague experiences in utero. And now, ex utero, as a newborn baby, there’s a world of sensory information that is being processed, and the models for what it all means haven’t yet been built.

And so, when we’re very young, our ego becomes populated with information, ideas and a fundamental understanding of self that goes right past the intellect because the intellect isn’t yet discriminating enough. It doesn’t have much to go on. It lets everything in.

After a little while though, our ego at a certain age has become populated with information that the intellect has allowed in. It’s allowed in information. So supposing, as a child, you were staying at your auntie’s place, we’ll make it your auntie, or make it a babysitter or something, and the babysitter says to you when you spilled your drink, “You’re a bad girl.”

And the intellect doesn’t have any way of referring to the inner ego to see whether or not that’s true. And so the intellect allows in, “You’re a bad girl.” “I’m a bad girl,”— or “I’m a bad boy,” whatever— is now one of the items of the population that’s gone into the ego structure.

[09:37] Biased Intellect

If the intellect, reviewing what’s already in the ego structure, decides this is very akin to the self, then the intellect will allow a new piece of information to come in and lodge itself in the ego. Like attracts like, birds of a feather flock together.

And so our intellect begins to operate into our early years and our teens and our 20s and onward, by taking its information about what is it that’s true and what is it that’s not true based upon what has already lodged itself in the ego structure historically. And the intellect has a memory of what it has allowed to come in and go into that ego structure.

And so then when somebody comes to you and, if you don’t have, “You’re a great person,” yet in your ego structure but you have lots of other things in your ego structure that are the opposite of you’re a great person. When, “You’re a great person,” is presented to you from the outside world, intellect looks at that and thinks, “Well, the proper polite thing to do is to say thank you, but actually I’m not letting that into the ego structure, because it doesn’t resonate with what’s already in there.” Now, then, we end up with this kind of biased intellect.

It reminds me very much of the way in which in modern times our social media algorithms have placed on them filters that feed to us whatever information appears to be resonant with what already we have looked at or read or viewed or on the World Wide Web.

If two people who have examined different subject matters both go on YouTube and in their search on YouTube they look up something like Nigeria, then the algorithms that are imposed on the internet server, the provider of the information, know what it is you want to hear about Nigeria based on what you’ve already looked at so far.

And the algorithms simply feed to you information about Nigeria that is resonant, or is not challenging of what it is that, apparently, you’ve already been searching and reading. And so, we know this is now a famous thing with our World Wide Web, with our Internet searches and so on, that each of us ends up, by using our search engines, whatever they may be, we end up receiving information that is confirming of what it is we already evidently believe in.

[12:41] Breaking the Cycle with Vedic Meditation

This is exactly the same way the intellect works, and it’s a perfect reflection of it. The intellect, based on what it has let in already into the ego structure, historically, will use that existing information to inform it about what new can come in and what cannot come in. And so it looks like a vicious cycle, until our individuality comes into contact with Vedic Meditation.

It’s proposed to the person that you can learn a simple mental technique whereby using innocently a sound, an impulse of sound, a bija mantra, a special kind of mantra that we use in Vedic Meditation, silently from inside, and that mantra has no intended meaning. It’s just an innocent sound that repeats effortlessly in the mind.z

And so the intellect looks at that and thinks, “Well, why not? There’s nothing in my ego structure that prevents me from innocently experiencing a mellifluous sounding word, a mantra.” And then the mantra starts to go through change as we meditate with it. It starts to become more and more charming and the intellect is fully into something becoming more charming.

It does not in any way defy that, or, nor is it dissonant with that which is already in the ego structure. As the mantra keeps getting subtler and subtler, the mind follows it effortlessly, willingly, without any intellectual process, just innocently moving toward the greater happiness, until the mantra becomes so faint that it’s almost imperceptible, and then it just disappears, evaporates.

And the mind is left for a moment with the ego having flipped inward instead of the ego being solely outward looking to inform itself of what it is, to inform itself of what the intellect is allowed in. Now the ego having flipped inward, 100 percent inward looking even for a moment, what is imprinting on the ego with no intellectual filter is Unboundedness, the Unbounded Unified Field of Consciousness. That gets imprinted in the ego structure.

[15:24] I Am Totality

When the ego flips back outward again at the end of meditation and one begins to engage in the world again, now inside the ego structure is, “I am one with The Universe.” Not those words, that direct experience, that Unboundedness. And there are other things that are in the ego structure that do not rest well next door to, adjacent to, “I am Unboundedness.”

And so a process of unstressing of useless inner information begins. As we practice Vedic Meditation twice each day for 20 minutes, on each exposure to Vedic Meditation, the ego flipping inward and experiencing, “I am Totality, I am Universe.” Again, not the words but the direct experience of that, that those words describe.

This begins to be the more consistent, the most consistent thing on a daily basis. “I am Unbounded.” Happens every morning, every evening, even if it only happens for a second. It strengthens, confirms, and verifies and validates a new thing in the ego.

And this is a really interesting phenomenon. Our intellect has not yet been informed because this information about, “I am Unbounded,” did not have to pass by the intellect. The intellect is up on the surface. The ego structure is at the baseline of our individuality.

[18:41] A Schism Begins

Information coming through the senses from the outside world—words, sounds, music, feelings, taste, touch, smell, sights, whatever they may be—then have to go past the intellect filter before they can enter the ego.

But when we transcend (to transcend means to step beyond) the thinking process, and the ego flips inward, and we experience unmitigated, the Unboundedness that imprints in the ego structure without asking permission of the intellect.

The intellect may continue to be ill-informed about what actually is now populating the ego structure. The sense of self has now grown into, “I am Unboundedness,” but the intellect can only remember what it has allowed in during a lifetime.

And so then a schism begins. There is growing evidence of the mind behaving with more and more of that fundamental assumption, “I am Totality, I have infinite capability, I have infinite creative intelligence, I am the source of thought.”

The intellect, noticing this style of thinking, may divide into two. A schism begins. The intellect begins to argue with its other half. Half of the intellect is saying, “I’m experiencing this Unboundedness as a meditator. I’m experiencing infinite capability. I’m experiencing that whatever comes, comes. I’m infinitely stable. I can adapt to absolutely anything.”

And those feelings are there, and the intellect, which can only remember what it allowed in during a lifetime, says, “This is not resonant with what I’ve already allowed into the club, into the ego club.” And the intellect will begin a process of going into critique, criticism, negative criticism.

One part of the intellect will say, “I feel infinitely capable and it doesn’t matter. There’s been a change of expectation. I’m adaptive, stable, and I can handle anything. Bring it on.”

And the other part of the intellect will respond to that with, “Oh, come on, you’re just kidding yourself. How did you ever become so foolish? You’re actually just little,” whatever the name is, “Johnny from Nashville, Tennessee. You’re not the Unboundedness. 

“I know who you are. You know who you are. You’re kidding yourself and you’re not going to be able to kid everybody for very long. You’re an imposter.” The prosecutorial intellect is attempting to table evidence about, you’re not really any good.”

The resolute intellect that’s being driven by the new material that has come from meditating has got a growing body of evidence that it’s tabling, saying, “Actually I’m Unbounded.”

[20:58] The Prosecutorial Intellect Capitulates: Self-Doubt Disappears

And the discourse, let’s call it an argument between the prosecutor and the advocate begins. What happens over a period of time, and the time is different for different people, is that gradually the prosecutorial intellect, the negative thinker, runs out of evidence. It’s tried everything, and no matter how negatively it tries to think about the true nature of the inner Self, it can’t match the evidence that’s daily being brought up as a result of regular practice of meditation, evidence that’s being brought up of having all of the qualities of the Unified Field lively in one’s awareness.

They just can’t compete with that, and there comes a point where the prosecutorial intellect, the negative thinker, the naysayer, the one aspect of our intellect that is constantly trying to deny all the good that is coming up from inside, eventually that prosecutorial intellect capitulates. And when it capitulates, it lets go.

We have one holistic intellect. That’s the intellect which is now being properly informed by what the ego has become. The ego, that is, that inner identifier, that place inside of us that tells us who we are and what we are has now gone through a metamorphosis. It has become Cosmic Ego. “I am The Universe having a human experience,” and intellect goes right along with it.

Intellect also has now merged with Cosmic Intellect. We call this the resolute intellect. In Sanskrit, it’s called Vyavasayatmika Buddhir, Vyavasayatmika Buddhir. This means in Sanskrit, the intellect that is ready to do business, ready to transact, no more of self-doubt. Self-doubt disappears.

One’s intellect now is being informed by the regularity, the great consistency of, “I am one with The Universe.”

[23:48] It Takes a Thorn to Remove a Thorn

This is the process of enlightenment. The last thing to become enlightened in the human structure, as layers of enlightenment are growing and stabilizing day by day with regular practice of Vedic Meditation, layers and layers, percentage-wise, our enlightenment goes from 1 percent to 10 percent to 50, 60, 90, like that, making its way to 100%. The last percentage points of stabilization of the enlightened state is in the correcting of the intellect.

So then, how do we hasten the correcting of the intellect? In the Sanskrit language, there is a phrase that if I translate into English, it states, quote, It takes a thorn to remove a thorn. What does this mean?

If you get a thorn in your finger, you may need to get a thorn-like thing like a needle in order to dig out that thorn. The intellect will correct the intellect, provided that we have a little bit of turbocharging, a little bit of assistance from a guru. Guru means, that fountainhead of knowledge that challenges any negative assumptions we’re making about the Self.

Challenges unsustainable assumptions we might be making about unsustainable lifestyle, unsustainable thinking, and so on and so forth. Thinking that is based on a scarcity mentality. Thinking that is based on a poverty consciousness mentality. Thinking that is based on, “I’m really no good,” mentality, or “I don’t deserve the best,” mentality.

Guru means that body of knowledge which you come into contact with, whether it is personified as a person or it is a body of knowledge, it’s also guru to you, that which removes darkness. That which sheds light on the truth, the sustainable truth, is guru.

And so regular daily meditation and our intellect being given a more rigorous way of thinking about things. Because actually having nothing but self-critique when we have a 100 billion neuron brain, the best brain in any animal structure on the face of the Earth, and as far as we know in the universe, a brain that is capable of actually experiencing the Unified Field itself.

[28:12] Bring It On

And so this is the whole process, how to make the inner critic stop being critical. Well, our attitude is, “Bring it on.” Let that prosecutorial intellect table all the evidence that it has for just how lousy you are, and then keep meditating twice a day, and keep listening to this podcast, and keep on being in contact with the body of knowledge that the Veda has brought to you, and let that negative intellect have fun.

What you’ll find is, the arguments of the prosecutorial intellect, the arguments of the self-critic intellect, these arguments get thinner and thinner, more and more anorectic. The arguments become more and more tortuous, meaning, windy and twisty, and convoluted, meaning that they’re based in all kinds of ideas for which there’s no evidence.

And this is the process of that prosecutorial intellect, that negative critic inside, basically running out of material. It’s running out of material.

And on the other side, we have the advocate aspect of the intellect, which is saying, “Well, based on my direct experience, I’m a meditator, and when I interact with the world around me, I have ever-increasing joy in every interaction, and my effectiveness seems to be growing and growing and growing.

“My sense of what I am and what I’m capable of and the meaning of existing seems to grow and grow and grow. It seems to be so, it seems to be so, and not only is it so, it’s happening for my friends who also learn Vedic Meditation.

“I see it happening in them. There’s a pattern here. To go from low self-worth, low self-esteem, into a proper understanding that you are The Universe having a human experience.”

This is the theme. So this is what we do. And when the intellect wants to bring up its wishy-washy arguments about how bad you are, you say, “Yeah, go ahead, say it all.”

It’s actually kind of funny. It’s a little bit pathetic. The arguments themselves are pathetic arguments, desperate, and easily dismissible. Just kind of like backhand them off the table, because they don’t really make any sense.

But let that prosecutorial intellect exhaust itself saying all that stuff. It’s all alright, but keep meditating twice a day and continue to have exposure to the guru function, The Vedic Worldview.

Jai Guru Deva.