De-condition the Mind The Sunday Guardian | November 28, 2010 | Page 15
The chapter entitled Al- Shams (The Sun) of the Quran sets forth a very important principle, termed in modern, language the principle of de-conditioning. The translation of the relevant verses is as follows: He who purifies it will indeed be successful, and he who pollutes it is sure to fail (91:9-10). In this verse, to “pollute” means “conditioning” and to “purify” means “de-conditioning”. According to this, everyone is born as Mr. Nature, but due to environmental influences, he deviates from his original nature and becomes Mr. Conditioned. The first need for every man is to make him Mr. Nature. If he is to revert to his original nature, it requires de-conditioning of the conditioned mind.
This de- conditioning is imperative if objective thinking is to be evolved. Condemning makes one a biased person, whereas de-conditioning brings one back to one’s true nature. In the physical world, an onions is an example of this psychological process. Every onion has a core but this core is covered by many layers. If you peel of these layers down to the last you will reach the core. The same is true of most men and women. Their personalities are layered over by different biases and prejudices. It is only de-conditioning that will remove these external forms of pollution and restore human personality to its pristine state. Every human being has two different periods in his life: the pre-maturity period and the post-maturity period. In the former, due to conditioning, everyone’s mind is full of different elements, both black and white. The mind is a jungle of thoughts. De-conditioning then basically calls for the mind to be stores out. Through introspection notions which are really undesirable can be discovered.