Do we own our minds?

Our minds appear to be marvelously practical things that we own.

They recognize colors and shapes, feelings and sensations. Consciousness will spontaneously move from full sleep to perfect focus with the single creak of a floorboard. Effortlessly guiding the most mundane bodily functions, our minds simultaneously leverage bits of thoughts into elegant structures such as families, cities, economies, and societies.

But do we own our minds? We lead them like horses on halters. Yet, in an instant the same horses drag us bucking and kicking across the fairgrounds though fences and into the trees.

Some say the mind cannot conceive of death. I find those assertions contrary to experience. When quietly asked, the mind will subtly unfold the simple calculus of death. That formula is the absence of sensation, the cessation of cognition, the absolute loss of the moment. It is profoundly more than the absence of existence, it is the termination of the ever-present now. It is nothing at all, drenched in a rich blackness that is so devoid of meaning that it lacks any trace of reason, matter or energy.

That subtle response is accompanied by a disclaimer. Mind says, "you asked what death is and I have given you the calculation." However, Mind continues, "I have not presented this to you previously because it is not true. I am not of your body."

"Quite the contrary," Mind reveals, "I perpetually generate body, motion, sensation, time, matter, energy, and presence for our amusement, education, gratification, and for love. Fear not, for I am not so easily snuffed."

With a wink, Mind whispers at the same moment, "be afraid, for I am not so easily snuffed."