The Role of the Mind in Creating
Greater Peace and Joy

The following is based upon an interview with Roger Mills, Ph.D, founder of the Health Realization Institute. Roger Mills has been a friend and a grant recipient of the Foundation for several years. According to Haru Inouye, the Shinnyo-en Foundation shares many beliefs and concepts with Roger and the Institute. In particular, Roger’s belief that, “At the core of all humans is the ability to access higher order feelings such as compassion, peacefulness and joy,” connects to the Shinnyo-en Order’s belief that we all possess Buddha nature, the ability to become a person who lives by compassion and harmony.

"When I first talked with Roger Mills about the process he has researched and shared for the past twenty years, I didn’t really get it. While in concept it sounded great, on the practical level, it sounded too simple.

How could you just teach people there was a different way to see themselves and the world and ‘snap’, just like that, have them get it. No sitting on your feet meditating for hours. No stretching into wild positions with your body or walking over hot coals. Just teach some basic concepts, and watch people’s lives begin to change.

Two weeks later, I was converted.

In between the time I talked to Roger on the phone and the point two weeks later when I realized I now really got what he was talking about I had experimented with his approach. Every time I noticed that I was feeling anxious I called to mind Roger’s words, “Anxiety is created by thought. Though is initiated in our minds. In any moment, we have the power to access higher level thoughts.”

So in those moments I identified the thought that was causing the negative feelings and searched for a higher level thought. Usually the thought that emerged was, “All is well.”

Although it might sound it, it was not thought in a Pollyanna way. It did not deny the realities I was confronted with. I did it with the understanding that all that I might be confronting is still right there in front of me – but instead of facing my reality with thoughts like, “Oh, my god my son is not OK., I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this article I have to write. I have no idea what to cook for dinner, there is no food in the house.” I simply let those thoughts go and consciously thought, “All really is OK.” Sometime this thought would be followed by some other thoughts, “Even if I don’t know everything is OK, it is definitely more peaceful and enjoyable to think that all is well until I know different. If my son has been in an accident or I go home and I can’t find a thing to cook I can deal with that then. For this moment, I’m choosing to think that all is well.”

 Often, as I generated the thought, “All is well,” my breath would begin to deepen and I would relax. Within a few moments my thinking was clearer and I’m sure if I was being monitored on a blood pressure machine, my heart beat would have slowed down. I began to experience higher order thoughts on a regular basis that brought peace and ease to my days. From this place of greater mental space I could think more clearly and creatively about the realities I was facing.

As a new believer I turned to the interview I conducted with him weeks before"

-Maura Wolf, Leadership Coach & Consultant

Over 25 years ago we discovered in our research that every human being is a spiritual being. At their core, everyone had direct access to a spiritually connected state of mind. Freud thought that the core of a person’s psychological make up was the primitive and self-centered id. We would say the exact opposite. We believe that at the core of all humans is the ability to access higher order feelings such as compassion, peacefulness and joy. Unfortunately, most people get told otherwise by parents and the culture as they grow up. It is what psychology would consider conditioning. People develop a framework of thinking that they have to get tough, or think about themselves in order to survive, or that they are not OK the way they are. They begin to develop an insecure self-image, all made up of thought.

Our research showed us that there are 3 principles that operate jointly to create all psychological experience. We call these principles mind, thought and consciousness. Mind represents the existence of spiritual intelligence behind life. The principle of thought is that we create reality via thought. This happens continuously with or without our awareness. And consciousness represents the idea that consciousness creates the awareness of reality, as seen through our thoughts.

We found that if people take their personal thoughts less seriously, they can have much better mental health. We began teaching people to see that any thought that makes you feel negative – whether is makes you feel angry or anxious or selfish – is a though generated from a lower level of consciousness. Of course the thought looks real to the person, but we help people to understand that they have a choice to pay attention to higher level of consciousness that generates other thoughts that bring about greater harmony.

This is how it works in my life. At the end of the day I come home. My wife has had a hard day. I didn’t clean the pots and pans and she takes it personally. She expresses her frustration. In that moment, I have a choice. I can take it personally and get upset right back at her for any number of reasons. Or I can understand why she might see my not doing the dishes as a personal insult, recognize that her tiredness may be playing a role in her communication and have some understanding. It all depends on how I am viewing the situation.

My higher wisdom thought is to say, “I’m sorry honey. I got caught up with things. I’ll take care of the dishes now.”

It’s very simple. We teach people that they always have a choice in how they react to their thinking. Will they value the thought that is going to create more anger? Or are they going to value the higher order thought, that will result in greater harmony? We teach this the way you would a scientific idea. Here is the fact, the set of principles. We also show people through stories and examples. Sometimes it takes a while for people to get it, sometimes they get it right away.

Often people begin to see that their thinking is creating their reality. They can see that their wisdom is always trying to resurface. We talk about innate mental health because we believe our positive, healthy way of being human and seeing the world is always operating. Just as the immune system, within the physical body, is always working to bring us back into physical balance.

What is nice about this process is that it doesn’t involve any techniques so it’s incredibly accessible to anyone. If people grasp the principles, the rest will come. More information about these principles can be found at .www.centerforsustainablechange.org

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Health Realization Principles in Action

Extensive independent evaluations have been conducted on projects initiated by the Center for Health Realization. This is one of their many successes:

In Coliseum Gardens Housing Development in Oakland, the homicide rate went from the highest in the city to zero over a two-year period, and was still zero after nine years! For the first time, the youth were playing outside and residents planted a community garden, while other crime statistics were down substantially as well. Teachers reported better attitudes and behaviors from youth in this community and asked for youth programs in the schools based on Health Realization principles. Youth moved from being involved in gang related activities to being members of the Boys and Girls clubs and local church youth organizations.

In this project, the resident council became much more active, and worked with the Housing Authority on maintenance, security and employment concerns.

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