Written by: Edi Matsumoto, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
When I first heard the voice from an unknown source, I was a 10-year-old latched-key kid. I was home alone, crying uncontrollably. I didn't know whether the voice came from inside or outside of me. It was unexpected, but it seemed natural and somewhat comforting at the same time. There was no physical presence, but "it" somehow communicated with me and asked me why I was crying. Maybe because of the sudden interruption of my hysteria, I could not remember why I was crying. The calm voice told me that there was no reason to continue crying if I could not remember why. It made total sense. The voice then went on to tell me that I could be happy that instance since there was no reason to be sad. And just like that, within seconds, I felt lighter and happier, as if I had never been disturbed at all in the first place. That was the first conversation I had with the "unknown." It probably only took a few minutes at the most, and I had no idea what a significant impact this experience had on me for the rest of my life.
It was a mysterious and interesting experience, but it was subtle enough that I forgot about it except for some occasions when something went wrong and made me sad or upset. Then I remembered the voice that questioned why I was feeling the way I did, and it reminded me that it was just a matter of moments that I could switch my feelings to my default mode of serene contentment. I started to consider this to be my go-to wisdom, and whenever there was a hardship, I recalled this incident and learned to flip the brain switch.
Fast forward, I carried this little wisdom for the following 40 years, and it gave me a certain confidence that no matter what happened in my life, I had this secret weapon given by a mystical being. Over the years, I have had my share of human dramas such as my parents' divorce, family members' alcoholism, family bankruptcy, domestic violence, deaths of loved ones and pets, unwanted relocations, illness, injuries, and so on. Still, I had this tiny secret, almost like a magic spell, that made my life manageable and peaceful compared to most others I observed around me.
I have often been told that I was the calmest person in the room, even if I were also the youngest person in the room. The reason I could maintain tranquility was due to my conviction that I could change my mood by changing my thoughts. I could almost always choose peace and happiness over sadness, anger, or frustration by shifting my thoughts and attitude. Once in a while, I wanted to linger on and savor the drama on purpose, and I put off flipping the switch, but at least I knew that tranquility and joy were just around the corner when I decided to use the switch.
Over the years, I also felt a lack of emotions compared to the people around me. My family, friends, young and old, were busy rejoicing, crying, being mad, worrying, agonizing, jumping up and down over insignificant matters. I watched them curiously how they could rejoice or lament something so fleeting, artificial, and temporary. Some called me "calm and collected," and others accused me of being not involved, aloof, or cold. I was slightly envious of those who could feel so blindly passionate about something, whether elated, furious, or devastated.
I observed my family and friends, who were much older than I suffer from relationships, various conflicts, financial issues, health challenges, or deaths. I observed that they had fixations on specific thoughts that caused their suffering, and in my mind, I always thought that all they had to do was change their thoughts, and they could be happy. Since I was young, I thought they must be doing it on purpose to enjoy the drama for some reason. I also observed that they formed comraderies by sharing miserable stories, building strong bonds between them. But I could not imagine they did not know how to flip the brain switch once they were done savoring the drama.
For whatever reason, I don't remember sharing this little secret explicitly with anyone around me. Not that I tried to keep it secret, but from where I stood, people around me seemed too involved in their dramas and did not seem to want any solutions or to get out of the dramas even if they could. For years, I was puzzled about why they were torturing themselves on purpose, but gradually, I realized that they were not doing it on purpose. They were unaware they were trapped in their own thoughts and were taking everything seriously, and in fact, they were suffering.
I had never been a "spiritual seeker," but I came across a course that claimed to help people transition to an "awakened state" about 6-7 years ago. During the course, I found that I was already in the state of “Fundamental Wellbeing” as they defined it. My lack of interest in self-made human dramas, my lack of emotions, and the ease of mental switch were included as the characteristics of the experience of the state of fundamental wellbeing. I felt relieved and validated to know that I was not the only odd one who had been living this way and feeling isolated from the majority of the human species. I also discovered that some people consider my experience a "spiritual" one, and the whole course was about the exercises and pointers to experience the state of fundamental wellbeing.
With the advent of the internet, we have an infinite number of information available at our fingertips. More and more people are interested in mindfulness, meditation, spirituality, and even enlightenment. We can explore an endless number of guided meditations, meditation music, including binaural beats and other technologies, other meditation techniques (mantras, visualization), gadgets to determine how well you are meditating, an infrared or an ultrasound stimulus on the brain to produce a meditative state, and so on.
Different people and schools of thought define various degrees of enlightenment: different degrees of non-duality experience, expansion of consciousness, the quality of love one feels, etc. If the primary purpose of the pursuit of enlightenment is freedom from suffering, wouldn't any degree of enlightenment serves its purpose as basic skills that can be taught for kids in schools?
More worksites and schools are employing mindfulness or meditation techniques to promote positive changes in productivity and behaviors. Definition of enlightenment aside, if we can all train ourselves to attain a certain degree of fundamental wellbeing, people will know how to regulate their thoughts better, create fewer dramas, avoid negative emotions and relationships, and reduce conflicts between people, groups, and countries.
Just like we need certain levels of language and math skills to be functioning adults in society, we can learn basic skills to regulate our thoughts and emotions and stay in a calm and content state of mind. This alone could avoid unnecessary dramas, hardships, and suffering in our daily lives and make the world a better place.
If a 10-year-old could learn this life-long wisdom in a few minutes, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to imagine that a "switch your thought" or a "switch your emotion" game can be taught to all children to make it a part of ordinary wisdom that saves lots of emotional energy and suffering in the world.
Edi Matsumoto, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Edi Matsumoto is an experienced health, wellness, and spiritual coach. After working with Mother Theresa in Kolkata, India, while she was alive, Matsumoto devoted almost 30 years to healthcare, helping thousands of patients with physical and mental wellbeing. She is the founder of the Satori Method based on her experience as a nurse practitioner, certified wellness coach, and facilitator of a spiritual course. Satori is a word for awakening or enlightenment in Japanese. Unlike the traditional spiritual methods in which one devotes decades to one discipline, she combines positive psychology, meditations, the law of attraction, theory, practicum, and modern technology all in one program to meet the individual needs. She is a bilingual speaker, author, and an accomplished artist. Her mission is to help people uncover the state of fundamental well-being they were born with and unleash their creativity.
