There are effectively only two questions one has to ask to train one's mind:
- What am I doing now?
- What should I be doing now?
If both answers match, one's mind is trained at the time.
The answer to the second question obviously requires some planning - short, medium, or long-term. But the two questions are the easiest way to check if one's mind is attending to what one wants, i.e., is "am" == "should"?
A lifelong project or goal, like mukti or self-realisation, is difficult to pin down to such a simple technique. But "am" and "should" matching naturally is a sign of progress.
Per PYS [1], an untrained mind fluctuates between these states of mental attention:
- kṣiptam - disturbed, agitated, jumpy; habitually, involuntarily reactive; rajas-dominant mind
- mūḍham - stupefied or somnolent; unreactive; tamas-dominant mind
- vi-kṣiptam - distracted, but with illuminative flashes; mind sattva-dominant at times, but generally overlain by rajas
Further training leads to ekāgram - willed attention on a single object, as long as desired, with a sattva-dominant mind
In the highest mental state, niruddham, sattva is totally dominant, and one's attention moves effortlessly, freed of all potential and actual distractions.
NOTES
[1] Slightly evolved descriptions than in 5 mental states.
