What is your true potential as a human being? That is the central
question running through Revolution of
the Mind. Clearly and succinctly challenging orthodox understandings of how
the human mind works, the book presents us with the tools to examine our own
mental behaviour and recognise the complex of interactions between the
conscious, subconscious and unconscious which give rise to, distort and
ultimately trap us inside our thoughts, our emotions and what Gradinarov calls ‘the
nightmare of the self’. This, though, is not a self-help manual. It certainly
doesn’t provide a readymade programme for transforming your life. On the
contrary, Gradinarov challenges any kind of programme or dogma and instead
encourages an inquisitive form of self-observation which can take us beyond the
self-created roles, mental self-images and illusory virtual worlds generated by
our territorially motivated egos. Those already familiar with Zen Buddhism,
Jungian psychology, phenomenology and even existentialism will recognise some
of the strands which feed into Revolution
of the Mind, but Gradinarov brings a whole new perspective to questions of
identity, perception, understanding and, above all, happiness. In many ways,
the answers he indicates are simple – but they are answers which you have to
find for yourself.
In translating Revolution
of the Mind, what struck me is the precision of Gradinarov’s language. For
a translator, of course, this is a challenge – but one which, I hope, with the
generous input of the author himself, we have managed to overcome. The
precision of language too reflects the precision of the ideas contained in this
book which are illustrated with experiences from everyday life that all of us
can recognise. This English translation from the original Bulgarian text is a
collaborative work and, to me, that also serves as an example of what
Gradinarov is talking about: translation is not something which happens
according to a programme. You can’t simply feed the original text into one end
of a matrix and expect a perfect translation to emerge at the other. It’s about
collaboration and calibration, about being prepared to relinquish your own territory
in the name of finding common ground. As Revolution
of the Mind repeatedly reminds us, the borders which exist between us are
entirely of our own construction. All we have to do is recognise them for what
they are.
Tom Phillips
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