From the book All is mind by David Samuel

While observing yourself, you can see that what you think you believe is not what
you really believe. Why didn't you notice this discrepancy before? Because
awareness of all the contradictions in your belief system would be difficult to bear.
In order to function without feeling guilt or remorse over your contradictory
behaviour, the mind has created buffers in your subconscious. It is buffers that
prevent you from seeing your internal contradictions.
A buffer is something that absorbs the shock when two objects crash together,
preventing or reducing the damage. Buffers are fully automatic like the heart.
Buffers send out flares that distract your attention from noticing incompatible
actions with your beliefs about yourself. The most obvious buffers are the
justifications and memory lapses that obliterate your actions from your mind.
Caught in a lie, for instance, you may justify your actions or change the topic of
conversation rather than see yourself as a liar. If you do acknowledge your lie at the
moment, you will most probably quickly forget about the situation. Some people
don't forget, and they hold the problem with them, causing the mind to be
preoccupied and fretting over unfinished business. That is draining, so buffers can be
useful to the productive modern person in that they distract your mind from being
preoccupied with one thought from the past rather than moving on. In a way they
can help you let go of needless thoughts.
Of course that can be a very destructive effect of buffers since it allows us to
commit acts that are harmful to ourselves and others and not have any conscience
about them so we can commit the same act again and again. Buffers can as well
mal-function just like any organ and work for us or against us.
Another buffer effect is someone who has a short attention span, jumping from one
activity to another. Simple things like reading a magazine, going for coffee,
watching TV instead of tackling some pending tasks could be distracting buffers. All
of a sudden you may feel the need to go for a walk when an argument is brewing. In
many situations, buffers are the cause of avoidance.
Buffers often work against us. If you don't think much of yourself and achieve
something of great value, you may come up with some self-deprecating comments or
just put down your success to luck, unrepeatable as an experience and deny yourself
the credit you deserve. This perpetuates low self-esteem. These are of course only
examples which you can adjust to fit your own life to test the principle.
Buffers can help you concentrate. Many people can get so focused in reading
something, or watching a show or any activity, that you can talk to them and they
just don’t hear or know you are there at all. Funny enough, they may even respond
and not recall that later. This can be a very good ability of concentration, but it can
also be a buffer that just does not want to deal with who is talking to them or what
they may be talking about. It is not hard to know the difference between a buffer
and good concentration.
Buffers are also very good at blame. If you do something and you know it is your
own fault, a buffer can give you all sorts of reasons why another person is to blame,
turning the spotlight off you and put it on another person. Funny enough, this is a
very common event for not only average people, but for people who profess to be
on a path. When they are going against their path, they may find all sorts of
excuses and reasons that it was not their fault but circumstances or someone else
who triggered it.
If you have a negative or confrontational nature, buffers will always find ways to
blame another person for getting you upset even though it is fully in your control to
be upset or not. Buffers are very good tricksters except that they often only trick
their host. Other people can see what is going on in the justification and so a fight
develops when more buffers come up to justify the buffers that caused the conflict.
Buffers will not stop until they are clearly seen and you refuse to listen to their
tricks.
Buffers can only function in mental darkness. They are like the monster that
vanishes when the lights are turned on. If you can see a buffer in action, then it no
longer has its power to distract your mind. Buffers are the original illusionist,
getting your attention with one hand while moving the objects with the other.
We cannot change anything if we do not see what is happening. If you want to
change then you have to see your true nature. In order to do this you must
eliminate or reduce the buffers in your mind. Then you can see the fragmentation,
because that is another activity of buffers, to hide us from seeing our fragmentation
and self-lying. When the buffers are seen and reduced, then fragmentation
becomes more visible, then unification can proceed.
To reduce buffers, enlist the aid of anyone close to you who can point out when you
act contradictory or justify any incorrect actions additionally, use the 5 Questions
each night to review your day. Continued practice will begin to open your mind to
the objective reality of what you are like. You may not like what you see, and then
buffers will jump up to do their job and distracted or justify so that you do not feel
the pain. Stick with the thought, pursue the observation until you learn to live with
your actions, and of course in seeing what you are doing, you will naturally reduce
the negative actions.
It is much harder to consciously stick the knife in your own belly than it is to do it
under hypnosis.


5 Questions
Ask yourself these 5 questions each night before going to sleep. actions of the day without regret or self indulgence. Merely actions objectively.
What did I do well today?
What did I do that I should not have done?
What didn’t I do that I should have done?
What did I do that I could have done better?
What do I want to do tomorrow?