Great knowledge is achieved from any attempt to control one's own mind.
First the attempt contradicts the belief that you are your mind. Otherwise, "you" couldn't be trying to control it. The mind could not wish to control itself. Therefore it is not one's self.
Due to the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and Descartes' famous conclusion, "I think therefore I am", Western culture became totally dedicated to the concept of identification with one's mind. Science proclaimed the only reality is that perceived by five senses. School gave minds problems to solve. TV, movies, and books cater to its entertainment. Very little in Western culture is directed toward the true self's needs on the assumption that there isn't one.
A quick exercise I provide students works well. They are asked to look at a window or tree, depending on which is handier. Whether they do this or not, I observe something must have told the mind to comply or refuse the request. To date, this has been wholly successful in proving to anyone they are more than their mind.
Please note that Eastern philosophy always relegated the mind to being a sixth sense facility in addition to hear, see, taste, touch, and smell.
Called the "drunken monkey" by Buddhists, it wanders if not controlled. Hindus depict it as a horse hitched to a chariot requiring reins. The driver is the true self, not this beast.
In the West, little is done to control the mind, since it is believed to be the person itself. Its individuality is rewarded with voting rights, given the belief that limitless gratification of its body is the proper object of life, and entertained when not occupied with work.
Voting merely selects people to make rules the person must follow afterward. It removes the need to personally approve of those rules. It is, in fact, mindless. Selecting rules of conduct is relegated to a bother the mind now avoids.
Having abandoned any role in steering your own mind, sense gratification becomes the mind's main objective, subject only to the limits enforced by the rules you choose not to make for yourself. The second hand mind control not only substitutes the self-interest of those making the rules for your own, it severely limits the level of gratification which remains achievable.
Entertainment proves much about gratifying this drunken monkey. The mind never stops even when asleep. Moving from one thought to the next is actually the way people detect the passage of time. It's life's clock. It really matters little what occupies the clock in the sense that it will invariably be occupied doing something. However, a difficult problem in calculus or physics is perceived as more work than deciding on the menu for lunch. Successful people who tend to make more of the rules governing others, tend to control their minds so they will handle difficult problems. Those exercising little control grow fat.
A basketball game demonstrates the difference. Five men put a ball in a hoop. Then five other men put the same ball in a different hoop. Minds watch this same thing for an hour. It teaches absolutely nothing of any practical use. Five weeks or years later not one detail can be recalled. No event differs from any other game watched. This simply occupies the mind effortlessly. Likewise voting for people who make laws but not the laws themselves. These are lazy substitutes for self-improvement or community activism.
Meditation can be equally entertaining. Pick a subject. Examine it from every angle. The person inside can then choose an answer much like it decides to look at a tree, only in far more depth. Notice the mind will wander. Pull it back on topic. That is mind control. Start with controlling your own.
Everything is an investment in time. No one learned to write on their first day of school. You can use your mind to better yourself, or to surrender yourself to being no more than your mind.
This is the greatest knowledge which can be achieved from struggling to rein in the mind. One becomes born again. A different person is discovered. This person has different goals than the gratification of body desires which is the mind's number one function.
The mind has an ego. To become one with the mind permits the ego to erase the personality dwelling inside.
The mind's purpose is to generate choices. Reason may be a better criteria than anger or lust, but ultimately some decision is made. Without mind control, the selection process is surrendered to the ego. Not smart. A gratified desire can mean imprisonment and regret.
Advertising openly tries to control your mind. Nearly 2000 religions demand you accept their dogmas as the only road to salvation. You pledged allegiance to a flag. You are convinced there is them and us. Movies and TV praise obedience to the will of others. Sex is glorified. The power of positive thinking is employed to secure blessings from a God whose only function is to provide ever more abundance for the ego's gratification. You've been conditioned to accept these beliefs and more since kindergarten.
How much control does anyone have over his own mind anymore?
All are responsible for every choice, even those surrendering control over themselves to other people. Effort is required to regain control, but most choose to watch football, baseball, tennis - it really doesn't matter what, does it?
An error was made three hundred years ago when Western man decided his existence and consciousness was limited to being a mind. He then plundered primitive races, stripped the planet of resources, invented all kinds of gadgets, built factories, and now fights with guided missiles instead of swords. This is the ego running rampant to secure self-gratification as the only goal of existence.
Think about it.